Terje Rypdal - S/D, C/D

I suspect anything he did in the '70s is worth exploring.

He's got to be the most featured player as leader or sideman in the whole ECM catalog - someone should figure that out (Keith Jarrett has a ton of records as leader, Jon Christensen, Eberhard Weber and Ralph Towner make a lot of appearances but Garbarek has got to have the most sideman AND leader dates).

Of course, he wasn't on every early ECM release - the first 30 have all kinds of weird improv dates like Bailey/Holland playing guitar and cello duets, some other stuff ...

tom recchion just shared this on fb, best thing i've heard in ages - cld anyone suggest a rypdal alb that sounds close to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAofpL3HL9Y

Is Rypdal officially retired? It seems like his last release was 2013.

Esoteric Circle sounds interesting.

Just bought the Bleak house cd cheap under his own name.

New single out today: https://www.prostudiomasters.com/album/page/65367

also on Spotify etc.

I bought ‘Bleak House’ reissue on vinyl...sounds superb

Dodax has the cds of the 2 titles I mentioned reasonably cheaply.
Wound up picking up both after listening to esoteric circle on Spotify or at least a few tracks.

Been meaning to pick up on him for a while.may need to get some 70s titles.

I have his first five ECM albums — the self-titled, Sart (a co-billed release with Garbarek, Bobo Stenson on piano, Arild Andersen on bass, and John Christensen on drums), What Comes After, Whenever I Seem To Be Far Away, and the boxed set version of Odyssey that has a third disc of live radio stuff. They're all amazing. Haven't listened to much of anything post-1975, but the stuff by the trio with Miroslav Vitous and Jack DeJohnette looks promising.

Not the easiest to turn up, but he ryps all over Jan Garbarek's Afric Pepperbird, which is from around the same time as SART.

I'm revisiting his early ECM albums, all of which are career *and* label highlights imo, and one of my favourite things about his playing is that it partly answers the question 'what if David Gilmour had been a fusion guitarist?' except there's so much more going on, of course.

And yeah, he fucking rules on Afric Pepperbird as well.

Absolutely. Check out these live sets on which he also fucking rules.

Awesome, thanks for the heads up!

Love this guy. Descendre fucking rules, one of the most futuristic jazz albums I can think of. And What Comes After is like the idea of "Yesternow" explored for a whole album

I tried downloading those sets recently linked above, and nothing happened. Do you have to sign up with DivShare to download?

Tried on Firefox and Chrome.

Yeah, they didn't work for me either.

Was planning on d/ling them later but I tried just now, including via JDownloader, and… thirded.

Ah sorry, i downloaded them years ago, must be dead. I should still have them on a hard drive ans would be happy to re-upload and post a link here later this week.

That would be very cool--no hurry, just whenever you have time thx

No trouble at all, I just didn't have the hard drive on me last night.

Sogn 1969
Bremerhaven 1971

lmk if any issues

Got 'em easily, thanks so much!!

Here's a good trio show somebody just sent me (did not take nearly 20 minutes to download the free version, despite what it says--did take a while tho, at least on this old Win 7 w Firefox)
https://rapidgator.net/file/06426dca46a8a005a977248ceb885a8a/TERJE_RYPDAL_(1973)_Live_in_Bremen.zip.html
Terje Rypdal Trio
April 4, 1973
Sendesaal, Bremen

Broadcast > cassette > wav > flac (unknown)

Source/Quality: aud (B)

Terje Rypdal (g, fl)
Barre Phillips (b)
Jon Christensen (d)

Disc 1
Journal (B. Phillips) 7:04
Horizon (T. Rypdal) 11:12
Black Boy (T. Rypdal) 9:36
Back of J. (B. Phillips) 4:05
Bend It (T. Rypdal) (inc) 14:52

Disc 2
Electric Fantasy (T. Rypdal) 11:00
Event IV (G. Russell) 5:33
Rainbow (T. Rypdal) 8:18
Icing (T. Rypdal-J. Christensen) 15:02
Tough Enough (T. Rypdal) (inc) 6:45

(10 items; TT = 93:27)

Broadcast on Sendesaal Radio Bremen; date as received. Marked as soundboard elsewhere, and def. flac, pretty much of a you-are-there clarity. The arco ruminations can get a little snoozy for my tastes on the first couple of tracks, but "Black Boy" jolts me awake, and just about all of the rest keeps me going. Good variety of effects: sometimes I wonder if Barre hasn't switched to bass guitar, and either way, he and TR ca sounds can seem they're playing the same instrument. The bow comes back to weave spider webs around the creepy flute of "Icing," like they're all prowling an empty manor house in a murky 70s Italian vampire movie, the kind filmed in some sickly East Euro vineyard---some incidents of arson---does go on a little too long---but "Yough Enough" is one of the most succinctly action-packed, even ready to boogie with the Hook, with a quick fade, but this one I could have listened to for quite a while longer.

Now to check the quartet!

From Oregon Music News:

10/22/2020

Terje Rypdal: When Fusion was Fun

By BILL ROYSTON // New Terje Rypdal release examined plus several other new ECM releases by the founder of the Portland Jazz Festival and now Jazz éminence grise.

Electric guitar/synth wizard Terje Rypdal recently released "Conspiracy"--which is the name of the album, the title track, and the band--as his first studio recording of new music in over two decades. The band is comprised of heavy electronic keyboards (Stale Storlokken), power bass (Endre Hareide Hallre), and wall-of-sound percussion (Pal Thowsen) supporting Rypdal's master shredding. The title track is vintage Rypdal with soaring improvisations and ear-shattering rock grooves, but the rest of the album, "Conspiracy," fails as a meandering series of smooth, new age tone poems and soundscapes.

Terje Rypdal is admittedly an acquired taste. One of the original heroes of the Norwegian jazz movement, he was part of the original ECM, groundbreaking quartet with Jan Garbarek on the Albert Ayler inspired "Afric Pepperbird" and "SART" releases dating back to the late 60's. Later, he was part of another adventurous quartet with pianist Ketil Bjornstad, cellist/bassist David Darling, and drummer Jon Christensen that produced the memorable, and surprisingly melodic, trilogy of "Water Stories," "Sea I," and "Sea II." In turn, this created a live duo recording, "Live in Leipzig," of classically influenced grand piano and scorching guitar. "Live in Leipzig" is inarguably one of the stunning achievements in the evolution of contemporary European jazz!
In between these collaborative forays, Rypdal has amassed an impressively eclectic discography: (kinda) straightahead trio excellence with Miroslav Vitous (bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums); longstanding gigs with his band Odyssey thoughout the 70's and 80's; jazz fusion gems ("Waves," "Skywards," "Vossabrygg"); rock experiments ("Descendre," "If Mountains Could Sing, " "Whenever I Seem To Be Far Away"); electric chamber music duo with David Darling ("Eos");
classically composed music complete with symphony charts ("Lux Aeterna," "Double Concerto/Fifth Symphony," "Q.E.D.").

"Conspiracy" falls short to each of the above, and while the legacy and musical vision of Terje Rypdal needs to be recognized and celebrated, especially in North America, this modest 37-minute offering will only serve as an afterthought within a life of successful musical experimentation. Hopefully, there is more new music ahead!

This was the most prominent, and certainly the most anticipated, of the four new, all European- based ECM releases for early fall...
https://www.oregonmusicnews.com/rypdal-review102320