ECM s/d.

Nils Peter Molvaer is also great.

Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert is great too - probably the third ECM big seller along with NPM and Arvo.

there's a modern norwegian label called RuneGrammophon that ECM distributes that puts out amazing free jazz, improv, noise, ambient, electronic and experimental. The best bands are Supersilent (death jazz. fusion + electronics + drums falling down the stairs) and Scorch Trio (heavy modal fusion).

nearly everything with don cherry on it is great: CoDoNa I, II, & III; his solo albums with ed blackwell, Old and New Dreams (pretty much Ornette Coleman's old group playing old Ornette tracks)

Charlie Haden's "The Ballad of the Fallen" is just like his 60s album on impulse called "Liberation Music Orchestra". it's arranged by Carla Bley and mixes orchestrated jazz, Spanish sounds and free jazz. very beautiful (and don cherry's on it)

i guess Art Ensemble of Chicago have put out stuff on ECM, none of which i've actually heard, but hear it's good.

and as mentioned on the current jazz thread, Raoul Bjorkenheim's group Krakatau is amazing

TMFTML
http://intonation.blogspot.com

Remeber that exstensive posting from Bob Bannister?? Drone-On about ECM? Aaron check it out if you can find them.

but don't pay a lot for ANY ECM titles. Even the "rarer" ones are easy to find.

also a really big fan of tomasz stanko's "litania - the music of krzysztof komeda" which will do me fine until i find any komeda orginals...

His first one "Bright Size Life" is a stripped down guitar trio record that includes Jaco Pastorius on bass. There is some really good interplay on this one.

I also really like the self titled Pat Metheny Group album, "Off Ramp", and the odd near ambient Metheny/Lyle Mays album "As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls" which also includes Nana Vasconcelos.
There are also a couple of really good acoustic guitar pieces on the "Watercolors" album.

What was said above about Don Cherry is spot-on. El Corazon!

I'd say its pretty good.

However, the Kenny Wheeler big band album on ECM (Music For Large and Small Ensembles) isn't even in the same league as the one he did for Incus (Song For Someone) - partly because of the Eicher ambience (works better for the small groups, but not for the big band) and partly because in the 1974 big band Wheeler had Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley in the line-up, whereas in the ECM big band he had John Abercrombie and Peter Erskine. Parker and Rutherford also sound a lot more muted. Song For Someone urgently needs a CD reissue - Parker's tenor exploding at the climax of "The Good Doctor" is a classic improv moment of p*nct*m.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc600/c626/c62668oksu1.jpg
http://image.allmusic.com/00/acg/cov200/cl800/l867/l86757n5oqc.jpg

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc600/c626/c62668oksu1.jpg
http://image.allmusic.com/00/acg/cov200/cl800/l867/l86757n5oqc.jpg

Most of my favorite records on the label are just good ensembles which just happened to release records on ECM, not necessarily sterling examples of the ECM aesthetic. So, yeah the Circle record, the Marion Brown record, all the Art Ensemble stuff, the Music Improvisation Company record, the Bailey/Holland duet, the Hal Russell NRG Ensemble records + Hal's Bells, the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble records, etc. Didn't really care for Leo Smith's record on the label, though. Oh, the Nouvelle Vague soundtrack is fun too.

Also, search: Art Ensemble of Chicago's great 'Nice Guys' record, and of course the last few Dave Holland Quintet records which are both incredibly classic and non-ECMish.

I think I'm more kindly disposed to the ECM 'sound' (and think that's too often overstated, anyway) 'cos I cld list TONS of great mainstreamish jazz albs they've released: just last year, 'Rosslyn' by John Taylor, 'Extended Play' by Dave Holland, 'Changing Places' by Tord Gustavson and 'Universal Syncopations' by Miroslav Vitous were all really solid ECM recs.

(X-post w/ Jordan -yeah I think that might be the Gustavson rec I just mentioned. And the AEOC 'rarum' collection usefully collects together the best things from the mostly rather patchy 70s/80s ECM albs...)

did JAPO come first ? anyone know what JAPO is and where it fits in ?

I remembered another one that I have to go back and listen to...this John Abercrombie organ trio record called Tactics that I remember being overly blurry and atmospheric (in playing and sound) except for a couple tracks, but I might like it a lot more now.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre200/e255/e25527nfmrt.jpg

Also, those 80s Jack DeJohnette Special Edition records are mostly pretty great, I always mean to check out more of them. I just looked at the ECM website, some of those 'selected recordings' comps look pretty tempting.

im feelin BITTER FUNERAL BEER so hard right now, definitely one of my ECM faves

I just scored a bunch of dollar ECM records... some Keith Jarrett solo joints mostly. Also a Collin Walcott solo record, had no idea the dude was in (the band) Oregon!

just read about the Ricardo Villalobos/Max Loderbauer ECM remix record:

http://www.theliminal.co.uk/2011/06/ricardo-villalobos-max-loderbauer-re-ecm/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tl93Cd80KY&feature=related

Not sure what I think of this record; need to make more of an effort to give it the attention it (probably) deserves. Some of it is definitely great, but after a few listens while working I haven't absorbed much from it. Hopefully this is a good sign.

this is great early 70s stuff - quiet fire guitar shredding and mr motian's sensitive fury on drums

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51tYvq7dkbL._SS500_.jpg

ECM released and releases great music. For me, John Abercrombie is a recent discovery on ECM. I just love Metheny's 'Bright Size Life' but now Abercrombie is my new favorite ECM-guitarist. As for recent output, I'd recommend 'Class Trip', that title track gives me shivers (that first violin note...). His playing on John Surman's 'Brewster's Rooster' is also very good. Older output as 'Sargasso Sea' with Ralph Towner and an old recording with Enrico Rava too.

'Vignettes' by Marilyn Crispell and 'The viola in my life' by Morton Feldman on ECM are worth getting too. Sound and perfomance are stellar.

i'm gonna have to light up an old fusion thread soon. bought a ton of records and got lots of 70's fusion stuff i've never heard.

― scott seward, Saturday, 14 November 2009 17:57 (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Scott, did you do this - because I would like to read it? Cannot have too much fusion at the moment.

(I tried searching but it seem like only old threads?)

trying to get hold of a copy of BITTER FUNERAL BEER

http://tristeshumanistes.blogspot.com/2011/03/bengt-berger-bitter-funeral-beer-band-w.html
(am at work so can't check link - I hope it works tho' because I would like it too, have you got/heard the live album(s)?)

thanks - tho I meant a physical copy!

Was enjoying Eberhard Weber's Yellow Fields the other day, kind of similar to a lot of the music on Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom.

Must check that out, dude played on a lot of Wolfgang Dauner stuff, so he's a'right by me

Dunno any of his other stuff at all, so it might not be all that compared to the rest of his oeuvre. I do know he's Kate Bush's bass player though.

sweet - I always admired the Pastorius-ish tones of the bass on some of KB's records (esp. Sensual World) so I'd def be interested in hearing this guy.

Well Mick Karn and John Giblin are also on that so it could be them, Weber's on double bass.

Giblin's got a funny discog btw, he was the bass player on Scott Walker's Tilt AND Chris De Burgh's Lady In Red.

If anybody wants to hear some of the Villalobos thing I've thrown a few track up on http://outloud.fm/ILXORS

thanks - tho I meant a physical copy!

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Friday, 17 June 2011 10:34 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I had a feeling you meant that as soon as I posted it.

I've been exploring ECM releases recently with some help from this thread (and the other one). So far I've picked up John Abercrombie's "Gateway" and Eberhard Weber's "Colors of Chloe", both of which are exactly the sort of thing I was looking for - atmospheric, pretty but with enough going on to save them from being background music. "Gateway" is a bit more fusion-y, and "Chloe" is more minimalist, but both are great.

if you like calm, impressionist, folk-based jazz with a world touch i'd recommend anouar brahem, eg conte de l'incroyable amour. brahem is a tunisian oud player and the sound of his music is rather restrained and slightly oriental. one of the best on ecm these days.

Revive this. I just discovered the entire ECM catalog is on Mog.

The first record by Rainer Brüninghaus, Eberhard Weber's keyboardist in Colors, is awesome. Kenny Wheeler and Jon Christiansen. No bass!

Other finds via MOG:

Azimuth -- Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone on cox and John Taylor on piano and Berlin-sounding EMS arpeggios. 1977! Pieces of this feel like Klaus Schulze and Joni Mitchell getting high on a mountaintop somewhere.

Jack DeJohnette and John Surman -- The Amazing Adventures of Simon Simon. More synths -- this time with bass clarinet and congas. Very cool.

Barre Phillps -- Mountainscapes. Yet more synths!! Feisty and swinging, synths provide atmosphere and texture for John Surman to bounce off. Again: 1976.

Keith Jarrett -- Spheres. Another record which has traces of Krautrock, and from the most unlikely of places. "Spheres, 9th Movement" sounds like something from Tangerine Dream before they left Ohr. Not thinking the similarities are intentional.

Eberhard Weber -- The Following Morning. In the non-electronic ECM edition, this comes w Rainer Brüninghaus on piano, but no percussion, just orchestra. Big fan of Weber's Pendulum as well, which is overdubbed bass -- which in his case is awesome, not horrifying.

Spheres has just been reissued; was sent a link to download it. Maybe now I will.

nice mix
http://www.imposemagazine.com/bytes/new-music/anenon-all-ecm-everything-mix

i identify with this label too much, i think.

some of their classical stuff is not so great, maybe.

jamming a whole bunch of ECM paul bley albums recently.

a few years ago i bought an eberhard weber LP just b/c it looked really nice and was like $12 for a NM LP. wasn't sure what to expect. ended up really really digging it.

open, to love. is possibly my favorite 1960s-or-late solo piano record

1960s-or-later. i can't type today

"ida lupino" is the highlight for me

the fairly recent Alexei Lubimov disc of all the Debussy Preludes is among the best ever made of those pieces.

All of their Kurtag releases rule.

I wish I had a copy of Kim Kashkashian/Robert Levin's recording of the Brahms Viola Sonatas.

i hate that every time i see the name Kim kashkashian I think Kim Kardashian

though kim kardashian also has an album on ECM. it's a trio record with paul motian and jack dejohnette, i believe.

(gets busy making mock-up ECM album cover featuring a pastoral landscape with the title "sex tape" superimposed in a sans-serif font)

hahahaha!

fun listening to this ECM mix without checking the tracklist first

roffles

kim kardashian is a filthy whore

cheers,
n

celebrity sex tapes are everywhere nowadays

yeah, though i wish i hadn't seen the paul/carla bley one, lots of awkward silences

http://ecmreviews.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/elixir.jpg

This is my favourite ECM release of recent years. I love Marilyn Mazur's band albums a lot too (though the best of those aren't on ECM, but on various Scandinavian lables), but there's just something beautifully primal about the combination of mere percussion and sax... I'm not sure if you should even call this jazz, it's just some deep organic ambient cowbell chants.

Ah, this is what I needed today, Tuomas, thanks!

Recently I picked up a free ECM sampler from 2011 or something, and a Jacob Young track on there called "Time Rebel" really stood out. I'd post a link but it's not on Youtube. Anyway, the tune is just beautiful, especially the percussion. I guess they are playing "time," but damn if I know what it is! The whole album is really, err, impressionistic, really haunted-sounding. The album doesn't deviate stylistically much from the one track I heard, which is fine by me. I will concede that something about the tone of the tone of the trumpet occasionally reminds me of Chuck Mangione, but, well...minor complaint.

Also, TS: Windham Hill Vs ECM? Actually, nevermind, I may start a separate thread for that.

not one mention of Mal Waldron on this thread and he was ECM_001 and pretty fucking badass!

think he was also the first release on japo (ecm sister label?) featuring wolfgang dauner's rhythm section of the time... (add to the list of albums i need to hear)

Sieg Haile off his Moods album is ridic+

I hate that none of this is streaming now that Mog is dead.

Reading about MOG it looks like it was the grandfather? of Apple Music, so does anyone know why ECM isn't on there?

I'd guess that Eicher - a known stickler for sound quality - would not really be into streaming.

Maybe not – but he did license the entire ECM catalogue to MOG.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hk7fFzPGxM

Search "Silence" (Charlie Haden) from Magico (Haden, Gismonti, Garbarek). So simple and so sad. The tune is like an arrow made from a feather piercing my heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW93IP5tnY0