Bassist and Oregon cofounder Glen Moore joins pianist Larry Karush (who can be found lurking elsewhere on ECM as part of Steve Reich’s ensembles) in a fascinating encounter recorded on the titular date for the JAPO label. Perhaps because the two had already nurtured a deep synergy, ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Free Jazz
The Philosophy Of The Fluegelhorn (Remastered)
The Philosophy of the Fluegelhorn is Herbert Joos’s first of two albums for ECM’s sister label JAPO, the second being Daybreak. Where the latter was a lyrical, if longwinded, excursion, the former is something of a meta-statement for the German renaissance man—not ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Free Jazz
Last Year's Waltz - Live At Fat Tuesday's, New York City 1981 (Remastered)
Last Year’s Waltz has everything a great live jazz album should: a present feel, gobs of atmosphere, and, oh yeah, Sheila Jordan. Right off the bat, interplay from Bob Moses and Harvie Swartz kicks us into wakefulness in “Turn To Gold.” Gilded by Kuhn’s indeed alchemical but always punctual pianism, ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Cool
As yet to provide choice “vibes” for Kenny Wheeler’s around 6, in addition to his elusive but well-worth-owning Path, mallet man Tom van der Geld made his ECM debut with this, his second of three “Children At Play” recordings. Less specific than his later work with the group, ....
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Es herrscht Uhu im Land (Remastered)
This early collaboration from saxophonist Alfred Harth and composer Heiner Goebbels is a telling lens of intersection through which to mine two fascinating careers. Harth will be familiar to ECM devotees as the progenitor of the label’s second album, ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Free Jazz
Saxophonist, flutist, and composer Lennart Åberg is among ECM’s sleeper talents. Having graced the label only as sideman to 1994’s Dona Nostra, his brilliance was saved instead for the limited JAPO imprint. On this record he is joined by fellow Swedes Bobo Stenson (piano) and Palle Danielsson ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
With Dom Um Romao (Remastered)
To us, this recording represents what was great about ECM in the mid 70s, searching improvised grooves that cross the lines between free playing, textural tone bending, ethnic influences and modern fusion, but without getting too new-agey. Om were a quartet of ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Free Jazz
Directions was a short-lived unit from the evolving mind of drummer Jack DeJohnette, who on this ECM joint proved once again that his deftness at the keyboard is almost on par with his mainstay. New Rags features the same line-up (John Abercrombie on electric guitar and mandolin, Alex Foster ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Hard Bop
"This set of duets by vibraphonist Gary Burton and guitarist Ralph Towner features a logical matchup, since both musicians are open to folk melodies and are generally quiet improvisers. In addition to six Towner originals and Burton’s “Brotherhood,” the set has thoughtful versions of ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Intergalactic Blow (Remastered)
Beginning in 1966, the Globe Unity Orchestra sparked a four decades-long run that intersected with the JAPO label on three counts. For this, the group’s second for ECM’s sister label, founder Alexander von Schlippenbach hand-selected a set of free improvisations emitted in a Paris studio in June of 1982. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Free Jazz
Desert Maurauders (Remastered)
Desert Marauders represents the final iteration of pianist Art Lande’s Rubisa Patrol quartet, which over its flash-in-the-pan tenure produced a solid, if modest, body of imaginative work. For this recording Kurt Wortman replaces Glenn Cronkhite on drums and provides plenty of adhesive for ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Although trombonist Julian Priester had been playing for years on some of the hippest jazz sides ever recording, this stint of late 70s ECM recordings were some of his rare few as a leader, apart from some very early sides for the Jazzland/Riverside label. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Steve Kuhn is the all-purpose element: his presence heightens any musical concoction. Like no jazz pianist I know, he is aware of the negative spaces between his notes and shapes those spaces to suit the emotional needs of the tune. And what a set of tunes we have in Non-Fiction, ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
La misteriosa musica della Regina Loana
This hugely enjoyable and highly inventive album is dedicated to the late Umberto Eco, a lifelong friend of accordionist Gianni Coscia and an ardent champion of this particular duo. Eco’s The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loanna, a meditation on the nature of memory, inspires ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Mainstream Jazz
The album title is the programme in this meeting of remarkable artists brought together to arrange and interpret traditional music of Greece, Turkey, Lebanon and Armenia, and to play original songs by Anatolian saz player Cihan Türkoğlu and lyricist Agathi Dimitroukas. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Vocal
Led by nyckelharpa virtuoso Marco Ambrosini – first heard on ECM with Rolf Lislevand – Ensemble Supersonus applies its unique instrumental blend, capped by the otherworldly overtone singing of Anna-Maria Hefele, to very wide-ranging repertoire. Building bridges between cultures and traditions, ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Mainstream Jazz
J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (Live in Troy, NY / 1987) (Remastered)
“These are performances in which tempos, phrasing, articulation and the execution of ornaments are convincing,” wrote Gramophone of Jarrett’s first recorded account of The Well-Tempered Clavier. “Both instrument and performer serve as unobtrusive media through which the music ...
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Instrumental
Lost River is an evocative post-ambient, richly textured sonic event, and one of the outstanding beyond-category recordings of recent ECM history. Drummer Michele Rabbia and guitarist Eivind Aarset had played many duo concerts, and Rabbia had also worked with trombonist Gianluca Petrella ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
Zwiegespräche is a meeting of spirits. “We compose the same way,” said György Kurtág to Heinz Holliger on hearing this recording, which emphasises works for oboe by these two major composers. Both of them reference the entire history of music in their pieces, both incorporate dedications ...
Composer: György Kurtág, Heinz Holliger (1939)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
In this imaginatively shaped and sensitively played album –her third for ECM -Russian pianist Anna Gourariexplores musical connections and influences extending across the arts.Three suites of contemporary music are heard here.Alfred Schnittke'sFive Aphorisms(1990) draw impulses from ...
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), Giya Kancheli (1935-), Rodion Shchedrin, Arvo Pärt, Wolfgang Rihm
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Instrumental
