ECM: C/D, S&D

was trying to find the Surman album I haven't heard for ages, it was Upon Reflection I was looking for, Edges of Illusion is a reet track!

Very much agree x2.

Maresn3st, I dig.

ty!

I'm glad I started this thread 19 years ago, even though I never had anything to say further on the topic.

I was prompted by an IG post by a former member of this parish to dig out Surman's Road to St Ives. It's terrific and ghostly and sort of damp and chilly. Though that was my experience of Cornwall three summers ago, so may be projection. Nice smiley, sunny photo of JS in (presumably) Oslo in the CD booklet.

Within the halls of Neptune was on my Spotify daily mix today! I’ve been listening to a ton of Don Cherry recently and want to rep for this one

https://shop.new-art.nl/assets/image.php?width=800&image=/content/img/new_products_queue/1432888623.jpg

ecm complaint: keith jarrett is given waaaay too much leeway to explore his yen for semi-classical improvisation. I do not need 90 minutes of Keith Jarrett improvising on an organ in an abbey!

Jarrett on an off-day is still more interesting than Garbarek, Metheny or (God forbid) Gary Burton at their worst.

inclusion of metheny there baffles me

jarrett’s worst affectation is his singing, but his solo concerts are so powerful that yeah sure i’ll have 90 minutes of him on an organ, why not, his instincts are that sharp

I’m that rare beast, an ECM stan who doesn’t really get Metheny, so take my shortlist of overprolific awfulness with a grain of salt.

Jarrett on an off-day is still more interesting than Garbarek, Metheny or (God forbid) Gary Burton at their worst.

― pomenitul, Friday, May 1, 2020 3:58 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is insane

I enjoy Jarrett's quartets, and his solo piano - although at times he moves into territory which is like a melange of denatured spiritual jazz with Ludovico Einaudi - but I've not gotten any enjoyment from in the light, arbour zena, and hymns/spheres.

At least Jarrett can sport the Romantic abandon of the intuitive experimentalist when he drops a clunker. And I did say ‘at their worst’ – Garbarek’s early work may well edge our my Jarrett faves. I think Burton’s music is unsalvageable trash though.

I have some amount of cautious respect for Metheny, I just don’t recall ever enjoying his stuff.

In the middle days of the April lockdown when the weather was extraordinary and I was sitting in the garden with spring thickening all around me I listened to a good deal of Metheny and assumed it had been written precisely for this moment.

I think Burton’s music is unsalvageable trash though.

― pomenitul, Friday, May 1, 2020 5:13 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I find this troubling. Is it possible you just don't like vibraphone? A lot of people loathe that instrument. Or is it his compositions you dislike? Because he's done an entire album of Carla Bley tunes that's just wonderful. Also, his duo work with Towner, Swallow, Corea et al is uniformly excellent, and the previously mentioned Ring LP is one of the best ECMs. I've always meant to check out Duster, which is supposed to be a really good one, too.

I do enjoy the sound of the instrument, it's just that Burton's vibes are too cheesy for my ears. I'll stick to Bobby Hutcherson.

burton quartet records on rca victor are fucking great.
haven’t heard much of his ecm output so far

People who don't like Gary Burton or Metheny, have you heard Like Minds?

No I haven't but Dave Holland's on it so I may be persuaded.

Pat Metheny has a bunch of great stuff on ECM, and Offramp and Bright Size Life are goddamn masterpieces.

It's been a long time, I think I'm more amenable to the elevator-esque facets of that style than I was ten-odd years ago when I went on an exhaustive ECM binge.

Roy Haynes is the real star of Like Minds, I actually had to check to see if it was his name on the cover.

Gonna check this out. Looks like an expansion of Question and Answer featuring Metheny/Holland/Haynes, which is just a straight up sick jazz album

Speaking of similar allstar lineups The Song Is You (not ECM) featuring Braxton, Corea, Metheny, DeJohnette, Konitz, Vitous, is worth checking out. Think it was recorded in the early 80s, but released more recently.

Those with any interest in Burton should check his original Quartet, meaning the one with Larry Coryell, Steve Swallow and Bob Moses: youthful, groovy, even barefoot, even shroomy at tymes, yet not too noodley--just jazz, shaded w rock, Latin, folk, country, and whatever else they absorbed and recombined, growing up and getting out of the house in the 60s.
Also, probably his Tennessee Firebird, judging by what I've heard of it, hard to find the whole thing, although I haven't looked in a while.
Also the one Carla Bley wrote and arranged for him, A Genuine Tong Funeral,
Never heard much of his early records w Metheny, but got my girl their Reunion, and it became her soundtrack for many after-midnight Windows 95 treks, business and recreational.
I like Metheny better as a costar than outright leader--though his designated debut as the latter, Bright Size Life I hear more as the former, mainly because Bob Moses (and Jaco, ok), and yeah Question and Answer, and the ones w/incl. Charlie Haden, and omg Song X w Ornette (must get expanded reissue), But I liked his RIP pianist Lyle Mays, did like Mays' own Pictionary better than what he got to do with Metheny.
Would like to hear his Steve Reich projects.

he Song Is You (not ECM) featuring Braxton, Corea, Metheny, DeJohnette, Konitz, Vitous, is worth checking out. No Doubt!!!

I agree, I have a hard time getting into Metheny albums, but I love hearing him as a side man and being like 'oh yeah that guy is fucking sick'. #1 on that list is the Kenny Garrett Coltrane tribute, Pursuance.

Y'all really should give Offramp a second try. The guitar synth heroics on the first couple tracks are the best.

The first side of when Witchita Falls is really something... love bright size life and watercolors is nice... I need to spend more time with offramp, most definitely

there’s some badass metheny live shows on YouTube, btw

Please share

American Garage in places is like his lost city pop album, it's amazing

Throwing American Garage on ye olde record player. Nice pre-dinner combo with equally smooth Manhattan.

burton quartet records on rca victor are fucking great.
haven’t heard much of his ecm output so far

― sknybrg, Friday, May 1, 2020 5:19 PM

ring
ring
RING

Seriously I have not been this hooked on a particular album for a long time. S1 is proggy and jammy, S2 is spacey and dreamy. I can't get enough!

I just bought a copy of Ring off ebay a couple weeks ago, inspired by this thread of course. I can't say I'm a huge Gary Burton fan, but that album is nice!

ring
ring
RING

Seriously I have not been this hooked on a particular album for a long time. S1 is proggy and jammy, S2 is spacey and dreamy. I can't get enough!

Well said, the A and B side indeed have quite distinctive vibes!

Okay, fine! I've just ordered a copy of Ring from discogs. Will check back in after I've had a chance to listen.

I’m looking for the ecm stuff that’s more on the electronic / “world music” / genre blending side of stuff if anyone had any good recommends .. love Steve tibbetts, egberto, dino s “kultrum,” nils petter molvaer... I do love a lot of the more purely jazz records described here from the 70s, and any of the really exceptional stuff in that vein I’m always into, but I kinda feel like a lot of what grabs my attention from the label is the stuff they put out that feels almost .. cheesy

Eberhard Weber is your new best friend

Jon Hassell's Power Spot came out via ECM.

windham hill is your new best friend

Rainer Bruninghaus' two records for ECM, check those out also.

iirc Gary Burton played vibes on Tim Hardin's "Misty Roses" in 1966: among his finest two minutes' work.

Some nice ECM references in this massive Jim O'Rourke interview from this week.

Mark Isham & Art Lande's We Begin is a big favourite here in the sort of ambient-electronic ECM space. Mainly for the open track, with its amazing drum machine work.

windham hill is your new best friend

― ANU (sisilafami), Thursday, May 7, 2020 2:30 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Kind of ... I think I want the windham hill side of ecm but windham is its own thing

I feel like Stephan Micus is probably what you're looking for then. His stuff embodies the windham wing of ECM (even if a lot of his best stuff was technically on JAPO).

Interesting ACL footage from the early days of the Pat Metheny Group. I've never completely warmed up to the first Group album, but it's neat to see them still kind of figuring it out. Lyle Mays (RIP) gets some particularly nice showcases here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UweiNBl3TLQ&t=1096s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UweiNBl3TLQ

Hmmmm