ECM - Rarum series

Posted by: calum scott on 24 September 2002

Not sure why I'm posting this or who for, probably just me!

Last issue of HiFi+ had a review of the ECM Rarum series and flushed with nostalgia I just had to have the box set. Not the easiest thing to find. Couldn't even see it on the ECM website, which is excellent, for anyone who hasn't been there. Good vinyl section as well.

Back to the point.........a lot of my early jazz listening was on the ECM label as a result of my local library having a great selection of titles, Garbareck, Metheny , Jarret etc.. In the end I didn't buy many of the albums even although I liked lots of the stuff I'd listened to but now this has come along and it's a great way for me to catch-up.

Guess for anyone who has many of the original recordings buying this set doesn't make any sense but for me I can't wait to hear this stuff again.

Anybody else taken the plunge?

Regards,

Calum

Posted on: 25 September 2002 by calum scott

Hi CZ,

Despite saying it was out of stock and 4-6 week delivery. Amazon supplied the set in a couple of days!!

It was literally the only place I saw it advertised including specialist Jazz sites.

Cheers,

Calum

Posted on: 25 September 2002 by Keith Mattox

I have the ":rarum" editions for Terje Rypdal, Bill Frisell and Keith Jarrett and recommend them all with some caveats.

Each one is, in a sense, a "greatest hits" album, but not based on the artist's most "popular" work. Rather, these songs are (ECM-recorded) works chosen by the artist as his idea of a retrospective, so expect a fair amount of the selection to perhaps be a little mysterious. To put it mildly.

The most difficult was Frisell's; I'm just getting introduced to his slightly older works and I've yet to really get comfortable with them (I have most of his excellent new work, such as "Gone, Like a Train", "Nashville" and the collaboration with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones). His :rarum is a distillation of that work, and isn't the most approachable.

The Jarrett and Rypdal collections are quite good and highly recommended.

I found them at a local record store and snapped them up on first sight. Does anyone know what else they've done?

Cheers

Keith.