Witchi-Tai-To

chronology
Witchi-Tai-To
Studio album by Jan Garbarek / Bobo Stenson Quartet
Publication ; (s)	1974
Label (s)	ECM records
Format (s)	CD, LP
Genre (s)	jazz
Title (number)	5
running time	45:46
occupation	Soprano saxophone , tenor saxophone : Jan Garbarek ; Piano : Bobo Stenson ; Double bass : Palle Danielsson ; Drums : Jon Christensen ;
production	Manfred Eicher and Jan Erik Kongshaug
Studio (s)	Arne Benediksen Studio, Oslo

Witchi-Tai-To is a jazz album by the Jan Garbarek / Bobo Stenson Quartet, recorded on November 27th and 28th, 1973 and released in 1974 by ECM Records .

The album

Jan Garbarek's Witchi-Tai-To is seen by many critics as his artistic breakthrough after his first albums such as Afric Pepperbird and Triptycon , which were still heavily influenced by his musical role model John Coltrane .

At that time, Garbarek's orientation towards folkloric elements ( Hasta Siempre ), which was to become an essential characteristic in the course of the saxophonist's career, was new . The band recorded five pieces here, one of which the bandleaders had not written themselves. The album begins with AIR of Carla Bley , in which Garbarek on the soprano saxophone. The pianist had already recorded the memorable melody shortly before on her album Escalator over the Hill . This is followed by the only original composition on this album, the ballad Kukka by bassist Palle Danielsson, who plays a short solo here. The milonga-like piece Hasta siempre was to become one of the most famous pieces in Garbarek's work . Charlie Haden previously used the revolutionary anthem on his album Liberation Music Orchestra . The title track is a composition by the Indian saxophonist Jim Pepper , which was in the US hit parade in 1969, was recorded several times by the band Oregon and also became a jazz standard thanks to Garbarek's interpretation . The end of the album is the extended twenty-minute track by Don Cherry , Desireless . Here Garbarek evokes the spirit of John Coltrane in his extensive improvisation. Don Cherry played the piece in his Relativity Suite , where it only lasted a minute.

The titles

AIR (Carla Bley) (8:15)
Kukka (Palle Danielsson) (4:32)
Hasta Siempre ( Carlos Puebla ) (8:10)
Witchi-Tai-To (Jim Pepper) (4:24)
Desireless (Don Cherry) (20:25)

effect

The album was one of the records released in the early 1970s such as those by Chick Corea , Keith Jarrett , Ralph Towner , John Abercrombie and others who created the image of the Munich label, which is commonly referred to as the "ECM sound".

The great commercial success of Witchi-Tai-To was immediately followed by further recordings by Jan Garbarek with various musicians from the ECM “Stall”, such as Belonging in April 1974 with Keith Jarrett and again with Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen as a rhythm group; the album Solstice in December 1974 with Ralph Towner and Dansere in the same line-up as Witchi-Tai-To two years later.

evaluation

Brian Olewnick names Witchi-Tai-To and Dave Holland's Conference of the Birds in the All Music Guide as the two best jazz albums ever to be released by ECM; it is one of the really big albums of the 1970s. In 1975 it was “Album of the Year” in the Jazz Forum , the magazine of the European Jazz Federation. The US jazz magazine Down Beat gave the album the highest rating (five stars) and wrote at the time, “The Garbarek / Stenson Quartet is certainly one of the most versatile non-electric (playing) ensembles currently playing in the world. "

literature

Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
ECM '82 . ECM catalog
A song about water and whiskey . In: Berliner Zeitung , May 14, 2004; for the song Witchi-Tai-To

Web links

Brian Olewnick: All Music Guide
ECM

References and comments

↑ Witchi Tai To was Jim Pepper's "little vision song", he learned it at the age of three from his grandfather Ralph Pepper, a Pow Wow singer who performed at Indian celebrations. He had been a reservation officer and had given the family the name of his favorite drink, a brand of whiskey still available today called Pepper. Witchi Tai To is a traditional "sacred" song of the Kaw Indians, which is sung when water is passed around at a gathering. Jim Pepper broke a taboo when he integrated it into the pop music and then the jazz context in 1968 and translated the text partially into English. But the ancients of the tribe agreed when he played them his music. The first versions were found on records by the band Everything Is Everything and by Pepper's Pow Wow , which were long out of print , in which his father Gilbert also participated.
↑ The reviews are (with the exception of the All Music Guide ) taken from the catalog of the ECM label from 1982.

[1] Witchi Tai To was Jim Pepper's "little vision song", he learned it at the age of three from his grandfather Ralph Pepper, a Pow Wow singer who performed at Indian celebrations. He had been a reservation officer and had given the family the name of his favorite drink, a brand of whiskey still available today called Pepper. Witchi Tai To is a traditional "sacred" song of the Kaw Indians, which is sung when water is passed around at a gathering. Jim Pepper broke a taboo when he integrated it into the pop music and then the jazz context in 1968 and translated the text partially into English. But the ancients of the tribe agreed when he played them his music. The first versions were found on records by the band Everything Is Everything and by Pepper's Pow Wow , which were long out of print , in which his father Gilbert also participated.

[2] The reviews are (with the exception of the All Music Guide ) taken from the catalog of the ECM label from 1982.