JAN GARBAREK, ARILD ANDERSEN & EDWARD VESALA: TRIPTYKON

I'll be short this time, because frankly I didn't enjoy this album, or if I did, only mildly for brief moments. I do feel a bit bad to give a low rating for an album that is considered "highly recommended" (All Music Guide gives 4½ stars). Now I also wonder if I sincerely liked Garbarek's next album Wichi-Tai-To (1974) worth four stars, or did I give some objective extra for it; probably I did a little, but obviously I find Wichi-Tai-To more interesting, much more accessible and diverse.

Here, as the cover design screams out, the Norwegian saxophonist-flautist is accompanied by his countryman Arild Andersen on double bass and the Finnish percussionist Edward Vesala, whose drumming is heavier compared to Garbarek's former drummer Jon Christensen's style. No wonder when you remember that a few years prior Vesala had played in APOLLO, the Finnish one-timer heavy prog band.

The music on Triptykon was, I believe, mostly done by improvising. At least it sounds like that, and most of the tracks are credited to the whole trio. The legendary free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler is a good comparison. There are no clear melodies one would remember afterwards. Instead Garbarek's saxes wail in a raw and expressionistic manner. The music's atmosphere is rather bleak and introvert all through the album. Even the flute sounds unpleasant here. On later decades Garbarek would become one of my biggest jazz favourites with his Scandinavian, airy and elegant style referred as "fjord jazz". but this early album represents the kind of [free] jazz I can't really get into. Hence only two very *SUBJECTIVE* stars.