What's New?

[Ron Thorne]

Peter Erskine Trio — As It Was

ECM’s Old And New Masters Series of reissues continues to receive praise from press and public alike, and John Abercrombie’s The First Quartet box set features in the newly-published DownBeat Critics Poll. Now comes another eagerly-anticipated collection, As It Was, bringing together all the ECM recordings made by Peter Erskine’s trio with John Taylor and Palle Danielsson. Extensive liner notes by John Kelman retrace the trio’s history, augmented by rare photos from Mr Erskine’s collection.



The newest addition to ECM’s popular Old and New Masters Series is a box set reprising the four albums made by Peter Erskine’s American-British-Swedish trio with John Taylor and Palle Danielsson between 1992 and 1997: You Never Know, As It Is, Time Being and Juni. If its core concept – a piano led by a drummer – was unorthodox, the group was nonetheless influential, and the recordings provide an excellent environment for appreciating the distinctive writing and playing of John Taylor. The British pianist was the Erskine Trio’s primary composer, with the drummer-leader and bassist Danielsson also contributing pieces and the repertoire topped up with tunes by Vince Mendoza and Kenny Wheeler. Of his trio mates Erskine says, "We drew out our most explorative and interesting playing from each other. Without trying to be, we were a truly unique group. I’ve heard nothing like it before or since.”





Peter Erskine, John Taylor, Palle Danielsson
As It Was

Peter Erskine Trio

Peter Erskine Drums
John Taylor Piano
Palle Danielsson Double Bass

ECM 2490-93

Source + Sound Clips

[Ron Thorne]

Available in the U.S. on November 18, 2016


A Multitude of Angels is a 4-CD set of recordings from a series of solo concerts in Italy in October 1996, documenting the conclusion of Keith Jarrett's experiments with long-form improvisation in performances from Modena, Ferrara, Turin, and Genoa.

"These were the last concerts I played having no breaks within each set," Keith Jarrett explains in his liner notes.

"The arc of the music is characteristically comprehensive: Jazz is ever present here, alongside my deep closeness with classical music (modern and ancient, Ives and Bach)."

Track Listings

Disc: 1
1. Part I
2. Part II
3. Danny Boy

Disc: 2
1. Part I
2. Part II
3. Encore

Disc: 3
1. Part I
2. Part II

Disc: 4
1. Part I
2. Part II
3. Encore
4. Over The Rainbow

[Ron Thorne]

New release by Avishai Cohen (CD + 180g Vinyl)
Dear friends of ECM,

Avishai Cohen’s ECM debut Into The Silence collected accolades around the world and won for the Israeli trumpeter the Grand Prix 2016 of France’s Academy de Jazz. The new album Cross My Palm With Silver, a major work from a brilliant improviser and his committed and creative band, underlines why Cohen is one of today’s most talked-about musicians.

Over the years ECM has provided a platform for many of new jazz’s most distinctive trumpeters, and some of their work is reflected in this week’s Special Offer.

Best wishes,
ECM Records



Avishai Cohen Quartet
Cross My Palm With Silver

Avishai Cohen - Trumpet
Yonathan Avishai - Piano
Barak Mori Double - Bass
Nasheet Waits - Drums
ECM 2548

A year after his impressionistic, critically-lauded ECM debut Into The Silence, trumpeter Avishai Cohen’s Cross My Palm With Silver introduces a programme of new pieces which put the focus on the ensemble, on teamwork, with a quartet of the highest calibre. The adroit, almost telepathic interplay among the musicians allows Avishai Cohen to soar, making it clear why he is one of the most talked-about jazz musicians on the contemporary scene. “All of these people together are my dream team”, says the charismatic trumpeter of fellow players Yonathan Avishai, Barak Mori and Nasheet Waits, who share his sense for daring improvisation and his feeling for structure. “I feel we’re in a perfect place with the balance. It’s open and there’s so much room for the improvisation to take the music any place we can. At the same time the composition is very specific and the vibe is very direct and thought about.” As with Into The Silence, Cross My Palm With Silver was produced by Manfred Eicher at Studios La Buissonne in the south of France. It is issued on the eve of a major European tour, with concerts in France, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands.

[jtx]

ECM 2440, released May 18, 2018, features one of my favorite vocalists in the electronica genre, Anneli Drecker. Nice to see that she is continuing to do very interesting work.



Description from the ECM site:

Norwegian-Danish author Lars Saabye Christensen is one of Scandinavia most widely-praised and prolific contemporary writers. For many years now, in the course of his travels around the globe, he has been sending “hotel poems” to his friend Ketil Bjørnstad, inviting him to make music out of them. These literary postcards explore a range of moods. Bjørnstad says: “I feel very connected to the lonely, existential perspective of these poems, made in different hotel rooms.”

For this recording, Ketil worked closely with singer and actress Anneli Drecker, former lead vocalist of pop group Bel Canto. Settings of poetry form a special category in Norwegian pianist-composer Bjørnstad’s discography and A Suite of Poems is a song cycle to put alongside such projects as A Passion for John Donne, Sunrise, and The Light.