Jan Garbarek News

Continuing his long and fruitful relationship with Manfred Eicher 's ECM Records-yielding a slew of successful solo records and concerts, acclaimed group work with Oregon and Solstice , and duo work with John Abercrombie , Gary Peacock and Gary Burton -guitarist/pianist Ralph Towner has become something of an icon for the German label.

Released for Christmas 2007 and now available to download from Amazon, this is pianist/arranger Lundgren's faithful jazz homage to Renaissance choral music.

Its 40th anniversary year, 2009, has been a good one for Manfred Eicher's Edition of Contemporary Music Company.

As a main programmatic feature this year, the International Festival for Jazz and More, Enjoy Jazz , will present a special festival to commemorate 40 years of the ECM label.

Norwegian saxophonist and flautist Hakon Kornstad began to acquire an international profile in the mid-2000s as a member of the electro-acoustic band Wibutee, and with burgeoning guest appearances with the likes of nu jazz auteur and keyboard player Bugge Wesseltoft and singers Sidsel Endresen and Anja Garbarek.

Already this year, we have seen two elder American jazz labels, Prestige and Blue Note, turn 60 and 70 years old, respectively.

For those new to the explorations of jazz, Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek could be a new name.

He is now recognised as one of the leading figures in European jazz, helping to forge an identity distinct from the music's American roots.

With the realization that there will always be more music coming at him than he can keep up with, AAJ Managing Editor John Kelman wonders why anyone would think that jazz is dead or dying.

Soul luminaries such as Chaka Khan have been a partof the Montreux Jazz Festival's rich musical tradition.

St Paul's was fuller than Christmas Day, and scarcely less reverential. Joint appearances in London for the Norwegian saxophonist and the crystalline vocal quartet are rare; this was only their third visit to St Paul's since the 1994 release of their best-seller Officium .

Quentin, London Ethan Hawke doesn't possess the comic ability for Autolycus, and the Bohemia scenes are just embarrassing Music Michael, London There are some fine things but it would benefit from ruthless pruning of the text and generally tightening up Film V-Jay, London The sheer enjoyment and fun of films like these is their spectacular action ...

The competent and successful musico-cultural eutection promoted by ECM founder Manfred Eicher since the release of Jan Garbarek / Hilliard Ensemble 's Officium takes another quantum step with keyboardist Jon Balke's imaginative and far reaching Siwan .

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