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Terje Rypdal: Odyssey: In Studio and In Concert
Trygve Seim
saxophone
Charles Lloyd
saxophoneb.1938
"
data-original-title="" title="">Manfred Eicher was, however, already thinking along those lines when he formed the label in 1969 with one of its initial premises: bringing the pristine clarity of classical recording into the world of jazz and improvised music. Sangam could, in fact, be a suitable subtitle for this box set, which collects Terje Rypdal's two-LP Odyssey album—heard on CD, for the first time, in its entirety—and Unfinished Highballs, a recently unearthed 1976 radio recording that documents the Norwegian guitarist's commissioned work for his Odyssey quartet and the Radiojazzgruppen / Swedish Radio Jazz Group. The complete Odyssey may address a longstanding demand, but Unfinished Highballs will surprise even Rypdal's most committed fans. It reveals that not only were many of the markers which would come to define his career already in place, but the intrepid guitarist was already searching for ways to include, rather than exclude, in his approach to composition and performance. Rypdal was one of Eicher's first major finds, brought to international attention alongside other influential Norwegians including saxophonist
Jan Garbarek
saxophoneb.1947
Arild Andersen
bass, acousticb.1945
Jon Christensen
drums1943 - 2020
As early as his eponymous 1971 ECM debut, Rypdal was already demonstrating a desire to find new means of expression based on the seamless merging of touchstones that included jazz, rock and classical music. That album's hypnotic opener, "Keep It Like That—Tight" was named after a whispered utterance by
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
What Comes After (1974) further expanded upon these foundations, with the searing,
Jimi Hendrix
guitar, electric1942 - 1970
In some ways, the lineup for Odyssey happened for all the wrong reasons, coming together in 1975. "Before the Odyssey band it was more or less short-lived trios, put together for tours," says Rypdal. "I'd been playing with Jon Christensen, but by this time he was playing with
Keith Jarrett
pianob.1945
Peter Knudsen
guitarb.1980
Still, sometimes adversity can result in unexpected serendipity and, indeed, confluence, as organist
Brynjulf Blix
keyboardsSvein Christiansen
drumsSveinung Hovensjø
bass, electricRecorded in the summer of 1975, Odyssey marks the beginning of Rypdal's focus on layered composition, performed by a group of musicians for whom improvisation was fundamental, but who came from backgrounds versed in anything but the standard jazz tradition. It was also Rypdal's first proper band as a leader. "Odyssey was my first major band, and the music was different too because, more and more, I was writing music in two layers—one thing going on with the bass and drums, and rubato playing layered over top. It was the first time I'd tried to connect with a band, more about writing together with improvisation. It was a challenge; I was trying, more and more, to bring together the composer and the player."
The brief opener, "Darkness Falls," introduces the rubato approach that would define much of Odyssey, the guitarist's juxtaposition of sharper attack and volume pedal-driven swells blending with the whammy bar-driven vibrato that was already a Rypdal signature. Sunde, who appears on the recording but ultimately did not tour with the band, solos with similarly unfettered lyricism, as Blix, Hovensj? and Christiansen elicit waves of sound that ebb and flow in support.
But it's on the 17-minute "Midnite" where Rypdal's layering is first truly felt. Hovensj? anchors the composition's 9/4 pattern, its relentless repetition mirroring the similarly hypnotic approach of Miles Davis bassist Michael Henderson. But rather than further adopting an American approach and supporting it with a thundering and more obvious pulse, Christiansen resorts to the kind of delicate temporal elasticity already innovated by past and future Rypdal collaborator Jon Christensen, coupled with a more orchestral approach coming, no doubt, from his concurrent work with the Oslo Symphony Orchestra.
It's one of many significant differences that have always, despite reductionist pigeonholing across the decades, distanced Rypdal's music from fusion. Instrumentation doesn't define style, nor does size restrict context. He may have been leading a relatively small quintet with organ, electric bass, electric guitar and drums, but Rypdal was already thinking in broader orchestral terms, with an improvisational approach informed as much by
John Coltrane
saxophone1926 - 1967
Albert Ayler
saxophone, tenor1936 - 1970
Studying piano from the age of six and becoming sufficiently accomplished to tackle some of Schubert's more difficult pieces by the time he was twelve, Rypdal also played saxophone, flute and, for five years in school, trumpet. "That was very helpful as a composer," says Rypdal. "I've been interested in so many things for so long; that's who I am."
It's not uncommon for guitarists to look to reeds for inspiration, but it is rare for one to cite flute as a significant reference point, as Rypdal later searched for "a different way to play melodies. Longer notes, more sustain and doing without attack." This model didn't come until later, however; when Rypdal first picked up the guitar at thirteen, he was motivated by the sounds of rock and roll.
Still in his teens, early career success with Norway's The Vanguards—modeled after guitarist Hank Marvin and The Shadows—led to The Dream, where the self-taught guitarist began exploring more improvised (albeit psychedelic) terrain, as a number of now-familiar connections began to coalesce, with Christensen and Garbarek passing through that group's door. Director Stanley Kubrick's groundbreaking 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, also became the now-21 year-old Rypdal's entry point into the music of Ligeti at the same time that he decided to make music his vocation, leading to studying composition at Oslo's Music Conservatory with composer at Finn Mortensen.
By 1969/70, everything was happening for Rypdal. He was married, and had joined Garbarek's new quartet with Andersen and Christensen, who also played on "Eternal Circulation," the guitarist's first and very successful opus ("in many ways I was trying to combine everything from day one"). Garbarek's quartet was collaborating with George Russell (American composer and creator of the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization for Improvisation), leading to a series of recordings including 1969's Electric Sonata for Souls Loved By Nature and, more importantly, Esoteric Circle, Garbarek's second album as a leader following the 1967 trio date Til Vigdis, which caught the ear of nascent label head Eicher and was the catalyst for Afric Pepperbird, the saxophonist's ECM debut. Working with Russell was instructive for the guitarist, but he remains adamant about placing it in proper perspective. "It was a big challenge to play those parts," Rypdal says. "When we first started working with him we were playing his older tunes and my parts were originally written for valve trombone or something like that. I went through his Lydian Chromatic Concept, of course, but it was more like a toolkit that I needed, and I didn't finish it. I don't think it changed me; I don't really have a bebop background, and that would probably have helped with some things. I think Meditations was more influential."
From Afric Pepperbird and its 1971 follow-up, SART (which also introduced Swedish pianist
Bobo Stenson
pianob.1944
As successful as Rypdal's early ECM recordings were, Odyssey's dual-layer approach and the guitarist's steadfast refusal to bow to the demands of convention made it an early classic, and a CD that includes the 24-minute "Rolling Stone"—omitted from previous releases to trim it to a single disc—has become something of a holy grail amongst Rypdal fans. "In Germany, 'Rolling Stone' was like a small hit," Rypdal recalls. "If we didn't play it, we'd get booed. I've been asked about it for many years, and it seems to be important to a lot of people, especially in Germany and Italy."
While it's true that "Rolling Stone" is closer to fusion than anything else on Odyssey—its persistent 4/4 rhythm, this time driven by a more rock-centric (yet still eminently flexible) pulse from Christiansen—it remains centered on Rypdal's layered approach, as Sunde's theme floats atmospherically over the grounded rhythms. Rypdal solos at great length and with utter disregard for bar lines, but most notable is his avoidance of self-indulgent excess. There's never any doubt that Rypdal has the chops, but thinking more in classical terms, with sinewy lines revealing greater purpose over longer stretches and linked by scored passages, they're always a means rather than an end. "I never thought of my music as fusion," Rypdal says, "it started long before and came from a different place. The bass line to 'Rolling Stone' may be rock-oriented, but apart from that it's the same thing as the rest of the record, with a lot of rubato themes on top of it."
What other electric guitar record of the mid-1970s would include a track like the "Adagio," a 13-minute symphonic piece featuring just Rypdal's soaring guitar, Blix's swirling, effects-laden organ and, briefly, Sunde's near-vocal trombone? More closely aligned with Ligeti's polytonality and micropolyphony than the altered harmonies of jazz, it might be easier to see this piece for what it is, were it performed in a conventional orchestral context. But it's Rypdal's very choices—the inherent qualities of his electric guitar, which at times, come as close as he ever has to achieving the flute-like qualities to which he aspired, and the more expansive sonic landscapes of Blix's processed electric organ—that make it such a successful combination of unparalleled beauty and dramatic imagery.
Rypdal's metrically regular arpeggios drive "Better Off Without You" but remain rubato in the guitarist's fully interpretive decisions as to when to introduce harmonic movement (pushed and pulled by Blix and Christiansen), with Hovensj?'s fuzz-toned bass assuming the lead role, as he does on the more eminently propulsive "Over Birkerot." Rypdal expands the landscape of "Fare Well," as he does throughout Odyssey, with the careful overdubbing of ARP String Ensemble and soprano saxophone, but it's Blix's brooding organ work that evokes the tonal clusters of Krzysztof Penderecki—a Ligeti contemporary and another Rypdal touchstone—while the appropriately titled "Ballade" is near-anthemic, and the closest Odyssey comes to actual song form.
The Odyssey band toured Europe—even crossing the Atlantic for a successful series of US dates—but, even so, Rypdal's career has by and large been assessed and defined by his recordings for ECM. Unfinished Highballs opens an entirely new window into Rypdal's world, a 68-minute, seven-moment suite that dissolves existing preconceptions and makes clear that the guitarist's purview was—and is—far broader than even his most ardent fans can imagine. If Odyssey reflects Rypdal's growing interest in layers, and a desire to interpret grand-scale ideas with a small ensemble, Unfinished Highballs' collaboration with the Swedish Radio Jazz Group draws a clear line between those goals and lessons learned during the guitarist's time with
George Russell
composer / conductor1923 - 2009
"It was very easy to write symphonic music and get it played; with all these commissions you could really start to grow as a composer," says Rypdal. "It was very easy for me to develop my voice and specialty. There even might have been a cooperation between Norwegian radio and Swedish radio for Unfinished Highballs; they did things like that. It was an opportunity that came and I took it. I didn't really know how to write for big bands, so I just wrote for a band with more instruments, not a 'big band,' in a way. I treated it more like an orchestra."
His orchestral approach is immediately clear from the first notes of the title track to Unfinished Highballs, a dramatic opener that makes full use of the 15-piece Swedish Radio Jazz Group's 11 horns, reeds and woodwinds. But as brash as its opening moments are, an atmospheric juxtaposition, where Rypdal's electric guitar sears over
Bengt Hallberg
piano1932 - 2013
Hallberg—a fine pianist known internationally for his work with Norwegian singer
Karin Krog
vocalsb.1937
Lennart Åberg
woodwinds
Don Cherry
trumpet1936 - 1995
Georg Riedel
bass, acousticb.1934
Jan Johansson
piano1931 - 1968
The entire suite is a revelation for Blix, whose work on Odyssey was largely textural, and in support of Rypdal and Sunde. Beyond an expanded instrumental palette that includes electric piano and Moog synthesizer, like Rypdal he proves far more aligned with the jazz vernacular here, taking an extended piano solo on "The Golden Eye" and the more incendiary "Talking Back," while engaging in linear synth exchanges with Rypdal on the occasionally swinging "Scarlet Mistress." Rypdal may claim to have not known how to write for big band when he took on this commission; clearly he was a quick study.
Rypdal's playing is just as revelational. There's plenty of the ice-edged electric work that's a cornerstone of the Odyssey band, but at the end of "Scarlet Mistress" the guitarist takes a brief and uncharacteristic chordal solo that references Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept as it segues into "Dawn," an arpeggio-driven cousin to Odyssey's "Better Off Without You." A return to the guitarist's rubato layering, this time with the broader textural palette of the Jazz Group at his disposal, it opens into a visceral, groove-driven solo section, again for Blix's synth, with the bottom-end push of two drummers—Christiansen and the Jazz Group's
Egil Johansen
drumsb.1934
The guitarist is also a surprise on "Dine and Dance to the Music of the Waves," the only music on Unfinished Highballs that's been heard before, at least in part, as the theme to the title track of 1978's Waves. Switching to acoustic guitar for the first time since Whenever I Seem to Be Far Away, Rypdal proves that it's not necessary to be grounded in standards to play changes...or to swing, supported by bassist Georg Riedel and drummer Egil Johansen. If the movement smacks more of jazz in a traditional sense—with some of Rypdal's writing for an unusual orchestral setting resembling
Gil Evans
composer / conductor1912 - 1988
Rypdal looks back fondly on a time when it was possible to actually have a band in which its members focused most of their energy. Tours were longer, and there were more opportunities for musicians to grow individually and evolve as a band. "I was just struggling to find music that I liked, find musicians and evolve as a composer," Rypdal says. "Odyssey was together for about two years. We did two or three tours each year, each one from two weeks to a month. It gave the band the opportunity to evolve in ways bands cannot now—enough gigs to get to that point where we could discuss things after the gig and try something else the next night."
The release of Odyssey in its entirety, along with the significant revelations of Unfinished Highballs, comes when Rypdal is in a period of renewed creativity and activity, making it especially relevant as a more complete document of how confluence, at an early stage in his career, ultimately led to the further multidisciplinary junctions that keep his music as fresh and relevant as approaches 65. "I'm very happy this is coming out," Rypdal says, "because I've been asked, before Crime Scene was released, if I'd written anything for big band. I think this is a very important part of my career: I'm very glad "Rolling Stone" is finally coming out; and Unfinished Highballs will be a surprise to a lot of people. That's what I really like about this box—that it can accomplish both at the same time."
Liner Notes copyright ? 2025 ? ECM Records GmbH 2012. Used by permission of ECM Records, Munich..
Odyssey: In Studio and In Concert can be purchased here.
Contact John Kelman at All About Jazz.
With the realization that there will always be more music coming at him than he can keep up with, John wonders why anyone would think that jazz is dead or dying.
Track Listing
CD1 (Odyssey, Disc 1): Darkness Falls; Midnite; Adagio; Better Off Without You. CD2 (Odyssey, Disc 2): Over Birkerot; Fare Well; Ballade; Rolling Stone. CD3 (Unfinished Highballs): Unfinished Highballs; The Golden Eye; Scarlet Mistress; Dawn; Dine And Dance To The Music of The Waves; Talking Back; Bright Lights—Big City.
Personnel
Terje Rypdal
guitarTorbj?rn Sund
tromboneSveinung Hovensj?
bass, electricBrynjulf Blix
keyboardsSvein Christiansen
drumsClaes Rosendahl
woodwindsErik Nilsson
woodwindsSven Larson
trombone, bass
Bengt Hallberg
pianoStefan Broilund
bass, acoustic
Georg Riedel
bass, acousticEgil Johansen
drumsIvar Olsen
french hornH?ken Nyquist
french hornLennart ?berg
woodwindsUlf Andersson
woodwindsTorgny Nilson
tromboneBertil L?vgren
trumpetAmerico Bellotto
keyboardsUlf Ad?ker
trumpetAdditional Instrumentation
Terje Rypdal: electric guitar, synthesizers, string ensemble (CD1, CD2), soprano saxophone, acoustic guitar (CD3); Torbj?rn Sund: trombone (CD1, CD2); Brynjulf Blix: organ, synthesizer (CD3), electric piano (CD3); Sveinung Hovensj?: 4-string bass guitar, 6-string bass guitar; Svein Christiansen: drums; Claes Rosendahl: alto saxophone (CD3), clarinet (CD3); Erik Nilsson: bass clarinet (CD3), flute (CD3); Sven Larson: bass trombone (CD3), tuba (CD3); Bengt Hallberg: celesta (CD3), harpsichord (CD3), mellotron (CD3); Stefan Broilund: double bass (CD3); Georg Riedel: double bass (CD3); Egil Johansen: drums (CD3), percussion (CD3); Ivar Olsen: French Horn (CD3); H?ken Nyquist: French Horn (CD3), trumpet (CD3); Lennart ?berg: soprano saxophone (CD3), flute (CD3); Ulf Andersson: tenor saxophone (CD3), flute (CD3), alto flute (CD3), piccolo flute (CD3); Torgny Nilson: trombone (CD3); Bertil L?vgren: trumpet (CD3), flugelhorn (CD3); Americo Bellotto: trumpet (CD3), flugelhorn (CD3); Ulf Ad?ker: trumpet (CD3), flugelhorn (CD3).
Album information
Title: Odyssey: In Studio and In Concert | Year Released: 2012 | Record Label: ECM Records
Tags
Liner Notes
John Kelman
DL Media
Odyssey: In Studio and In Concert
ECM Records
Terje Rypdal
Norway
Trygve Seim
charles lloyd
Manfred Eicher
Jan Garbarek
Arild Andersen
Jon Christensen
Miles Davis
Jimi Hendrix
Keith Jarrett
Pete Knudsen
Brynjulf Blix
Svein Christiansen
Sveinung Hovensj?
Torbj?rn Sunde
John Coltrane
Albert Ayler
Bobo Stenson
Krzysztof Penderecki
George Russell
Bengt Hallberg
Karin Krog
Lennart ?berg
Don Cherry
Jan Johansson
Egil Johansen
Gil Evans
Georg Riedel
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