With Uma Elmo, his fifth album as a leader for ECM, Danish guitarist-composer Jakob Bro presents a new trio featuring Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen and Spanish drummer Jorge Rossy. Astonishingly, given the trio’s musical synergy, the first time these three musicians ever performed together ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
In its review of pianist Shai Maestro’s ECM leader debut The Dream Thief, All About Jazz spoke of “a searching lyrical atmosphere, emotional eloquence and communal virtuosity that serves the music.” All of which also applies to Human, where Maestro’s outgoing, ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
The debut album of Joe Lovano’s Trio Tapestry was one of 2019’s most talked-about releases. The trio’s musical concept – the Boston Globe spoke of “utterances of hushed assurance, lyricism and suspense” - is taken to the next level on its second album, Garden of ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Lost Prayers is the first of Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür’s New Series recordings to be devoted entirely to his chamber music. Scaled-back instrumental forces, however, are no indicator of reduced expressive power, and the volatility of Tüür’s concept emerges forcefully from the first seconds of Fata Morgana which is, with Lichttürme, ...
Composer: Erkki-Sven Tüür
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
Elina Duni and Rob Luft’s programme of songs of love and exile has been gathering momentum since 2017, when the Albanian-Swiss singer and the British guitarist began their collaboration. Along the way the duo has been augmented by distinguished guests, with Swiss flugelhornist Matthieu Michel and UK pianist/percussionist Fred Thomas ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
An album of soliloquies from the master. After highly acclaimed albums in formations from duo and trio to family band and orchestra, here is the great Argentinean bandoneon player Dino Saluzzi in his first purely solo recording in more than 30 years. (The early solo albums Kultrum and Andina established ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Conceived jointly by violinist Movses Pogossian and violist Kim Kashkashian on the occasion of Tigran Mansurian’s 80th birthday, the Con anima project brings together a dedicated cast of players to perform the Armenian composer’s chamber music. The emphasis is on newer pieces - only the Third String Quartet ...
Composer: Tigran Mansurian (1939)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
Budapest Concert is the second complete show to be issued from Keith Jarrett’s 2016 European tour, recorded two weeks earlier than the widely-acclaimed concert released as Munich 2016. The new double album documents the pianist’s solo performance at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest. ...
Genre: Instrumental
Subgenre: Piano
After their highly acclaimed 2014 debut album as a duo, Moderato cantabile, Anja Lechner and François Couturier widen the scope of music even further. The duo sings in a voice of its own, be it with original compositions, free improvisations, drawing upon a Bach cantata or an Argentine folk ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Chamber Music
Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Sonatas
Two great artists, pianist András Schiff and composer/clarinettist Jörg Widmann, join forces for the first time on record, performing Brahms’s late masterpieces, the clarinet sonatas op. 120, written in 1894. In between the sonatas Schiff plays Widmann’s evocative Intermezzi for piano. ...
Composer: Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
French tenor saxophonist Matthieu Bordenave’s first leader date for ECM – following on from his contribution to Shinya Fukumori’s 2018 release For 2 Akis – introduces a new project with German pianist Florian Weber and Swiss bassist Patrice Moret. On La traversée - The Crossing - Bordenave explores an area between contemporary ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
After critically-acclaimed ECM recordings with the Maciej Obara Quartet (Unloved, Three Crowns), Polish pianist Dominik Wania delivers a solo album recorded in November 2019 in Lugano. Wania’s sensitivity to touch, tone and texture is informed by his classical background. ...
Genre: Instrumental
Subgenre: Piano
Algeria-born bassist Michel Benita, long a mainstay of the French jazz scene, introduces his revised quartet. Swiss flugelhornist Matthieu Michel and French drummer Philippe Garcia are retained from Benita’s Ethics band, and the quartet is completed by Belgian keyboardist Jozef Dumoulin. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
A new ECM studio album and a programme of new music from Terje Rypdal is cause for celebration. On Conspiracy the great Norwegian guitarist seems to reconnect with the wild inspiration that fuelled such early masterpieces as Whenever I Seem To Be Far Away, Odyssey and Waves, exploring ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
A young group openly acknowledging the influence of popular music. This cheerful, breezy jazz-rock from the Pat Metheny Group was recorded in 1979.. Includes the PMG signature tune “(Cross The) Heartland”. Pat Metheny is one of those rare artists whose virtuosity is so fluid that it is no longer a necessary ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Fusion
Metheny alone and, mostly, acoustic, playing folk-flavoured compositions. Pat viewed this as “an autobiographical album. It’s got a lot to do with the American Midwest. It’s very open and spacious.” Pat Metheny is one of those rare artists whose virtuosity is so fluid that it is no longer ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Fusion
"Offramp" is the third album by the Pat Metheny Group, released in 1982. It won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance. It contains the popular ballad "Are You Going with Me?". Offramp is the first studio album on which Metheny used a guitar synthesizer, a Roland GR-300 ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Fusion
(aka “The White Album”) Pat Metheny Group (Remastered)
When the Pat Metheny Group released this debut album on ECM in 1978, the musicianship of Pat was already beginning to turn some heads. His previous trio album for ECM in 1976, featuring Jaco Pastoris (bass) and Bob Moses (drums), had forced the world of traditional jazz to take notice of this contemporary sound. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Fusion
As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls (Remastered)
As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls is a collaborative album by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays, released in 1981. The title makes reference to Wichita, Kansas and Wichita Falls, Texas. The title tune is just under 21 minutes. It is one of the few albums where Metheny not only acts as both the lead and accompanying guitarist but also the ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Fusion
"First Circle" was Pat Metheny's last recording for ECM, before signing with Geffen Records.With new members Pedro Aznar and Paul Wertico, the group was set for its next phase. Metheny's musical touchstones are all here - South America, spirited rock, and de-tuned sonic parody. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Fusion
