It's OK to Listen to the Gray Voice

1985 studio album by the Jan Garbarek Group

Studio album by

the Jan Garbarek Group

Released

September 1985^[1]

Recorded

December 1984

Genre

Jazz

Length

42:36

Label

ECM 1294

Producer

Manfred Eicher

Jan Garbarek chronology

Wayfarer
(1983)

It's OK to Listen to the Gray Voice
(1985)

All Those Born with Wings
(1987)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[2]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	^[4]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	^[5]
Record Collector	^[3]

It's OK to Listen to the Gray Voice is an album by the Jan Garbarek Group recorded in December 1984 and released on ECM September the following year. The quartet features rhythm section David Torn, Eberhard Weber and Michael Di Pasqua.^[6]

Reception

AllMusic gave the album four stars, with critic Mark W. B. Allender stating:

Here Garbarek is approaching the extremes of his style, appearing once again with the Jan Garbarek Group. All pieces on this record are titled after quotes from poems by Tomas Tranströmer, and though the actual connection to these poems remains tenuous at best, they do add a provocative element to the pieces themselves, which beg for at least some programmatic interpretation. Multi-instrumentalist David Torn is primarily responsible for the more aggressive edge this record takes. His guitar lines explode with energy and tension, giving Garbarek a more off-center field to play in—and considering his penchant for excessive restraint, this is a welcome environment to hear him in.^[2]

Track listing

All compositions by Jan Garbarek.

"White Noise of Forgetfulness – 8:22
"The Crossing Place" – 9:10
"One Day in March I Go Down to the Sea and Listen" – 5:32
"Mission: To Be Where I Am" – 8:08
"It's OK to Phone the Island That Is a Mirage" – 5:49
"It's OK to Listen to the Gray Voice" – 4:41
"I'm the Knife-Thrower's Partner" – 0:54

Personnel

Jan Garbarek Group

Jan Garbarek – tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
David Torn – guitar, guitar synthesizer, DX7
Eberhard Weber – bass
Michael Di Pasqua – drums, percussion

References

^ "It's OK to Listen to the Gray Voice". ECM.
^ ^a ^b Allender, M. W. B. AllMusic review accessed 9 November 2009
^ Rigby, Paul. "Jan Garbarek - It's OK to Listen to the Gray Voice". Record Collector. recordcollectormag.com. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
^ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 524. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
^ Jan Garbarek discography Archived 2009-08-20 at the Wayback Machine accessed 9 November 2009