Magico

One of Gabarek's early masterpieces - bizarre yet light

One of the signature avant garde jazz sessions of the early 1980's - Magico is an overlooked classic - the music is thickly textured - colorful - engenders atmosophere - Gabarek and Gismonti were a happy combination - and all that they recorded together in their too brief collaboration is worth a listen. March 31, 2006

A Classic recording in any genre of music

Just before "new age' music even really existed, ECM records, unknowingly, helped to create what was referred to at the time as "chamber Jazz".
Most of the ECM musicians came from some type of jazz backround, but usually also mixed into their musical stew much classical music and European influences, as well as ethnic and folk musics (nowadays referred to as World music).
This is one of many 5-star ECM discs. Sadly it seems for most folks ECM music is just too hard to comprehend it seems-too many people can't relate to it because it doesn't sound like any of the music they grew up with. Too bad, and their loss.
Thankfully, this one goes down a bit easier, so it makes a great introduction to ECM as well as to all 3 of these musicians.
As usual with ECM the recorded sound is excellent-which really matters when one is dealing with this type of music, or any music this intimate and quiet (and acoustic-based). No other recordings from any Jazz or creative music label from the 70's sound anywhere near as good as ECM recordings.
I have this one on vinyl-since I purchased it shortly after it originally came out-but the CD is better just for the fact that it's wonderful to hear this quiet, spacious music, without any surface noise or tape hiss.
I think Egberto Gismonti may have at least one other masterpiece that I must list here-titled "Solo" and recorded for ECM at around the same time. If you happen to love "Magico" then I would say Gismonti's "Solo" as well as the very good follow-up to this album-"Folk Songs" by the same 3 musicians, would be the 2 most important CD's to get.. Haden's music on his own spans mostly different types of Jazz -especially Ornette Coleman-style work, and most of Garbarek's music has more electronic instrumentation as well as a busier instrumental pallette (through the use of lots of additional musicians, especially percussionists, and extensive overdubbing), as well as having a very different instrumental line up, so not many of Garbarek's other recordings exist in this world...
This is one to put on, sit back, and "get lost in", which is the highest compliment I can pay to any recording.
I have hundreds of lp's and about 2 or 3 thousand CD's, so just the fact that I would take the time to write a review for this one should speak for itself...
Egberto Gismont-acoust & nylon string guitars & piano
Charlie Haden-upright acoustic bass
Jan Garbarek-saxophones September 4, 2004

With two of the most gorgeous jazz performances ever . . .

. . . , "Bailarina" and "Palhaco," Magico is not to be missed. This (and to a slightly lesser extent the companion disc Folk Songs, containing the same personnel) is certainly a hight point in the history of jazz. When Manfried Eicher got Haden, Gismonti, and Garbarek in the studio at the end of the seventies to perform their trio magic, something special, something probably completely unanticipated, happened: haunting, elegiac, ravishingly beautiful songs in the context of lilting collective improvisation.

Garbarek with his keening, Nordic sax; Haden with his rock-solid Midwestern American bass; Gismonti with his dancing, mercurial Brazilian guitar and piano: three distinct voices blending and interweaving mysteriously, magically.

Perhaps bearing a superficial resemblence to New Age music, Magico is actually one of the first authentic world jazz discs. With this, Codona, and Danca das Cabecas, ECM was a pioneer of jazz beat records way back in the seventies.

Although each member receives equally billing (with Charlie Haden, perhaps understandably listed first, due to his wider stateside reputation), this record essentially belongs to Egberto Gismonti. The plurality of compositions is his; He wrote the title cut, and the most stunning number on the album "Palhaco," with its impossible weight of poignancy, its haunting, unforgettable melody, its sad, loving rendition; and the project would be inconceivable without his irreplaceable guitar and (underrated) piano playing. This is not to underplay the contributions of the others--just to give credit where credit is due.

All three of these players went on to make major jazz recordings of their own (none greater than Gismonti's fabulous Sanfona), but together, here, they make unique, absolutely satisfying small-group world-jazz of the highest order. October 2, 2003

A Great Exploration

This album is unlike most anything in my collection, but it's incredible. I'd classify this as "Jazz Trance" music if there is such a thing. The album can really transport you to various places, but unlike new age and trance music you normally think of, the acoustic playing feels a lot more real and the music breathes instead of drones. The composition, "Silence", can take a simple chord progression and with it bring you to tears and then dry them off for you by the end of the piece. The album is for anyone that appreciates raw, haunting, emotional playing. September 29, 2001

I magici suoni del silenzio.

Nel 1980 la ECM pubblica questo notevole disco di Gismonti, Garbarek e Haden. L'esperienza si ripeterà l'anno successivo con "Folksongs", con esiti altrettanto importanti.

Si tratta, secondo me, delle migliori registrazioni di Gismonti in trio. Fa un certo effetto vederli ora, uno accanto all'altro, le braccia incrociate, sul retro della cover di "Magico", l'elegante bassista e il raffinato sassofonista, ed in mezzo l'incredibile, poliedrico musicista brasiliano, che qui suona con pari bravura i suoi strumenti preferiti, chitarra acustica e pianoforte. (Indovinate quale dei tre è rimasto esattamente il ragazzo vent'anni fa?)

C'è davvero un'indefinibile magia in questo disco, fortemente impregnato del genio di Gismonti, e del suo ascolto per la natura, il mondo delle cose vive vi. "Bailarina" e "Magico" (rispettivamente di Reis-Carneiro e di Garbarek) sono due pezzi molto suggestivi, dove i tre musicisti si combinano in una sorprendente armonia di stili; viene dato il giusto risalto ai temi del sax, ma il tappeto sonoro di chitarra e basso è pregevolissimo.

Il pezzo successivo è il meraviglioso "Silence" di Haden, presentato nei "Montreal tapes" della prima Liberation Music Orchestra, dove il tema era lanciato con molta finezza dai soli ottoni: una routine di sedici note che scendono lentamente, per lo più ripetute a due a due, impossibile una melodia più semplice. Già la breve lettura di Keith Jarrett, nel disco del 1977 che prende il nome proprio da questo brano, era bellissima. Nel cd in esame il pianoforte di un Gismonti controllatissimo quasi conduce per mano il sax soprano di Garbarek, che svaria delicatamente ma è anch'egli assai rispettoso della "silenziosità" del brano; alla fine Haden, dopo aver ripetutto a sua volta il tema, prende il posto di Gismonti nello scandire le quattro battute del tema e lascia a questi il sussurro finale. L'effetto è meraviglioso e leggermente inquietante (per inciso, ricordo che il brano commenta le ultime strazianti sequenze del film "Kadosh").

Segue "Spor", di Garbarek, che qui riceve a mio avviso la sua migliore realizzazione (ad es., nel 1983 in "Wayfarer", pur in una formazione di tutto rispetto, Garbarek non riesce ad essere altrettanto efficace); la chitarra acustica di Gismonti arreca al brano una dolcezza davvero particolare.

Struggente e misterioso "Palhaço" di Gismonti, nel quale i tre musicisti appaiono come rilassati, forse consapevoli di averci offerto qualcosa di non facilmente ripetibile. December 19, 2000

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