As a brand new double live album is released and ahead of a tour by his newly constituted group early next year the great Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek looks back to his early years before Afric Pepperbird, the definitive album that changed the face of European jazz forever and launched a new sound identified with his label ECM. Therein lie the roots of his appeal, its Nordic essence in a nutshell but also deep within the sonorous Garbarek tones there’s an important side to his playing informed by the early pioneers of jazz saxophone like Coleman Hawkins, his great hero as a teenager the hard blowing Dexter Gordon, and above all John Coltrane. As Stuart Nicholson discovers, there’s much more to Garbarek than meets the eye

He’s been called a “poet of sound” and the late George Russell called him “the most original voice in European jazz since Django Reinhardt.” Yet he calls himself a “reluctant saxophonist” even though his albums have sold in five and six figure sums. Jan Garbarek, of course, whose every album release now creates a buzz of anticipation in the jazz world and beyond. But it’s more than just the music that’s special on Dresden: In Concert. Not only is it is the first Jan Garbarek Group recording in 16 years, but it’s also Garbarek’s first-ever live album on the ECM label.

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