Search Results for: ECM

ECM Records All-Star Night :: The Village Gate, New York City, January 1976

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The most beautiful sound next to silence comes to NYC. This “all-star night” of ECM-related performers is a delight, with some unique performances and collabs. Manfred Eicher’s esteemed label had been around since the late 1960s, but Keith Jarrett’s blockbuster surprise, The Koln Concert, brought ECM closer to the mainstream in 1975. Jarrett wasn’t there for this evening’s celebration, but the All-Stars shine bright without him.

Pat Metheny Group (ECM, 1978)

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Guitarist Pat Metheny recently described music as a “carrot”, “I am still figuring out what the stick is,” he concluded to Ross Simonini in The Believer. That idea of constant investigation permeates Metheny’s nearly 50 year music career as well as his first s/t LP with his Pat Metheny Group.

John Surman :: Upon Reflection (ECM)

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Here’s something to get lost in, the hypnotic world of British reedman John Surman, courtesy of his 1979 ECM effort, Upon Reflection. Recorded in Oslo, with production helmed by Manfred Eicher, the recording finds Surman in widescreen form experimenting with sequencers and synthesizers in addition to his duties working bass clarinet and baritone/soprano saxophone.

Wadada Leo Smith & Vijay Iyer :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

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Composers Wadada Leo Smith and Vijay Iyer are inveterate collaborators. Compile their past work together and you’re staring down a list that includes Bill Frisell, Jack DeJohnette, Pauline Oliveros, DJ Spooky, John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, and more. But something singular and deeply special happens when they work one on one, as they do on the recently released Defiant Life. “We just create,” Smith says. “You could call it ‘composition’ or ‘spontaneous composition’ or ‘spontaneous improvisation’ or some kind of stuff like that. But the truth is, all the serious documents about humans on this planet refer to creation.”

East of Eden: The Legendary Strata-East Label Provides a Haven for Jazz Departures

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What began as a DIY operation by two jazz visionaries to release their music became a home for bold young talent, avant-garde masters, experimental eccentrics and middle-aged mavericks. After years of stratospheric Discogs prices and zero streaming presence, the Strata-East label has returned, with an extensive physical and digital reissue campaign. Aquarium Drunkard talked to co-founder Charles Tolliver and current CEO Ched Tolliver about the label’s difficult beginnings, unlikely rise, continuing relevance and majestic catalog.

Keith Jarrett: No End, Newness and the Power of the Low-Key Jam

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Keith Jarrett didn’t have to make a rock album filled with noodly guitar and muted boogie. But he did, and in its unusually obvious imperfections, eccentric choices and rambling longueurs, it shows the famously demanding pianist at his most mercurial and relaxed. In his perpetual hunt for wells of inspiration and rivers of feeling, Jarrett’s curious detour still leads to some fascinating backwaters and rewarding reservoirs.

The Telepathy Is Evident :: Nels Cline on Consentrik Quartet & His Old CD Wallet

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With his fourth album for Blue Note Records, guitarist Nels Cline introduces the Consentrik Quartet: Cline on guitar with saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, bassist Chris Lightcap, and drummer Tom Rainey on drums. Gathering noir-ish soundscapes, agile jams, and what Cline dubs “abstract and floaty ballads,” Consentrik Quartet bristles with energetic currents. He joins us to discuss forming Concentrik Quartet, the influence of Jimmy Giuffre and Paul Bley, the unpredictability of Wilco, and the contents of his old CD wallet.

Takuro Okada :: The Near End, the Dark Night, the County Line

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The stateside debut of a versatile Japanese guitarist focuses on mostly solo work, largely recorded at home over a period of years. Encompassing ambient ECM mellowness, electronic urgency and tangy noir, The Near End, the Dark Night, the County Line shows us an eclectic musician stubbornly chasing tranquility and always restlessly on the move.

Jan Erik Vold & Jan Garbarek :: Hav (1971)

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In 1969 Norwegian poet Jan Erik Vold teamed up with compatriot and a young tenor saxophonist Jan Garbarek who would provide the musical backdrop to his debut poetry record Briskeby Blues. A fantastic record in its own right, but notable here for laying the groundwork for its successor – Hav, in 1971. By this point Jan Garbarek had also released his own debut album in The Esoteric Circle and had just recorded his masterpiece Afric Pepperbird towards the end of 1970.