In the summer of 2023, ECM Records is continuing with its long-awaited campaign of digital remastering its vast, analog-era catalog – and though it’s happening none too soon, they are not messing around. They have meticulously digitized the original, analog stereo master tapes to a 96kHz/24-bit format, using no sound-dulling noise reduction processes in order to completely preserve the original audio.
The batch of albums reissued in this form in July 2023 covers thirteen classic or near-classic recordings from the seventies, a period when it felt like most of the best jazz records were coming from that label. One of these selections is a from a long-time star of the fabled imprint, the Norwegian reedman Jan Garbarek.
During a period when Jan Garbarek was trying out different formats and approaches leading up to his and pianist Bobo Stenson’s watershed Witchi-Tai-To — widely regarded as an all-time top-five ECM release — he convened a one-time trio and made Triptykon, a highly improvisational record that successfully utilized the skills and instincts of its participants.
First released in the spring of 1973, Triptykon was recorded in November 1972, the same month that Dave Holland tracked his brilliant Conference of the Birds. Looking back, these pair of albums seemed to have marked the end of ECM’s initial period noted by a preponderance of a rawer, more direct style of free-form jazz extending from the 60s phenomena of the New Music, Albert Ayler, the AACM, late-period John Coltrane and the London free jazz scene. Garbarek himself was early on an Ayler devotee and Triptykon is in many ways his last look back at the hero of his youth.
Vesala’s sheer muscle and free jazz bonafides made him a more suitable drummer for these sessions than even Garbarek’s fellow countryman, the late, legendary Jon Christensen. Another Garbarek mainstay Arild Andersen (bass) is kept on board, who provides a link to Garbarek’s better-known works lurking just around the corner.
With guitarist Terje Rypdal out of the picture, Garbarek does away with all jazz-rock stylings and with Bobo Stenson temporarily sidelined, so was that pianist’s appealing lyrical style. Lacking these chordal partners, however, the saxophonist was freed up to take his avant-garde leanings to its ultimate destination.
“Rim” is, therefore, more of an abstract sketch than a formal composition, and Vesala skillfully modulates the building pulse and then leaves behind a feature astonishing in its rich manipulation of timbres. Andersen, though, provides early evidence of his being Europe’s answer to Charlie Haden, breaking down the abstruse into humanized folk forms.
Jan Garbarek’s reedy soprano sax takes on a singing quality that grows frayed on the mystical “Triptykon,” portraying an urgency that is unique on this record. And this unflappable rhythm section reacts perfectly to his every whim, aware of where their leader is at the moment and where he’s headed. Andersen gets an ample solo spot, marked by fleet-fingered figures that nonetheless flow out like a good story.
Often unvarnished, Triptykon is not lacking in beauty: the too-brief “Selje” sees Garbarek on flute and Vesala on glockenspiel playing out a Scandinavian-styled rural tune.
Garbarek does a very rare turn on bass saxophone for the first forty seconds of “Sang,” then turns it over to the very fervent Vesala for the rest of the track. “Etu Hei!” is a sax/drums free-for-all, whereby Garbarek takes the tenor high up to places where even an alto sax dares not go.
If “Bruremarsj” sounds like an old Norwegian folk song, well that’s because it is. Andersen’s arco bass goes up so high on the register it almost resembles a fiddle and makes a similar-sounding companion to Garbarek’s tenor saxophone. Next to that song, “J.E.V.” might be most Ayler-esque tune on the album with a melody from Garbarek that’s almost sing-song, yet at the same time not conforming to the constrictions of time or even just intonation.
Triptykon is the breathtaking culmination of the first phase of Jan Garbarek’s career playing out as the seeds for his next phase were already planted and ready to blossom. Garbarek would continue to produce great records for ECM in the years and even decades that followed, but there won’t ever be another Triptykon.
The Hi-Res version of Triptykon can be acquired at HDTracks, ProStudioMasters and Qobuz.
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