Jan Garbarek Quotations

You have to react to what's around you in the moment, whatever the music is. Just think of it as some place you have to enter and you need to find the key.

Jazz, for me, is a closed circuit, like the term baroque in the world of classical music.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it fails, but that's what we face when we're dealing with improvisation.

When we are on tour we also take chances.

I feel very strongly when there's no chance for me to find a key to a piece.

Other times I say: I would very much like to try to do something with this music, but after playing for a few minutes, I have to break off.

If you feel you have the right key, you try to make some phrase or sound that will fit.

The only element of jazz that I keep is improvisation.

There's a certain phraseology involved in jazz, and I've moved away from that.

Coltrane was moving out of jazz into something else. And certainly Miles Davis was doing the same thing.

They usually bring in some music and sing it to me. After I hear it I might very quickly say: No, I know for sure this will not work for me.