''Luminessence: Music for String Orchestra and Saxophone'' is an album composed by American pianist

Keith Jarrett Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey and later moved on to play with Charles Lloyd (jazz musician), Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has also be ...

featuring saxophonist

Jan Garbarek Jan Garbarek () (born 4 March 1947) is a Norwegian jazz saxophonist, who is also active in classical music and world music. Garbarek was born in Mysen, Østfold, southeastern Norway, the only child of a former Polish prisoner of war, Czesław Gar ...

and the Südfunk-Sinfonieorchester conducted by

Mladen Gutesha Mladen () is a South Slavic masculine given name, derived from the Slavic root ''mlad'' (, ), meaning "young". It is present in Bosnian, Slovenian, Montenegrin, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Serbian, and Croatian society since the Middle Ages. Not ...

, recorded in April 1974 and released on

ECM ECM may refer to the following: Economics and commerce * Engineering change management * Equity capital markets * Error correction model, an econometric model * European Common Market Mathematics * Lenstra's Elliptic curve method for factor ...

the following year—Jarrett does not perform on this album. The title is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of "

luminescence Luminescence is a spontaneous emission of radiation from an electronically or vibrationally excited species not in thermal equilibrium with its environment. A luminescent object emits ''cold light'' in contrast to incandescence, where an obje ...

" and "

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Background

Gutesha had conducted the Stuttgart strings on "Metamorphosis," from Jarrett's 1974 album ''

In the Light "In the Light" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin from their 1975 album '' Physical Graffiti''. The song was composed primarily by bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones on synthesiser, though singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page a ...

'', and would appear as conductor on '' Arbour Zena'' (1976).

Recording, production

While the music for string orchestra was notated, the saxophone part was improvised. Producer

Manfred Eicher Manfred Eicher (born 9 July 1943) is a German record producer and the founder of ECM Records. Life and career Eicher was born in Lindau, Germany. He studied music at the Academy of Music in Berlin. He started as a double-bass player of classi ...

recalled: "''Luminessence'' shows Keith's affinity for Jan Garbarek's playing. He studied Jan's music and the scales he used, and he also got the concept of the harmonic structures – the framework of the piece – with Jan in mind... Jan was indeed honoured that Keith wanted to write this for him." Similarly, Jarrett biographers

Ian Carr Ian Carr (21 April 1933 – 25 February 2009) was a Scottish jazz musician, composer, writer, and educator. Carr performed and recorded with the Rendell-Carr quintet and jazz-fusion band Nucleus (band), Nucleus, and was an associate professor a ...

and Wolfgang Sandner both praised Jarrett's ability to compose a score suited to Garbarek's style and abilities. Carr wrote: "the few melodies Jarrett writes sound like Garbarek improvisations, so great is the rapport between the two men," while Sandner commented that Jarrett "knew which kind of musical background was needed to ignite Jan Garbarek's melancholic saxophone into excursions through the jazz cosmos."

Reception

The

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review by Richard S. Ginell awarded the album 4 stars and states, "The concept is not unlike that of

Stan Getz Stan Getz (born Stanley Gayetski; February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wis ...

's ''

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'', but this music is far more static, downcast, and free of the pulse of jazz. As was characteristic of his writing then, Jarrett's string parts are mostly turgid and thick-set, indulging in weird, sliding microtones on "Windsong", weighted down by some kind of emotional burden. Particularly when delivering piercing sustained notes on soprano, Garbarek often sounds like a native of the Middle East."Ginell, R. S.

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accessed April 22, 2010 Writing for the ''New York Times'', Stephen Davis stated that ''Luminessence'' "recalls both Gabriel Faure and Pierre Dubois," and, pairing it with ''In the Light'', commented: "These albums belong neither to jazz or 'modern' music and they do not make easy listening. Both titles imply that Jarrett 'sees' his music as a colorful physical energy as did Scriabin almost a century ago."

Track listing

:''All compositions by Keith Jarrett'' # "Numinor" – 13:49 # "Windsong" – 6:32 # "Luminessence" – 15:23

Personnel

Musicians

– tenor and soprano saxophones * Mladen Gutesha – conductor ** Südfunk-Sinfonieorchester

Technical personnel

– producer * Kurt Rapp, Martin Wieland – recording engineers * Barbara and Burkhart Wojirsch, Sascha Kleis – cover design * Terje Mosnes, Kira Tolkmitt – photography

References

{{Authority control Keith Jarrett albums Jan Garbarek albums 1975 albums Albums produced by Manfred Eicher ECM Records albums