What's New?

[jtx]

There's nothing scheduled with the Trovesi octet at the moment, but just a few days ago Gianluigi recorded in Lugano together with Anat Fort's trio. In January we will also be recording a Trovesi project with the Accademia Bizantina and Stefano Molinari ...

I will very much look forward to those!

[Ron Thorne]

Exciting news in my Inbox this morning:

Dear ECM Newsletter Subscriber,

We’re pleased to re-introduce some exceptional music to our listeners. Here are titles that have been out of print for too long, with music by Keith Jarrett, Gary Burton, Sam Rivers, Miroslav Vitous, Abdullah Ibrahim, John Abercrombie and Ralph Towner, returning now as 180g LP, as CD and as high-resolution download.

Plus, in our special offer, albums of the great Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian, who celebrates his 75th birthday on January 27.


Best wishes,
ECM Records


ECM Re:solutions
"The story of our listening"
(http://ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/Oth ... utions.php)


There was Classical Music. There was Jazz. There even was Rock. Then there was one record company that didn’t care. It devoted itself to all kinds of music, as long as it was good. It shaped the story of our listening.

Seven historical albums, mastered from original analog sources, issued simultaneously in three formats – as 180 gram vinyl albums, as CDs and as high-resolution download files (24 bit/96 kHz). Follow the great arc of music on these early ECM productions, with works for orchestra and improvisers, guitar duo, solo piano, and jazz quartet.

These are the titles:

Gary Burton: Seven Songs For Quartet And Chamber Orchestra
(http://ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/1000/1040.php)

Keith Jarrett: Arbour Zena
(http://ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/1000/1070.php)

Keith Jarrett: Ritual
(http://ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/1100/1112.php)

Sam Rivers: Contrasts
(http://ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/1100/1162.php)

Miroslav Vitous Group: Miroslav Vitous Group
(http://ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/1100/1185.php)

John Abercrombie / Ralph Towner: Five Years Later
(http://ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/1200/1207.php)

Abdullah Ibrahim: African Piano
(http://ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/JAPO/3602.php)


Please also check our list of all available LPs: http://www.ecmrecords.com/News/Special_ ... -Liste.php


Special Offer

January 27th is the 75th birthday of Tigran Mansurian, one of contemporary music’s most original composers and an important presence on ECM New Series, the label which has helped to bring wider attention to his work. For this occasion our special offer consists of all releases related to him. Here you can find the complete list.
(http://www.ecmrecords.com/News/Special_ ... surian.php)

For detailed information about Mansurian please click here
(http://www.ecmrecords.com/News/Diary/47 ... _at_75.php)

[7/4]

Looking forward to getting CDs of Five Years Later & Contrasts.

...and that Abercrombie Qt box too.

[7/4]

"On February 28 in Europe and March 4 in the US, ECM will issue “Mutations” by Vijay Iyer."

Vijay Iyer piano, electronics
Miranda Cuckson violin
Michi Wiancko violin
Kyle Armbrust viola
Kivie Cahn-Lipman violoncello

Sounds good count me in.

[7/4]

Gary Burton: Seven Songs For Quartet And Chamber Orchestra

I also want this. Under recorded Mick Goodrick is on it.

[Ron Thorne]

That's a sterling recording, with great soloing from Goodrick, but let's not overlook the extraordinary contributions of Michael Gibbs on this beauty.

Recorded a year earlier, the album below is another gem, if you haven't already heard it. Highly recommended.



Gary Burton
The New Quartet

Gary Burton vibraphone
Mick Goodrick guitar
Abraham Laboriel bass
Harry Blazer drums

Recorded March 5/6, 1973 at Aengus Studios, Fayville, Massachusetts
Engineer: John Nagy
Produced by Manfred Eicher

Notes:

[7/4]

Don't have The New Quartet on CD.

[Ron Thorne]

Don't have The New Quartet on CD.

Have you heard it on vinyl? If not, you have a real treat ahead of you. This was Gary's 1st recording on ECM, and one of my favorite albums of his to this day. It's available as a used CD on Amazon dot com, and elsewhere as a lossless digital download, if you're interested.

[7/4]

Don't have The New Quartet on CD.

Have you heard it on vinyl? If not, you have a real treat ahead of you. This was Gary's 1st recording on ECM, and one of my favorite albums of his to this day. It's available as a used CD on Amazon dot com, and elsewhere as a lossless digital download, if you're interested.

I think I have a copy on vinyl. I should dig it out and give it a spin.

[Ron Thorne]

Billy Hart’s Quartet’s second ECM recording “One is the Other” (w/ Ethan Iverson, Mark Turner & Ben Street) comes out next week. The band is in New York at Birdland Jazz Club March 4TH – 8TH.

[Ron Thorne]

Steve Kuhn Special



Since the early 1960s Steve Kuhn has made himself a name as one of the most elegantly swinging masters of modern jazz piano. In the wake of his 76th birthday at the end of March, this distinguished ambassador of American jazz embarks on a short Europan tour - a welcome opportunity to present four classic Kuhn recordings on ECM as special offers.

Please click here to see the complete list.
http://ecmrecords.com/News/Special_Offe ... e_Kuhn.php

[Ron Thorne]

Done!

[Ron Thorne]

From a recent e-mail. This should be most interesting. The first track sounds wonderful.

Wolfgang Muthspiel / Larry Grenadier / Brian Blade: Driftwood




Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel makes his ECM leader debut with Driftwood, a trio album of subtlety and depth featuring renowned US jazz players Larry Grenadier and Brian Blade. Muthspiel – who recently made his first ECM appearance on Travel Guide as a member of a cooperative trio with fellow guitarists Ralph Towner and Slava Grigoryan – has enjoyed long, productive musical friendships live and on record with both Grenadier and Blade, leading to a sense of telepathic interplay on Driftwood. The trio creates a ravishing sound, captured with fidelity at Rainbow Studio in Oslo. Muthspiel has been praised by The Times of London for his “restless musical imagination”. Lyrical, grooving and atmospheric by turns, the guitarist’s compositions on Driftwood include tributes to his heroes Joe Zawinul and Michael Brecker.

ECM Player

[Ron Thorne]

In my Inbox from ECM this morning:

We are pleased to announce the release of Last Dance by Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden, “as good as ‘Jasmine’”, The Guardian writes. “There are plenty of rapturous love songs, but for all their warm glow, this duo constantly invests them with strength and urgency.”


Best wishes,
ECM Records






Keith Jarrett / Charlie Haden: Last Dance


Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden broaden the scope of their duo project to showcase jazz classics like Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight” and Bud Powell’s spritely “Dance Of The Infidels”. Love songs, however, are to the fore in this selection, with tender versions of “My Old Flame”, “My Ship”, “It Might As Well Be Spring”, “Everything Happens To Me”, and “Every Time We Say Goodbye” as well as versions of “Where Can I Go Without You” and “Goodbye” which are every bit as touching as the Jasmine renditions. “When we play together it’s like two people singing”, said Jarrett of his reunion with Haden. The intentions of the song are honoured, the shades of meaning in a melody or a lyric explored instrumentally. As Charlie Haden put it, “Keith really listens, and I listen. That’s the secret. It’s about listening.” The music of Last Dance was recorded at Keith Jarrett’s home studio.

ECMPlayer

[bluenoter]

An Update

ECM jazz (etc) to come in the next few months: Stefano Bollani has a live duo album, “O que sera”, with Brazilian bandolim (10-string mandolin) genius Hamilton de Holanda. ...Aaron Parks appears on two ECM releases, a solo album “Arborescence” , and an album called “Lua Ya” with South Korean singer Yeahwon Shin ...Ralph Towner introduces new guitar trio with Wolfgang Muthspiel and Slava Grigoryan (“Travel Guide”)...Two releases upcoming from John Abercrombie, “39 Steps” with Marc Copland, Drew Gress, Joey Baron, and a box set of 70s/80s recordings with Richie Beirach, George Mraz and Peter Donald... Carla Bley “Trios” (that’s the title) with Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow ... Ralph Alessi’s “Baida” with Jason Moran, Drew Gress, Nasheet Waits ... There are new albums by Tim Berne’s Snakeoil (“Shadow Man”), Norma Winstone’s trio with Glauco Venier and Klaus Gesing (“Dance Without Answer”), and by Arild Andersen’s trio with Tommy Smith and Paolo Vinaccia ["Mira"]. ...Not jazz but with very strong improvisational content: live duo set by Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan, intertwining melodies from Persian and Anatolian traditions ["Kula Kulluk Yakişir Mi"] ...

All of those recordings have since been released except (apparently) John Abercrombie's "box set of 70s/80s recordings with Richie Beirach, George Mraz and Peter Donald."

[bluenoter]

All of those recordings have since been released except (apparently) John Abercrombie's "box set of 70s/80s recordings with Richie Beirach, George Mraz and Peter Donald."

In an AAJ review published on February 25, 2014---"Ralph Towner / John Abercrombie: Five Years Later (2014)"---John Kelman described the forthcoming box set as follows:

Add the three Abercrombie Quartet albums recorded immediately prior to Five Years Later—1979's Arcade, 1980's Abercrombie Quartet and 1981's M, planned for release later this year in an Old & New Masters Edition box—and all of these two seminal guitarists' ECM recordings will finally be in print on CD internationally, and not a moment too soon.

Maybe Steve Lake will confirm that description and, if possible, give us a currently anticipated release date.

[Ron Thorne]

Steve, is there anything new on the horizon from one of my very favorite drummers, Jon Christensen?

How about new recordings from Ralph Towner and Kenny Wheeler?

Thanks.

[Steve Lake]

Hi Ron –
We recorded a new album with Kenny Wheeler at Abbey Road Studios in London a few months ago.
Yet to be mixed, it features Kenny’s fine quintet with Stan Sulzmann, John Parricelli, Chris Laurence and Martin France.

Jon Christensen, as I may have mentioned earlier, is featured in guitarist Jakob Bro’s trio, with Thomas Morgan on bass. Their album’s being mixed next month.

Ralph Towner – nothing scheduled at the moment. But we still think of his “Travel Guide” album (released in Autumn 2013) as a “new” release.

To the other question above, I can confirm that Mr Kelman lists the contents of the Abercrombie box correctly.
As he should, since he wrote the liner notes... I still don’t have a release date for that, however.
The schedule for the second half of the year remains in flux.

Best wishes,
Steve

[Ron Thorne]

Thanks for the update, Steve.

Looks as if some fine new material is just around the corner. Kenny Wheeler's new quintet recording will be at or near the top of my list, that's for sure. I haven't heard Jon in that trio context yet, so look forward to that one as well.

As always, your input is much appreciated.

[bluenoter]

To the other question above, I can confirm that Mr Kelman lists the contents of the Abercrombie box correctly.
As he should, since he wrote the liner notes... I still don’t have a release date for that, however.
The schedule for the second half of the year remains in flux.

Thanks, Steve---and thanks for the rest of your update too.

As you may know, Nate Chinen of the New York Times gave a starred listing to an upcoming ECM double bill in NYC. It's posted in another thread in this forum, here.

---Rita

[bluenoter]

Congratulations!


https://www.facebook.com/ecmrecords?rf=110166535679608




I haven't had a chance to check the complete list of winners to see whether---or, more likely, which---ECM recording artists also got some props in the 2014 poll.

[bluenoter]

The following thread is in JT's Jazz News forum:

Charlie Haden RIP

[bluenoter]

A new release




Source: "Show more" on YouTube, beneath the video posted here, which was linked
from the Facebook page Mark Turner Jazz. I'm guessing it was supplied by ECM.

[Lathe of Heaven was] produced by Manfred Eicher at New York's Avatar Studio in June 2013. . . . The album's title references Ursula K. Le Guin's 1971 science fiction novel of the same name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar_g4lmRFkw

[bluenoter]

Another new release, on which Mark Turner likewise appears




Source: "Show more" on YouTube, beneath the video posted here. I'm guessing it was
supplied by ECM.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHVjqpdOnBE

[Ron Thorne]

This recording with Stefano Bollani is the antithesis of what Mark Turner discussed in his clip, with not one, but two chordal instruments, guitar and piano. It's a beauty, too.

There are many possibilities that satisfy.