Ended the week and welcomed the weekend with Lontano by Anja Lechner / François Couturier, released on ECM in 2020.

Tyran Grillo wrote for ECM Reviews:

"On Lontano, the cello of Anja Lechner and the piano of François Couturier play the roles of scenery and camera. As the lens bends the light into a discernible image yet changes that image in the process of fixing it within a frame, Couturier funnels Lechner’s sunbeams laden with stories that can only be heard with the eyes (and vice versa). If such a description seems too cerebral or even bogus, it’s only because the music it seeks to capture doesn’t accompany it...

If the “Praeludium” tells us anything, it’s that awakening in this scenario can only take place when there is both sun and dew. Otherwise, the dawn might have nothing to kiss as it peers over the not-so-distant mountaintops."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzH-IirTlWg&list=OLAK5uy_nM46CBBtIzhmVrlrGlNHHQVLaHC5MvGkE

#AnjaLechner #FrancoisCouturier #ECMReviews #ECM #Music #Cello #Improvisation #Jazz #TyranGrillo

Ended Thursday and welcomed Friday with Albores by Dino Saluzzi, released on ECM in 2020.

Tyran Grillo wrote on ECM Reviews:

"Whereas many of us who once painted with fingers as a child moved on to brushes, Dino Saluzzi seems to have ignored that transition. On Albores, an album born of reckoning, Saluzzi renders what Luján Baudino in his liner note calls an “inner landscape.”

“Adiós Maestro Kancheli” opens on a somber note by paying respects to the late Georgian composer, who passed away in 2019. And yet, what we are given is more than a tribute or homage; rather, it is an identity without personhood, a force that animates the spirit of bygone days. Such redemptions of memory are as integral to Saluzzi’s language as sunlight and rain are to crops. .."

https://ecmreviews.com/2022/07/02/dino-saluzzi-albores-ecm-2638/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPQoslQ2YnE&list=RDJPQoslQ2YnE&start_radio=1

#DinoSaluzzi #Music #ECM #ECMReviews #bandoneón #accordion #Argentina #Jazz

Ended Saturday and welcomed Sunday with Movements in Colour an album by British jazz saxophonist and composer Andy Sheppard recorded in February 2008 and released on ECM the following year.

Tyran Grillow rote for ECM Reviews:

British saxophonist Andy Sheppard’s ECM debut is a phenomenon in sound. A musician of remarkable integrity, Sheppard takes full advantage of the opportunity to broaden his reach farther than ever before. For this project, he indulges in his Indian, African, and Latin affinities, as reflected in the eclectic lineup that shapes this set into something greater than the sum of its parts...

https://ecmreviews.com/2014/01/27/movements-in-colour/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gnCs_DYBD0&list=OLAK5uy_lFXeiJRmS4mwnpGYybD5FO64FSgJjTXY0

#AndySheppard #JohnParricelli #EivindAarset #ArildAndersen #ECM #ECMReviews #Jazz #Music #KuljitBhamra #TyranGrillo

Ended Wednesday and welcomed Thursday after my swim with Ruta and Daitya a jazz album by pianist Keith Jarrett and drummer Jack DeJohnette, recorded in May 1971 and released on ECM Records in 1973—one of Jarrett's rare performances on electric keyboard.

Tyran Grillo wrote for ECM Reviews:

Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette, who continue their formidable partnership to this day, join forces for an early and unique collaboration. This being the tail end of Jarrett’s electric period with Miles Davis, Ruta and Daitya marks an archivally important transition into his imminent acoustic pilgrimages. “Overture Communion” captures our attention from the start with a funky, wah-wahed electric piano, warmly guiding us into the album’s exciting, yet somehow always plaintive world...

https://ecmreviews.com/2010/11/03/ruta-and-daitya/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SEnUqxndcU&list=OLAK5uy_mfO46jL7PXcFWgmhCaXHtWMpQTX-OH4RQ

#KeithJarrett #JackDeJohnette #ECM #ECMReviews #Jazz #Music #ElectricPiano #Flute

Ended Tuesday and welcomed Wednesday with Eon an album by American jazz pianist and composer Richard Beirach recorded in November 1974 and released on ECM the following year. The trio features rhythm section Frank Tusa and Jeff Williams.

Tyran Grillo wrote for ECM Reviews:

Eon was the first album under the New York-born Richard Beirach’s name, and arguably still his best. Its balance of rhythm, melody, and reflection epitomizes the piano trio format, and nowhere more so than “Nardis” .., the 14-minute epic that opens this set of six progressively far-reaching tunes...Here, it glows under a full and vibrant touch. Beirach keeps his fingers busily engaged, while allowing his rhythm section some glorious airtime, winding down like a rock band extending power chords, only here in a more intimate space in which that prolonging becomes not a dramatic farewell but the acceptance of a new beginning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leO00lr_bRQ&list=RDleO00lr_bRQ&start_radio=1

#RichieBeirach #Jazz #ECM #ECMReviews #JazzPianoTrio #Music

Spanish Bitch by Mal Waldron, released on ECM in 1970.

Tyran Grillo wrote for ECM Reviews:

"SIDE A opens with the eponymous tune, and through its modal affiliations nods in the direction of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, who also appropriated Spanish scales for effect. In his hands, however, such motifs take on an almost ritualistic quality as scaffolding for an idiosyncratic reverie. From a web of bass and plucked piano strings emerges a vibrant block of chords. Waldron sets aside the theme almost as soon as he develops it, using it as a springboard for his laser-focused energy. Eckinger’s unusual solo sets up Waldron’s phenomenal own, building to steadfast density and playing off Braceful with glorious aplomb...

https://ecmreviews.com/2020/04/06/mal-waldron-spanish-bitch/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE2q3kVf0fc&list=RDRE2q3kVf0fc&start_radio=1

#MalWaldron #ECM #ECMReviews #JazzPianoTrio #Jazz #Music #TheBeatles #EleanorRigby

Wolfgang Dauner – Output (1970, Germany)

Our next spotlight is on number 1062 on The List, submitted by @soundclamp.

This album is like a 38-minute reset button. A 38-minute palate cleanser. A 38-minute-wide space for German pianist Wolfgang Dauner (later of United Jazz + Rock Ensemble et al.), American jazz drummer Fred Braceful (later of Nurse With Wound-listed band Exmagma et al.), and German bassist Eberhard Weber (later prolific solo and collaborative artist, especially with other ECM label artists and Kate Bush[1]) to experiment the heck out of some free jazz. A 38-minute pause to consider how one might shake hands with a voice.

As described on the ECM review blog Between Sound and Space, Output is “[n]ot an easy listen for the faint of heart, but one that will give back what’s put into it and, like the fully opened cover, gathers its power from another dimension.”

Enjoy, this is a great rabbit hole to go down.

• Songlink: Wolfgang Dauner – Output
• Discogs: Wolfgang Dauner – Output

#1970s #EberhardWeber #ECM #ECMReviews #electronicMusic #experimental #FredBraceful #freeJazz #Germany #jazz #WolfgangDauner

Contrasts is an album by American jazz saxophonist Sam Rivers, recorded in December 1979 and released on ECM Records the following year. The quartet features trombonist George E. Lewis and rhythm section Dave Holland and Thurman Barker.

Tyran Grillo wrote on ECM Reviews:

The album opens in “Circles” with some chewy improv. Thick horns and brittle drumming provide plenty of interplay to keep our wits on a tight leash. Lewis seems the most at home here, providing a bubbling cauldron of likeminded flights. It is the first in a smattering of freer tracks, the others being the slowly building “Solace” and perhaps the most abstract aside, “Images.”...

https://ecmreviews.com/2011/08/07/contrasts/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4uy9XaHIBU&list=OLAK5uy_mm5Ma7brIaTJdY3brBpYI94eAkB7LwFxQ

#SamRivers #Jazz #FreeJazz #ECM #ECMReviews #DaveHolland #Music

Ended Wednesday and welcomed Thursday with Freigeweht an album by German keyboardist and composer Rainer Brüninghaus recorded in August 1980 and released on ECM the following year. The quartet features Kenny Wheeler on flugelhorn, Brynjar Hoff on oboe, and Jon Christensen on drums.

Tyran Grillo wrote for ECM Reviews:

...it was only a matter of time before Rainer Brüninghaus would be given an opportunity to lead, and did so at last to soaring effect on Freigeweht with a group of sympathetic musicians and a compositional aptitude to match. Over the space of six fairly extended pieces, we find the keyboardist in many facets. Whether it’s sharing rhythmic savvy with Kenny Wheeler in “Stufen” (Steps) or swapping runes with Brynjar Hoff on English horn in “Die Flüsse hinauf” (Upstream), his hands abide in every blissful moment.

https://ecmreviews.com/2011/10/14/freigeweht/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etwPoxqARB4&list=OLAK5uy_lAgRKNxL-km7f6_a5No-GTUev83y4vOl8

#RainerBrüninghaus #KennyWheeler #BrynjarHoff #oboe #ECM #ECMReviews #Music #Jazz #JonChristensen