Description
ECM / ECM New Series Founded by producer Manfred Eicher in 1969, ECM has issued over a thousand albums spanning many idioms. After establishing an early reputation with standard-setting jazz recordings by Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley, Jan Garbarek, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, the Art Ensemble of Chicago and others, ECM began to include contemporary composition in its programme in the late 1970s. Eicher’s own background, as a musician active in both jazz and classical music, provided an unusually broad vantage point from which to survey the genres, and the producer has been credited with helping to bring form to improvised music and a sense of ‘improvisational’ flexibility to recordings of contemporary composition.
ECM New Series was launched in 1984 to introduce the music of Arvo Pärt with the highly influential “Tabula rasa”. The label has continued to issue premiere recordings of Pärt’s works, including the recent “In principio”. Other regularly featured composers include Valentin Silvestrov, Tigran Mansurian, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Heinz Holliger, Giya Kancheli, György Kurtág, Meredith Monk, and Heiner Goebbels. A long list of distinguished interpreters includes Kim Kashkashian, András Schiff, Gidon Kremer, Thomas Demenga, the Hilliard Ensemble, Trio Mediaeval, John Potter’s Dowland Project and the Zehetmair and Rosamunde string quartets.
ECM's interests extend across the arts, and the label has released complete soundtracks of Jean-Luc Godard's “Nouvelle Vague” and “Histoire(s) du Cinéma” and a DVD of Godard’s short films, as well as Eleni Karaindrou's music for film and theatre. The quality of ECM albums at all levels – from musicianship, production and engineering to cover art – has been widely recognised and the label has collected many awards. Eicher’s label has been hailed, by UK newspaper The Independent, as “the most important imprint in the world for jazz and new music.” In 2007 ECM made history by winning prizes as both classical label of the year and jazz label of the year (from the juries of, respectively the MIDEM Classical Awards and the Jazz Journalists Association). In 2008 another double-win saw Eicher voted producer of the year and ECM label of the year in the Down Beat Critics Poll.
The label has documented jazz and improvised music from both sides of the Atlantic and brought together many musicians in new and influential combinations, amongst them the Chick Corea/Gary Burton duo, the ‘Belonging’ band with Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen, the ‘Magico’ trio of Charlie Haden, Jan Garbarek and Egberto Gismonti...
Scandinavian jazz was emphasized in the early years. Eicher is still finding musicians in the Far North, and the last decade has seen the arrival of Trygve Seim, Christian Wallumrød, Matthias Eick, Tord Gustavsen, Arve Henriksen, Frode Haltli, the Trio Mediaeval and others. Southern Europe has also been explored: back at ECM after a long hiatus, Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava brought with him pianist Stefano Bollani, now also recognized as a major player. Clarinettist/saxophonist Gianluigi Trovesi has been heard in contexts from duo to banda, while pianist Stefano Battaglia has paid tribute to countryman Pier Paolo Pasolini. Looking outwards from Greece, Savina Yannatou has explored folk musics of the Mediterranean and the wider world, and pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos has looked to ancient Byzantine hymns as sources for improvisation and composition.
Although based in Munich throughout its 40 year history, ECM has focussed only infrequently on German jazz (notable exceptions being the recordings of bassist Eberhard Weber). The 2009 season, however, has included internationally-inclined projects by German groups: guitarist Marc Sinan’s “Fasil” collaboration with Julia Hülsmann, and Cyminology, the quartet fronted by German-Iranian singer Cymin Samawatie: both of these have an East/West subtext.
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facebook.comECM has underlined its commitment to vinyl with perpetual releases of new recordings on LP. Do you have them all? Learn more: http://bit.ly/1QhzNnp
This week's Sunday Song features music from Jan Garbarek's great album 'Places', recorded in 1977 and now reissued on 180g Vinyl! Get the LP: http://bit.ly/2u3VRSk
Bill Frisell's Music and Thomas Morgan’s new duo recording 'Small Town' keeps getting rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic during these summer weeks: “This is a kind of collaboration that is on a different plateau of interaction and interplay, and as such, it is a joy to listen over and over again”, states Nenad Georgievsky on Allaboutjazz.com, while Peter Hobart in the UK’s Financial Times praises the albums “warm and grace”. Germany’s two leading daily papers, Süddeutsche Zeitung and FAZ.NET - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung have both dedicated the album extensive reviews. And in the Chicago Reader writer Peter Margasak marvels: “The connection between these two musicians is so sublime it’s as if they’re creating a sculpture right before our ears. I’m looking forward to getting lost within it.” Get the album here: http://bit.ly/2oIfIDz
'Tangents' is the second release from Gary Peacock's trio with Marc Copland and Joey Baron – to be released on August 25th! Preorder the album now: Amazon: http://bit.ly/2hud7vs iTunes: http://bit.ly/2huDNME
'Places' by Jan Garbarek, feat. Bill Connors, John Taylor and Jack DeJohnette has been reissued on 180g Vinyl and Hi-Res Download! Get the LP: http://bit.ly/2u3VRSk Recorded in 1977 in Oslo, 'Places' was an important album for Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, and – with its stellar line-up including Americans Jack DeJohnette and Bill Connors – one that also drew significant attention in the US. “How does Garbarek set up his floating dreamlike moods?” asked DownBeat Magazine, and proceeded to itemize components of this “eerie, desolate, bleak” music: “John Taylor plays sustained legato chords, much more like Lutheran church music than, say, Jimmy Smith. The organ provides a backdrop of shifting sonorities…DeJohnette’s playing is airy, concentrating on cymbals, creating shimmering webs of rhythm. Up front is Garbarek, the only real solo voice. He speaks slowly, with attention to detail. He has a fine sense of pitch, so that when he ornaments a note with a bend, a slur or a grace note, it is done precisely, consciously…” The album stands as one of Garbarek’s strongest statements as a player. Reviewing Places in 1978, Don Heckman wrote in High Fidelity that Garbarek was “easily the best sax player to emerge from Europe in the last decade.”
The Vijay Iyer Sextet features Stephan Crump, Tyshawn Sorey, Graham Haynes, Steve Lehman, and Mark Shim! Their new release "Far From Over" is now available for pre-order! Amazon: http://smarturl.it/FarFromOver_Amz iTunes: http://smarturl.it/VISFarFromHome_iTu
Fresh from a widely-praised concert series which he curated at California’s Ojai Music Festival last month, Vijay Iyer heads to Norway next week to be artist-in-residence at the Molde International Jazz Festival - offisiell side. At Molde, he appears in duos with Wadada Leo Smith and Craig Taborn, with the Cikada String Quartet (in a set including music from Mutations), with the Veteran Dreams Project, and with the Vijay Iyer Sextet - whose ECM album Far From Over will be released in August. Other ECM artists at the Molde Festival include Terje Rypdal, Tomasz Stanko, Enrico Rava, Tord Gustavsen, Sinikka Langeland, and Arild Andersen. More details here: https://www.moldejazz.no/2017/
North Sea Jazz Festival presents some highly praised ECM artists, performing music from their recently released albums on ECM. Stay tuned for the Avishai Cohen Music Quartet, the Wolfgang Muthspiel Quintet, Tomasz Stańko / Enrico Rava Quintet and Atmosphéres feat. Tigran Hamasyan, Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset and Jan Bang! http://www.northseajazz.com/en/
Stephan Micus est un musicien extraordinaire qui collecte des instruments venus du monde entier, qui apprend à en jouer et qui compose sa propre musique à partir d’eux. Il en joue rarement de manière traditionnelle et le plus souvent les adapte à son style de jeu en en modifiant la structure. Son but n’est jamais de s’inscrire dans des univers sonores traditionnels mais bien d’en créer de nouveaux. Découvrez dès maintenant l'album « Inland Sea » déjà disponible. ►https://ECM.lnk.to/InlandSeaAlbum
Évadez-vous avec Chris Potter et son "Yasodhara" issu de son nouvel album "The Dreamer is the Dream". On y retrouve le pianiste David Virelles, le contrebassiste Joe Martin et le batteur Marcus Gilmore, tous apportant leur soutien créatif au leader, plus que jamais versatile dans le choix de ses instruments. Album disponible ► https://ECMNewSeries.lnk.to/TheDreamerIstheDream
Roscoe Mitchell has been featured with a full page in today’s international issue of The New York Times! Get the CD: http://bit.ly/2r2S8A0 iTunes: http://bit.ly/2rU6kNf
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