ECM records tribute in Stereophile

Cheers Bruce. I read it the other week and thought it was a really good article. What a great man Manfred is.

Hi Adrian,

My only complaint with the article relates to a larger conversation I was part of with John Atkinson from Stereophile recently where he was gamely fielding a bunch of ideas over dinner from a few of my fellow salesmen, some of his writers and a few people who work for manufacture's. My request was that they try to offer more music coverage in general, and in particular, recommend recordings which have great sonic merit as well as musical interest. Of course, they already do this, and as John pointed out, they are not a music magazine first and foremost, they are a hardware magazine with some coverage of recordings of particular interest to those of us who have nice systems.

The article would have been complimented well, in my mind at least, by a list of say ten great recordings on ECM which would give readers a nice sense of the breadth and depth of the amazing catalog ECM has built up over the years.

For someone like you, with a massive in depth exposure to their titles, I am sure the obvious choices wouldn't necessarily be your favorites, so perhaps you could put together a list of ten favorites that you like the best that might go beyond the easy Jarrett titles that most people mention first when they speak of ECM records.

Thanks,

Bruce

quote:

Originally posted by bdnyc:

perhaps you could put together a list of ten favorites that you like the best that might go beyond the easy Jarrett titles that most people mention first when they speak of ECM records.

I'll chime in, having listened to and collected the ECM catalogue for almost 40 years.

Ten will be a difficult limitation. No "easy Jarrett tiles"? How about some difficult Jarrett titles? (insert emoticon here)

• Personal Mountains - Keith Jarrett
  
• Rubisa Patrol - Art Lande
  
• Gnu High - Kenny Wheeler
  
• Fluid Rustle - Eberhard Weber
  
• The Third Man - Enrico Rava and Stefano Bollani
  
• Solstice - Ralph Towner
  
• Music For Eighteen Musicians - Steve Reich
  
• Bright Size Life - Pat Metheny
  
• Dança Das Cabeças - Egberto Gismonti
  
• Officium - Jan Garbarek with The Hilliard Ensemble

And I could put together another two or three lists very easily ...

Enjoy.

Bruce - let me think on it. I agree with Fred on Personal Mountains - so good.

Stu - which 4 have you got?

The article gave a neat glimpse into a man who makes music like no other in this day and age.

Stu, the suggestions from you and others have helped me down a new musical path. Rock has dominated my system in both it's LP12 and Naim CDP guises. Since I've been playing with my Credos and sats, I've done so much critical listening and I've found quite an attraction to 'softer' music. I'm really enjoying the most of my system now and really appreciating the subtlety it provides especially with more acoustic sounds. Maybe I'm just getting older, but for me there's no more popular rock being produced that I find any interest in. On the other hand, there is a mountain of classical performances to be explored and enjoyed and that is the new direction I'm heading in - but still obviously I will keep listening to my Clapton et al.

Stu who is Adrian and how did he get so many recordings?

Dave

Don't want to disturb this conversation,,,but keith is on hd-tracks with his solo köln concert in high-res

Ralf

quote:

Originally posted by The Hawk:
Stu who is Adrian and how did he get so many recordings?

Dave

Dave - I am Adrian.

I started collecting ECM recordings in 1990, introduced to the label by a friend of mine. I have slowly over that period been buying up back catalogue and new releases. One day I will get to the point where I own everything released but it is quite a job as there is fair amount that has been released only on vinyl that sold next to nothing and that was 30/40 years ago, but I have been able to get a fair amount of the vinyl not released on CD. Ebay is good for offering up this stuff every now and then.

I do have every regular ECM recording released on CD (even the hard to get Bobo Stenson - Underwear, released only in Japan and out of print) and almost of the New Series recordings as well. Plus vinyl released on both CD and vinyl and then the vinyl only released on vinyl. There are also the Manfred Eicher recordings released on his JAPO label as well. All told, I am at about 1,100 Manfred Eicher recordings so not too far from completion.

A few years ago when I lived in Sydney, I found a fantastic shop that had shed loads of ECM's - the shop was owned by the ECM Distributor for Australia - and that became quite a treasure trove of recordings no longer available that no-one was buying but I did. That was when I was able to close down most of the gaps in my collection.

Here is a pic of some of the ECM's on CD, say 2/3rds.

They look mighty good as they keep each other company.

Not another non-filing system?

Adrian, while reading this thread I kept thinking about my brother's collection. He is a classical guitarist, self taught, went to study guitar as a young lad in B.C, Liona Boyd was also there. Lived in Nice, won a music award called the Premier Prix, also studied a bit with Julian Bream. (shameless plug for my brother). Anyways, he moved on from vinyl years ago, so one day I borrowed a Rega 3, plunked it down next to his system, and what do you know, he was hooked on vinyl again. So his collection is huge, mostly every classical guitar Lp ever made. So your collection reminds me of his, although it dwarfs his, but I love the passion you both have for collecting. Are you a musician by any chance?

Dave

Dave - nice story. No I am not a musician, just a music lover. ECM is the only music I really collect - there are a few things in there I cannot listen to, they are there for completist reasons only. Otherwise, it is one of the finest catalogues of any label ever and to think it is all down to one man, Manfred Eicher.

Cheers

Adrian

How good to hear from a real collector of ECM. I was introduced to the label by a jazz nutter pal of mine in the early 1990s. He has several hundred titles, and I have around 100 ECM lps which I cherish. And I thought we were the only two in England who like this stuff!!

More's the point, over the years we have made it to a number of live shows by ECM artists in London. Some of those gigs have been simply outstanding. Oregon is just one example.

Ralph Towner is playing at Purcell rooms on 10th March 2011. We will be going. If anyone wants to join us that would be splendid.

Regards
David

David - good to know you are into this stuff as well. There are a few of around here that are big fans.

I have been to many ECM gigs over the years. There was even an ECM festival in Brighton many years ago and Manfred Eicher came along to chat.

I may well see you at Ralph Towner as he is playing with another favourite of mine, Paolo Fresu.

Cheers

Fred,

Thanks, that is a nice list, only some of which I have.

Adrian and anyone else,

How do you feel about the two EDM "Rarum" box sets? Do they a offer a good overview of the artists included or would you tend to recommend individual "albums" from each artist?

Good listening,

Bruce

Bruce,

I think the Rarums are great but to be honest I do much prefer individual complete albums from artists that interest me. The tracks that the artist has chosen on rarum are not necessarily the tracks I would select as the ones I would prefer on a compilation disc. I also find the albums do not flow as well as a complete disc would, but they are still very worthwhile in their own right.

As for a few of my fave ECM's, here goes.

Peter Erskine - Time Being
Jan Garbarek - I Took Up The Runes
Kenny Wheeler - Widow in the Window
Anouar Brahem - Le Pas De Chat Noir
Arild Andersen - If You Look Far Enough
Arve Henriksen - Cartography
Charles Lloyd - Notes From Big Sur
Keith Jarrett - Personal Mountains, Belongings, My Song, Sun Bear
Dave Holland - Extensions
David Darling - Cycles
Enrico Rava - Easy Living
Eberhard Weber - take your pick from the many good ones
John Abercrombie - Wait Til You See HEr
John Surman - Road to St Ives
Marcin Wasilewski Trio - January
Tomasz Stanko - Dark Eyes, Lontano
Mathias Eick - The Door
Nik Bartsch - Holon
Pat Metheny - Travels, Works, 80/81, First Circle, Offramp
Keith Jarrett Trio - Whisper Not, My Foolish Heart
Rainer Bruninghaus - Freigeweht
Steve Eliovson - Dawn dance
Terje Rypdal - Waves
Tord Gustavsen - The Ground
Trygve Seim/Andreas Utnem - Purcor
Wolfert Brederode - Currents

PS - my favourite Rarum album is the one by Jon Christensen - his only ECM release in his name but great recognition from Manfred of his major contribution to the label.

Hi Adrian,

Thanks for your detailed list and your take on the Rarum releases. I don't normally buy too many "greatest hits" albums, as I find I usually prefer albums that were created as a whole, with the artist's sense of flow intact, etc. but I do have many box sets that I like quite a bit.


One boon of your list is that you have selected titles I don't know from artist I do know and enjoy, such as Charles Lloyd's Notes From Big Sur, which was recorded a bit earlier than the half dozen titles of his "second period" on ECM that I have and love. The other boon is having a sense of the one album to start with for the many artists I don't know yet at all.

Is the Thomasz Stanko album Lontano your personal favorite or perhaps it started your fascination with all things ECM?

One final ECM question: Have you read the recent book Horizon's Touched? It is fairly expensive for US readers due to high shipping costs, but does look intriguing.

Cheers,

Bruce

quote:

Originally posted by bdnyc:
Is the Thomasz Stanko album Lontano your personal favorite or perhaps it started your fascination with all things ECM?

One final ECM question: Have you read the recent book Horizon's Touched? It is fairly expensive for US readers due to high shipping costs, but does look intriguing.

Cheers,

Bruce

Bruce,

I got into ECM back in 1989 and some of the early albums that were special to me back then are in my list above - Erskine, Dave Holland, Garbarek. The Stanko album came along in 2006 and is a great album. I used to have another forum name but decided I would change it and was looking around and thought that "Lontano" was for me, so I named myself after the Stanko album!

There have been three good books on ECM. The first covered the album artwork for the first 500 albums and is called Sleeves of Desire and is now only available on ebay etc for silly money sometimes.

Then there is Horizons Touched which is a very nice book with lots of contributions from the musicians. Looks great on the coffee table. I saw copies recently going dirt cheap in London but guess that does not help you. Worth getting IMHO.

The other worth looking at is recently released and the follow up to Sleeves of Desire. It is called Windfall Light and is a very nice package focussing on the artwork.

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:

The Stanko album [Lontano] came along in 2006 and is a great album. I used to have another forum name but decided I would change it and was looking around and thought that "Lontano" was for me, so I named myself after the Stanko album!

"Lontano" is also Italian for "far away," and is sometimes used as a musical directive stipulating that the musician perform the passage as from a distance.

quote:

Originally posted by fred simon:

"Lontano" is also Italian for "far away,"

Fred, at the time of choosing, I lived "far away" down under and was another reason I chose it.

Cheers