Favourite ECM Recordings

A personal favorite....

György Kurtág's Játékok

Stefan,

Imagine Egberto Gismonti and Oregon together on the Naim label. Better yet, imagine Naim remastering the entire ECM catalogue;-)

regards,

dave

Nick,
I'm totaly with you re: Arild Andersen and "Triangle" - even if I don't mind his "Geknödel" (sorry for the non-German speaking members )

dave,
have to get György Kurtág's Játékok - with your description I just can't avoid it !

Best regards, freundliche Grüße

Stefan

Hi dave,
I understand I understood you wrong... I thought the "imagine..." part was still about the record. I've bought it, and (you will not be surprised) found no relationship to Oregon and/or Gismonti. Too hard to digest for me...

Best regards, freundliche Grüße

Stefan

quote:

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Originally posted by Expat in Oz:
One superb ECM recording I did not mention in my earlier listing (I left many out) is

Tord Gustavsen - Changing Places

This is beautiful piano trio - very accessible

Thanks for all the other contributions - I may be tempted to go and try some out.

Cheers

---

Well I did just that, and took a flyer on Changing Places and damn fine it is too.

Thanks Adrian for the tip.

Ian

Nice to see this topic back on top! I recently bought Art Ensemble of Chicago's 'Urban Bushmen' on vinyl and that sounds very very good. Bowie (Lester that is) in great form, nice solid, firm sound from the LP.

Willem

Pat Metheny, Offramp

quote:

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Originally posted by Expat in Oz:
I am a big ECM records fan. I love the atmospheric and beautiful sound of so many of their quality recordings. I have a number of favourite ECM recordings and would like to know what other ECM recordings my fellow Naim colleagues might recommend.

Here are a few of my faves

Peter Erskine - Time Being

Keith Jarrett Trio - Tribute

Keith Jarrett Trio - Whisper Not

Keith Jarrett - Belonging

Jan Garberek - I Took Up the Runes

Dave Holland Quartet - Extensions

Tomasz Stanko - Leosia

Eleni Karaindrou - Music for Films

Kenny Wheeler - The Widow in the Window

Cheers
Adrian

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Adrian,
I am also a big fan of ECM records. The German manufactured discs have a superior sound over the US made. Three ECM discs that I keep coming back to listen to are:

Anuar Brahem / Le Pas du Chat Noir
Ketil Bjornstaad & David Darling / Epigraphs
Till Fellner / J.S. Bach / Das Wohltemperierte
Klavier

I just received today from Tower Records in Californisthe following ECM discs (all made in Germany) which I did not listen to yet:

Eleni Karaindrou / Music for Films
Alexander Lonquich / Plainte Calme
Stephan Micus / Life
Ralph Towner / Lost and Found
David Darling / Cello

Another small label with superior music and sound is MA Recordings. Have you listened to any of their discs?
Regards, Haim

As I said before, I have way too many favorite ECM discs to name here. But I have two new ECM albums that I'm in totally love with:

In Praise of Dreams - Jan Garbarek: saxes, synths and loops; Kim Kashkashian: viola; and Manu Katché: drums.

Chants, Hymns and Dances - Anja Lechner: violincello, and Vassilis Tsabropoulos: piano; playing music composed by Gurdieff/de Hartmann and Tsabropoulos

Both these albums are eminently life-affirming ... absolute magic.

quote:

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Originally posted by sjust:
Hi dave,
I understand I understood you wrong... I thought the "imagine..." part was still about the record. I've bought it, and (you will not be surprised) found no relationship to Oregon and/or Gismonti. Too hard to digest for me...

Best regards, freundliche Grüße

Stefan

---

Oh no...sorry about that Stefan! Give Kurtág a chance to grow on you though.



----------------------------------------------


My top pick for 2004 (and a new favorite from ECM):

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber:Sonata "Victori der Christen" A minor; Georg Muffat:
Sonata D major


Breathtaking music, performance, and recording!



regards,

dave

[This message was edited by dave simpson on Thu 30 December 2004 at 1:48.]

quote:

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In Praise of Dreams - Jan Garbarek: saxes, synths and loops; Kim Kashkashian: viola; and Manu Katché: drums.

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Ahhhh...Kim Kashkashian ehh? I'll order tomorrow!!

quote:

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Chants, Hymns and Dances - Anja Lechner: violincello, and Vassilis Tsabropoulos: piano; playing music composed by Gurdieff/de Hartmann and Tsabropoulos

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Strongly recommended also!

Thanks for mentioning the Garbarak/Kashkashian release Fred!


regards,

dave

Adrian,
I am also a big fan of ECM records. The German manufactured discs have a superior sound over the US made. Three ECM discs that I keep coming back to listen to are:

Anuar Brahem / Le Pas du Chat Noir
Ketil Bjornstaad & David Darling / Epigraphs
Till Fellner / J.S. Bach / Das Wohltemperierte
Klavier

I just received today from Tower Records in Californisthe following ECM discs (all made in Germany) which I did not listen to yet:

Eleni Karaindrou / Music for Films
Alexander Lonquich / Plainte Calme
Stephan Micus / Life
Ralph Towner / Lost and Found
David Darling / Cello

Another small label with superior music and sound is MA Recordings. Have you listened to any of their discs?
Regards, Haim[/QUOTE]

Haim - I have most of the discs you mention - they are all good.

I will take a look at MA Recordings - thanks for the tip.

Cheers

I have to agree with Fred, I have way too many ECM titles to pick out the best but I must mention some:
In Praise of Dreams: as mentioned
Northern Song: Steve Tibbetts
The Great Pretender: Lester Bowie
Illusion Suite: Stanley Cowell Trio
Characters: John Abercrombie
Old Friends, New Friends:Ralph Towner with the best version of " Beneath an Evening Sky"
These are in heavy rotation in my listening room. Along with RTR by Mr. Simon.

Anthony

[This message was edited by smiglass on Fri 31 December 2004 at 4:48.]

[This message was edited by smiglass on Fri 31 December 2004 at 4:59.]

quote:

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Originally posted by Expat in Oz:


Haim - I have most of the discs you mention - they are all good.

I will take a look at MA Recordings - thanks for the tip.

Cheers

---

Adrian, happy new year.

Few words about MA recordings:
They are the best sounding discs I have, and their music (mostly world but some jazz and classical too) is wonderful. I took some of my MAs to ProMusica in Chicago (NAIM dealer) to listen to on their top gear and Ken Christianson (who does a lot of the recordings for NAIM's music) admitted that those were some of the best digital recordings he had ever heard. MA is having a catalog sale for the next ten days, and all their discs are going for $11-$12 each! I basicly own all of them (about sixty) but I ordered five extras since they make such wonderful gifts. Here are some of my favorites:

Moo6A Further Attempts/Todd Garfinkle (piano, bass
and percussion)
M014A Songs from Within/Sheila Jordan & Harvey
Swartz (voice & bas)
M026A Calamus/The Splendor of Al-Andalus (music
from Spain)
M038A The Piano Music of Alberto Ginastera Vol I
M039A Luz Destino (Fado music from Portugal)
M052A Sera Una Noche (Tango and Folk music from
Argentina).
M044A Krushevo/Miroslav Tadic & Vlatko Stefanovski
(guitar music from Macedonia)
M053A Eduardo Eguez/The Lute Music of J.S.Bach

Their web site is: marecordings.com
If you get some, let me know of your impression.
Haim

Haim,
from what you wrote, and the superb web site with "meaningful" samples and descriptions, I've ordered a package of 8 CD's (gulp, without knowing most of the names...). Let's see what will come out...

Thnaks for the hint, anyway !

Best regards, freundliche Grüße

Stefan

[QUOTE]Originally posted by sjust:
Haim,
from what you wrote, and the superb web site with "meaningful" samples and descriptions, I've ordered a package of 8 CD's (gulp, without knowing most of the names...). Let's see what will come out...

Thanks for the hint, anyway !

Best regards, freundliche Grüße

Stefan, happy new year.

I could not think of a better way to start the new year; with superb music. I like very much Todd Garfinkel's approach (on top of his piano playing). He does not do studio recordings. Instead he takes his time (and his minimal recording equipment) to travel to all those countries and record those talented (and mostly unknown) musicians on locations with great accoustics. Being in a country, seeing the landscapes, meeting the people and seeing how they live helps you immensely to understand their music. The results speak for themselves. I also like very much the photography (some of it taken by Todd himself) and the graphics used to design the jackets.
Please let me know how you find the music.
Haim

quote:

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Originally posted by smiglass:
I have to agree with Fred, I have way too many ECM titles to pick out the best but I must mention some:
_In Praise of Dreams_: as mentioned
_Northern Song_: Steve Tibbetts
_The Great Pretender_: Lester Bowie
_Illusion Suite_: Stanley Cowell Trio
_Characters_: John Abercrombie
_Old Friends, New Friends:_Ralph Towner with the best version of " Beneath an Evening Sky"
These are in heavy rotation in my listening room. Along with RTR by Mr. Simon.

Anthony

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Wow, you've put me in some heavy company, Anthony! Thanks for the great compliment; I'm so glad you're digging Remember the River.

Best wishes,
Fred

An excellent new release from ECM. Piano Trio, lots of good melody, some challenging stuff overall excellent.

Adrian

See below from the ECM website.

Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz, and Michal Miskiewicz have toured Europe and America with Tomasz Stanko and appeared on his highly successful “Soul of Things” and “Suspended Night” albums (recorded in 2001 and 2003, respectively), and much has been written about the young musicians, all still under 30, who have provided a fresh new context for the great trumpeter’s darkly Slavic soliloquies. They have helped him and he, certainly, has helped them.

Stanko argues that “In the entire history of Polish jazz, we’ve never had a band like this one. I’m surprised by these musicians every day. They just keep getting better and better.” But the pianist, bassist and drummer are much more than Stanko’s ‘backing band’.

In Poland, Wasilewski, Kurkiewicz and Miskiewicz have a strong reputation as an autonomous group in their own right, as well as a playing history that goes back to the early 1990s. As the Simple Acoustic Trio, they have won many awards, and released five albums for small independent labels. “Trio” is the first of their recordings to be released internationally: still acoustic but no longer as “simple”, this is piano trio music of some real depth. The album was recorded in Oslo in March 2004.

Marcin Wasilewski and Slawomir Kurkiewicz began playing together in 1990 when both were 15 year old students at the High School of Music in Koszalin. The first edition of their trio was launched the following year. In 1993 Michal Miskiewicz joined them on drums and the trio’s line-up has been stable ever since. Since 1994 they have been working both with and without Tomasz Stanko. Individually, members of the trio have also played with international improvisers including Jan Garbarek, Gianluigi Trovesi, John Surman, Louis Sclavis, Arthur Blythe, Joe Lovano, Bernt Rosengren, Dino Saluzzi, Bobo Stenson, Anders Jormin, Manu Katche and Jon Christensen, and with leading exponents of Polish jazz such as Tomasz Szukalski, Piotr Wojtasik, Michal Urbaniak, Janusz Muniak and Zbigniew Namyslowski.

Most of the material on “Trio”, the album, is either self-penned, with Marcin Wasilewski as principal composer, or improvised by the trio, but there are also some inspired cover versions. The trio play Wayne Shorter’s “Plaza Real”, acoustically restating a piece that Shorter followers know from late-period Weather Report. They play Stanko’s “Green Sky”, which can be heard in a very different version on “Matka Joanna”. And there are two choices that may seem more surprising, pop singer Björk’s “Hyperballad” and composer Karol Szymanowksi’s “Roxane’s Song” from the opera “King Roger” (1920-24).

Although there’s a long tradition of jazz musicians making art out of pop (that’s how so-called “standards” were born) the trio’s adoption of the Björk song has no such ambitions. Marcin Wasilewski has long been intrigued by Björk’s singular creative world, and was drawn, spontaneously, to try the pretty “Hyperballad” with the trio. It worked instantly and has remained in the programme. Drummer Michal Miskiewicz brought in the Symanowski tune with similar lack of conceptual intent, and that too found its way into the repertoire. Michal: “We just liked both pieces very much and found them inspiring, with beautiful melodies and a spirit we felt we could bring into our music.”

The trio is very much a group, and as Don Heckman observed, reviewing them with Stanko for the Los Angeles Times, “Their years together have resulted in an ensemble with an utterly symbiotic creative flow, solos darting through collective passages as the music streamed fluidly from one selection into another. Kurkiewicz and Miskiewicz play with a fertile combination of swing and subtlety…Wasilewski’s piano soloing displayed a coalescing talent, a potentially emerging jazz star in his own right.”

The release concert will take place at the Rozmaitosci Theatre in Poland on March 1st. The members of the Trio tour the USA from coast to coast with Tomasz Stanko also in March, with dates including a residency at New York’s Birdland club.

I was listening to Peter Erskine Trio TIME BEING last night and I must say this is a fantastic album.

Does anyone have any comments about the other albums.

YOU NEVER KNOW
AS IT IS
JUNI

Regards
Mark

Mark -

Time Being is one of my favourite ECM albums - as I stated when I kicked off the thread.

I bought this when I was staying in this great house in Bordeaux and played it night after night whilst cooking great food and drinking lots of good wine with friends - great memories from this CD.

Anyway, all of the other albums you mention are good and in a similar vein. I would go next for You Never Know or As It Is. I like You Never Know because the first track - New Old Age - is so wonderfully haunting - again late night, atmospheric music. I like As It Is for the excellent Touch Her Soft Lips and Part.

It is all excellent sounding ECM music, with tune and challenge, but most of all deep atmosphere.

If you like Peter Erskine also try his albums first rate albums (not on ECM) - Sweet Soul and Live at Rocco's - different musicians and atmosphere but again well worth buying.

It is evening here, I am off to open a good bottle of wine, turn down the lights and play Time Being on the Sennheisers. Thanks for getting me to play this one!

Cheers
Adrian

Stefan - if you do not have this one, this is right up your street.

Adrian

Thanks for the recommendations. I'll be back...

Phone listening is great, especially with a source like CDS3

Regards
Mark