ECM Part 2

While I was ready to work on Part two as I finished part one from February of 2020.  Life and the world became complicated. I was deeply sadden that I could not go to work and help the kids I teach on a daily basis. I could not enjoy walking into work with the satisfaction that kids I work with who have Autism understand the world we are living in at this moment. To this day I can still see some of the disconnect with these kids and the kids in regular education. It was tough to say the least and I did not enjoy the career that I was in. All the teachers that I worked with could see that this was not the way we wanted to be here. Music was the outlet but writing about it was less so.  The passion I once had was down to a casual listen at best and silence at worst. 

After the storm and its aftermath I felt like writing about music that was familiar to me and easy to write about. It was like going on auto pilot. One kind of music that was familiar was the music of ECM records. It was the record label that got me into so many genres, styles and musicians.  If it was not for ECM my music leanings would be dry and dull. I would never known about Egberto Gismonti, Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdal, Steve Tibbetts, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny, Ralph Towner and so many countless others. 

I was going to do some Q&A with a friend who loves and has a bit of an in with the label, but I will save that for another day. Part two was going to be what makes ECM so unique and so thought provoking to so many people and has created a few social media pages about the label and each time it gets a ton of likes. I've decided to write about four albums that changed my listening to music from ECM and their perspective. These are not going to be full blown reviews but will be just the tip of why you should check them out. At some point I will discuss more of these in better detail, but I will give you a peek at how forward thinking ECM was when these were released. 

ECM now is still putting out great music, but now they are catering to the audiophile recordings called the Luminescence Series.  These albums are quite stellar. the audio quality and the package is quite impressive.  I own two of them and love everything about them. The two I have are Gateway with Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette and John Abercrombie and Afric Pepperbird with the Jan Garbarek Quartet which includes Arild Andersen, Jon Christensen and the great Terje Rypdal. A++ for the package and sound.  It really is out of this world.   

With this post I'm going to briefly write about five ECM albums that challenged me and changed the directions in music I never knew existed. I will at some point write a post on each album. There is about nine posts about specific albums in the ECM catalog that I previously talked about. The ones in this post are going to be future posts in full. The ones here are ones that are unique and kinda paint a picture of when ECM went outside the box. They do it every so often it is why I love the label. The way they mix different instruments together to make an album or what the group or ensemble do as a whole, Some examples not featured here would be an album called Pictures with John Abercrombie on Guitar and Jack DeJohnette on drums and piano/organ. While in the Rock world this has been done, in Jazz this is an odd pairing to me. It also makes it unique because some of the songs are drums with Piano/Organ and not featuring Abercrombie's guitar greatness. There is a few albums of just solo guitar works. Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, Bill Conners and Terje Rypdal among others. Each of these musicians did some form of solo album. Another would be David Darling. A wonderful cello player who makes a solo cello album with some percussion. This also holds true with Dave Holland who made a solo cello album and a solo stand up bass albums. 

In these five albums I will be writing about my persona favorites. All these deserve a full post, and some I have already written about have a full post and these are very noteworthy as well. An example would be my post on John Abercrombie's Timeless album and Dave Holland's Quartet album Conference of the Birds. Another album with early great production and ECM's unique work would be Marion Brown's Afternoon of a Georgia Faun. Marion's album is outside the box and still holds up because of its unique direction it took Jazz. Darn perfect for me and so many Jazz fans. Lastly Keith Jarrett's My Song. One of the best Jazz albums ever. So many people site this as a classic in Jazz quartet music.  These examples are of ECM's best directions in music. I posted other ECM titles that you might enjoy and that are equally just as important. 

While I posted Terje Rypdal's Whenever I Seem to Be Far Away as my entry point to Terje's music it was Odyssey the true gem. an album that is more Progressive Rock then Jazz Guitar. It's song "Rolling Stone" is killer. It might take up one side of vinyl, but well worth the listen. I'm sure ECM would be the only label to chance putting it out. This makes ECM very unique. A full post on this classic should be out at some point soon.  He and the band CAN shared a double bill concert. Oh I wish I was in a time machine to see this concert. 

If there was a brief ECM Jazz super group then Ralph Towner's Solstice would be it. Once again an odd group of musicians. Classical twelve string guitar with saxophone? Who thought of this, only Manfred would see this work to perfection. The best part for me is the rhythm section of Eberhard Weber and Jon Christensen. All the musicians here are ECM vets and make a bunch of music through the decades. Beautiful and lush and the artwork on the front is wonderful and very calming, much like the music. 

Here is an album that got me more into ECM and it changed everything I knew about Jazz and music. Eberhard Weber's unique sound make this album a masterpiece. There are some great solo passages by Eberhard and this forward thinking album still blows my mind. Not knowing the music of Chamber Jazz I listened to this and understood it's term more. Beautiful music all the way around. 

The album that changed what guitar Jazz was all about. It's music along with the late great Jaco Pastorius on bass this album is what Started the great career of Pat Metheny. Beautiful in every measure of music. Not sure this converted me into a love for ECM records or a Metheny fan. I know this was not my first Metheny album but It gave me great respect for his music once I played this on the turntable a few times.

Last and certainly not least would be Keith Jarrett's The Survivors Suite. A unique on piece of music done on two sides of a record. Once again all totally unique to me. This time with a group of musicians called the American Quartet. My Song was the European Quartet and each quartet has there unique feel and this is so amazing. Another first time listen was when I placed it on the turntable and had no idea what this was. Surely ECM made this sound and I bet no label would create this. Keith Jarrett Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian made this album sing. Very impressive with creative music that should be listened to. 

HONORABLE MENTION

Deer Wan has all the makings of a superECMgroup. Everyone on the album are seasoned ECM people who been on the roster for a while and continue to work with the label. With Kenny Wheeler leading this group, you also have Jan Garbarek, Dave Holland, John Anercombie and Jack DeJohnette. A special appearance by Ralph Towner makes the album complete. Three songs over ten minutes makes this group have fun stretching out.I enjoy the mellow ECM tones with the greatness that each member brings to the table. If anything can define an ECM sound, this album could do it all on its own. 

ECM made so many great albums and I could just create a post on the list alone, but this is my other personal favorites. I will write about most of these in grater detail and more ECM albums in the future but this is something I have been meaning to do. Enjoy.