J*** Query - Haden, Towner, Jarret and Oregon

John,

Belonging by Keith Jarrett is a decent album and worth a punt if you are taken by the stuff you have heard so far. The band consists of Jarrett, Garbarek, Palle Danielsson & Jon Christenson.

My favourite Garbarek album is probably Visible World which is consistently excellent all the way through, also check out Rites and In Praise of Dreams.

The resident Jarrett/Garbarek/ECM experts are probably HR (Haim) and Fred Simon, who seem to have consistently excellent taste, and in Fred's case, musical talent to boot.

My wife hates Garbarek with a passion, so listening to him is a solitary pleasure.

Regards

Nic

John

My favourite Jarrett CD of the bunch I have is 'Up For It', a great live recording from a rainy jazz festival in France.

Gary Peacock (bass) was getting over an illness and was, basically, glad to be alive. It's a really great album.

Nigel

quote:

Originally posted by nicnaim:
John,

Belonging by Keith Jarrett is a decent album and worth a punt if you are taken by the stuff you have heard so far. The band consists of Jarrett, Garbarek, Palle Danielsson & Jon Christenson.

My favourite Garbarek album is probably Visible World which is consistently excellent all the way through, also check out Rites and In Praise of Dreams.

The resident Jarrett/Garbarek/ECM experts are probably HR (Haim) and Fred Simon, who seem to have consistently excellent taste, and in Fred's case, musical talent to boot.

My wife hates Garbarek with a passion, so listening to him is a solitary pleasure.

Regards

Nic

Nic,

Thanks, but the real ECM experts are Adrian, Stefan and Simon, not me. I know more of MA Recordings. This is much easier because their whole superb catalog is about 70 CDs, and I basicly own (and enjoy) most of them.

I do not have Garbarek's Visible World, but I hope to listen to it soon.

Nic, I understand your wife. Sometimes Garbarek is too much for me too. I like him though with Brahem on Madar. Who knows? The wife might like it too.

Best regards,

Haim

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Sloop John B:
I'm listening to Jan Garbarek:rarum cd 2 for the 4th or 5th time now and there is some astonishingly wonderful and beautiful music on here.







John,

Here are another three very different Garbareks that I like:

* Officium - classical with the Hilliard Ensemble
* In Praise of Dreams - Jazz
* Ragas & Sagas - worls music

Best regards,

Haim

quote:

Originally posted by Sloop John B:
I'm listening to Jan Garbarek:rarum cd 2 for the 4th or 5th time now and there is some astonishingly wonderful and beautiful music on here.

I want to dip my toe in some of the albums and artists featured and would appreciate any advice, opinions or encouragement.

There is a great tune called Cego Aderaldo from "folk Songs" with Charlie Haden and Egberto Gismonti. I see Magico an earlier album with the same musicians is much favored. Is "Cego Aderaldo" indicative of these albums?

A very interesting piece called Oceanus from Solstice - Ralph Towner. This led me to Oregon. Any similarity between Oregon and Weather Report?

Apart from an old tape of Koln Concert I have no Jarret at all. I thought Belonging and particularly "my song" were truly beautiful. Do the 2 albums of the same name contain similar material?

My lack of knowledge in this area is pretty absolute but I am really enjoying hearing music quite different to most of my collection and would appreciate someone taking my hand and leading me (or at least telling me where not to step)

John, you've opened such a large and deep can of worms it would be easy to become overwhelmed, so let me point you to just a few albums to start with, some of which you've already tasted.

Here are my recommendations:


Belonging



This is one of Jarrett's many masterpieces, and absolutely essential. My Song is equally great, but start with this one.



Magico



As its title would suggest, a magical album. I'd start with this one, and then continue with Folk Songs.



Solstice



Another essential album, period. There are many really great Towner albums, but you've got to have this one.



Northwest Passage


I have all of Oregon's albums, and all are great, but this is one that sums it all up; not to be missed.

There are some similarities between Oregon and Weather Report, but not necessarily overt. Closer to very early Weather Report, if anything.

----

Like I said, this is a huge can of worms ... so many more albums by Garbarek, Jarrett, Towner, Oregon, and then there's Eberhard Weber, John Abercrombie, Paul McCandless, Art Lande ... it just goes on and on.

Take these and call me in the morning.

Fred

i'll throw in my 2 cents. i also recommend Ragas and Sagas. Garbarek is a bit mellower on this - i find his horn to be too "hot" and over the top at times. these are some of my favs....actually must haves.

Garbarek:
this is my all time favorite jazz album....Peacock is at his best - Garbarek is just right.


another "Desert Island" album - i just picked this one on near mint vinyl to replace my "old" cd copy....


Jarrett:




different from his ECM stuff....Charlie Haden, Dewey Redman, and Paul Motion all play on both of these.




Towner/Peacock:


in adifferent vein, but still the best album i've bought this year thus far....


you will find more ECM albums in my collection than any other label. there are soooo many albums, so little time. enjoy the journey and get out that credit card.

PACE

The sound of silence!

Not the Simon & Garfunkel, but the original made by the street/house I live in

Oopps
wrong thread, sorry guys

quote:

Originally posted by HR:
Nic,

Thanks, but the real ECM experts are Adrian, Stefan and Simon, not me. I know more of MA Recordings. This is much easier because their whole superb catalog is about 70 CDs, and I basicly own (and enjoy) most of them.

Hi Haim,

The MA Recordings site looks good but I don't know where to start.

I would be obliged if you could reccomend 3 of your favourite jazz cds from their catologue.

Thanks

John



SJB.

quote:

Originally posted by fred simon:
Like I said, this is a huge can of worms ... so many more albums by Garbarek, Jarrett, Towner, Oregon, and then there's Eberhard Weber, John Abercrombie, Paul McCandless, Art Lande ... it just goes on and on.

Take these and call me in the morning.

Fred

Once again Fred, many thanks.

I'll put the above 4 on my list as your reccomendations have to date have all been enhancing to date.



btw, a package has (eventually) arrived from Salisbury this morning which will hopefully also be just as enhancing. I'll let you know how I get on.

Regards

John


SJB

Nic, Nigel and PACE, thanks for your suggestions.

Nic,

I can sympathise with your wife for I have rarely had such a dualistic reaction to an album. Some of it is wondeful and is giving the desire to explore, however about half I really don't like and half of this I find I would skip it actively irritates me.

Nigel,

in the live album you mention is there much of Jarrett's grunting, which I do find mildly annoying. It certainly doen't enhance "my song" form rarum


PACE,

Well I can hardly pass up on your favourite Jazz cd of all time.
What is the name of the towner peacock album I can't make it out? What's it like?


Once again thanks all


regards

John



SJB

Charlie Haden's albums with Liberation Music Orchestra are worth a listen.

The Missouri Sky disc with Metheney is one of SWMBO's favourites.

Another favourite is Land of the Sun with Gonzalo Rubalcaba

John,

I think this is a journey you are going to enjoy. There is so much of this marvellous music to discover and so much of it is on the very wonderful ECM label. I have been collecting ECM for years and have built up a big library of the stuff. The quality of the music is outstanding and the variety is huge. The artists you have chosen are good places to start.

Your logic for starting with some of the Rarum recordings was probably sound except Keith Jarrett chose some of his more obscure recordings on this disc. I think ECM music is better when you choose individual discs and you get the complete context and picture of song on the complete original album.

A lot of the recommendations made above are spot on in my books particularly those from Fred and Fishki.

As far as Keith Jarrett goes there is so much to try. I love Belonging and My Song and my personal favourite standards trio CD's are Tribute and Whisper Not (I was at this show so maybe I am biased)

The Belonging and My Song CD's are exceptional and great work from his European Quartet. If you want to try something from this quartet a little more challening then Personal Mountains is another fave of mine.

Then there is the solo Jarrett - La Scala, Vienna, Koln, Radiance - take your pick.

As for Garbarek, then I am a big fan of Legend of the Seven Dreams, I Took Up the Runes (my favourite - very melodic, norwegian and beautiful), Twelve Moons, Visible World and Rites.

Towner has done a lot of CD's - Solstice and Anthem are two good ones.

As for Oregon, Northwest Passage is my fave particualrly the track Clarinade that I use regularly for testing out systems.

Other ECM artists well worth looking at include Tord Gustavsen - The Ground and Changing Places, Marc Johnson - Shades of Jade, Charles Lloyd - try Canto (for Haim), Hyperion with Higgins, Lift Every Voice, Voice in the Night....Try Anouar Brahem - Le Pas De Chat Noir or Le voyage De Sahar. Then there is Arild Andersen, John Abercrombie, Peter Erskine (Time Being is my fave), the early Pat Metheny CD's First Circle, Travels, Offramp, As falls Wichita. Enrico Rava, Tomasz Stanko, Kenny Wheeler, Eberhard Weber and so many wondeful other artists. When done with all these you can them start trying the ECM New Series as well.

Good luck, enjoy and it would be great to hear how you get on.

Would be happy to offer up more recommendations when you are through trying the above.

Adrian

John,
the Peacock/Towner album is "Oracle". just beauftiful interplay between 2 fine musicians, bass and guitar.

what you are going to find is that the artists on ECM sit in on other artists solo efforts making for a large "house sound" along with Manfred Eicher's consistant, excellent recording production. you can practically call the ECM label a musical genre. also, the beauty of ECM for audio nerds is, of course that is if you love the music, that the vinyl quality is oh sooo very excellent and the quality of digital on cd is most excellent as well too. my local vinyl shops have tons of this stuff lying around.

Expat in Oz,

quote:

I think this is a journey you are going to enjoy. There is so much of this marvellous music to discover and so much of it is on the very wonderful ECM label. I have been collecting ECM for years and have built up a big library of the stuff. The quality of the music is outstanding and the variety is huge. The artists you have chosen are good places to start.

excellent post and artist recommendations.

John,
wait....i pulled these out late last night for a beautiful headphone sesh.

Towner and Garbarek both sit in on this one as well...excellent on vinyl...


Shankar - "Song For Everyone" - with Garbarek (again), Zakir Hussain (needs no introduction), and Trilok Gurtu (played with John McLaughlin as well). i only have a vinyl promo copy with a couple of songs on it - i'm looking for the full-length cd version. Zakir and Trilok deliver killer performances here, i would imagine the full album would be worth a punt (i'm a tabla junkie) - sorry for the crap pic...


PACE

quote:

Originally posted by Sloop John B:
Hi Haim,

The MA Recordings site looks good but I don't know where to start.

I would be obliged if you could reccomend 3 of your favourite jazz cds from their catologue.

Thanks

John

.

John,

Here are some MA jazz that I really like a lot. I listed them in the order of my liking:

M006A Further Attempts, Todd Garfinkel - a great piano trio.
M018A Man From Plovdiv, Milcho Leviev - solo piano
M014A Songs From Within, Sheila Jordan - bass & voice
M058A Old School, Peter Epstein - sax, bass & drums

You can read more about the music on the site, as well as sample one track per disc. On top of great performances, I find the sound superior to anything else digital thatI know. Besides jazz MA has excellent world and classical music as well.

Please let me know how you find the music.

Best regards,

Haim

Thanks Haim,

I've ordered 3 of the ones you have kindly suggested.

I'll let you know how I get on.


ROTF if you're reading this have a listen to the song here I just had to buy it!



SJB

quote:

Originally posted by Sloop John B:
Thanks Haim,

I've ordered 3 of the ones you have kindly suggested.

I'll let you know how I get on.


ROTF if you're reading this have a listen to the song here I just had to buy it!



SJB

John,

Glad you took the MA plunge. You will not regret it.

I started with two MAs given as a present to my wife by a colleague musician. That was 15 years ago. Later on I met Todd Garfinkel at a Hi Fi show in Chicago, had a great talk with him and bought another 6 CDs from him there. The rest is history...

Ken, the NAIM dealer in Chicago as well as the recording engineer for NAIM music uses a lot of MA CDs to demonstrate their NAIM 500 system. The sound quality is just phenomenal and he maintains that Todd is one of the best digital recording engineers he ever heard.

John, did you order the MAs directly from their site or from some other place in the UK? What did you think of the jackets design?

Regards,

Haim

Well the first CD to arrive was Oregon - Northwest Passage

This has taken a few listens.

The first few listens I was quite tired and dozed off after the first few tracks floating in and out for the remainder.
These first impressions were not great, I wasn't being overly excited.

Today then I decided it was time for some serious listening.

This is definitely an album of 2 sides.

One containing Nightfall, Fortune Cookie, L'assassino Che Suona and Yet To Be as it's standouts is what I had hoped Oregon would sound like. Nightfall particularly (for me ) is a wonderful piece that soars and has rhythm and propulsion. A bit like Weather Report in that there is no obvious lead instrument or soloing.

The other side dominated by Take Heart, Lost in the Hours, and Claridade I like less. Although the guitar on these 3 is beautiful, I find (to my ears) the wind instrument is too tame (almost classical rather than Jazz). This is not meant to be judgmental rather a statement of my likes and dislikes. For me it is only halfway though Joyful Departure that Paul McCandles "lets rip" and a smile came to my face.

There is a strong likelihood with repeated listenings that I will appreciate these tracks more but I'm going to put it on again use the program function to give me tracks 2,4,6,7,8,9,11,12 and 13.
I was thinking earlier listening to nightfall that it's great in a way coming to all these artists late. I played it 3 times in a row, raising the volume with each listen. Wonderful.


I'm hoping Postie brings the ecm CD's tomorrow.



SJB

I really admire Ralph Towner's music, especially his solo discs. I have most of them on vinyl except for the newer ones. Unlike some artists Ralph Towner's more recent solo acoustic guiter CDs are very strong. I absolutely love ANA and Anthem. I have just bought his new CD Time Line but haven't had a chance to listen yet.

Recommended Ralph Towner

Solstice
Diary
Solo Concert
Saragasso Sea with John Abercrombie

These are all good.

Scott

quote:

Originally posted by Sloop John B:




The other side dominated by Take Heart, Lost in the Hours, and Claridade I like less. Although the guitar on these 3 is beautiful, I find (to my ears) the wind instrument is too tame (almost classical rather than Jazz). This is not meant to be judgmental rather a statement of my likes and dislikes. For me it is only halfway though Joyful Departure that Paul McCandles "lets rip" and a smile came to my face.

There is a strong likelihood with repeated listenings that I will appreciate these tracks more
SJB

Indeed I spoke too soon.

Thee is an energy and vibrancy in these tracks that I missed on my first few listenings. These tracks really insinuate themselves upon you.

This really is a wonderful album.

Nightfall has more in it's 8 minutes than many a whole album I own.

I'll be moving on to Solstice this evening and I'm really looking forward to it.



SJB

quote:

Originally posted by Sloop John B:
Indeed I spoke too soon.

Thee is an energy and vibrancy in these tracks that I missed on my first few listenings. These tracks really insinuate themselves upon you.

This really is a wonderful album.

I knew you'd come around, John.

Fred

quote:

Thee is an energy and vibrancy in these tracks that I missed on my first few listenings. These tracks really insinuate themselves upon you.

i like your apt use of "insinuate". this isn't the kind of music that i cook or do chores to - it requires active listening, without distractions (that means headphones for me), to appreciate the beauty in this type of heavily nuanced music.

PACE

quote:

Originally posted by fishski13:
i like your apt use of "insinuate". this isn't the kind of music that i cook or do chores to - it requires active listening, without distractions (that means headphones for me), to appreciate the beauty in this type of heavily nuanced music.

Yes, and give it substantial volume. This especially helps if the listener is predisposed to thinking the music lacks weight. More volume makes it insinuate like a mofo.

Fred

Ralph Towner - Solstice




I don't know about music in much the same way as I don't know much abut how my car works, but I'm a good driver.
I don't know tempi, modes, quavers, harmonics or anything else one may care to mention. But I know what I like and I love this album. It has nearly all the ingredients that I love.

I like rhythm, the more overt the better and this has wonderful drums and percussion by Jon Christensen, especially on my favourite track Piscean Dreams. Throughout the drums have for me the perfect balance in the mix , nice and forward.

It's a beautiful sounding album as well as being a wonderful one. Oceanus the opening track is simply brimming with invention, with wonderful playing from Towner, Garbareck and Webber. There seems to me to be a lot of good humour on the songs, whether the Hammer House of Horror sound effects montage on Visitation to the clear happy vibe on Nimbus.

There is not a dud on this album and I get more out of every listen and I've given it about 8 full listens already. I'm itching to move on to some of the other recommendations sitting here but I find it hard to draw myself away.........just yet.

I definitely am going to investigate more Towner.