AFTER LAST YEAR'S Directions in Music tribute to the music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane it is appropriate that two of the greatest inheritors of Coltrane's mantle - one from either side of the Atlantic - should appear on this year's Hong Kong Arts Festival programme.
American Wayne Shorter, who played at the festival earlier this month, and Norwegian Jan Garbarek have, of course, done different things with that legacy. Garbarek's mature, reflective style could hardly be further removed from Coltrane's cascading 'sheets of sound', yet he remains deeply conscious of his debt to the man whose playing he first heard at the age of 14, and whose sound changed his life.
'Elements of Coltrane's sound are always present in my own playing, except that I don't tend to play as many notes quickly in succession as he does. I let the tones lie for a while, and just develop without moving around too much. It sounds different for that reason, but the core of the sound is inspired by Coltrane,' Garbarek says.
Be that as it may, he found his own voice early. By the age of 18, Garbarek was playing with a fluency and originality that startled pianist George Russell into proclaiming him 'just about the most uniquely talented jazz musician Europe has produced since [gypsy guitarist] Django Reinhardt'.
Gigs with Russell and other American jazzmen working in Scandinavia broadened both Garbarek's experience and his audience, and in 1969 he became one of the first artists to sign for German record producer Manfred Eicher's fledgling ECM label.
He still records for Eicher today, although he has no formal contract with the company. 'It's a friendship type of thing,' Garbarek says. 'We've been in it together since 1969, so it's on more of a personal basis.'
