Ralph Towner & Paolo Fresu Chiaroscuro 1797510 CD ECM £12.30
Launch of a new duo with a most uncommon instrumentation, acoustic guitar and trumpet – but it’s a highly attractive combination.
Ralph Towner, guitarist extraordinaire, an ECM artist since 1972, is joined by Italian trumpet star Paolo Fresu, making
his label debut for ECM.
Carla Bley Carla’s Christmas Carols 2712413 CD WATT £12.30
Christmas music has been an enthusiasm of the great American pianist and composer Carla Bley’s for decades – and here at last is a Carla Bley hristmas album! An ideal seasonal gift. Not surprisingly, the traditional and non-traditional pieces are subjected to her offbeat wit and idiosyncratic arranging skills.
Eberhard Weber Colours (Yellow Fields/Silent Feet/Little Movements) 2719638 CD3 ECM £18.90
The three Eberhard Weber albums Yellow Fields, Silent Feet, and Little Movements – which incorporate all the music made for ECM by hisinnovat ive group Colours – are collected together in a specially-priced 3-CD box set. The recordings,
produced by Manfred Eicher between 1975 and 1980, have been out of print for some time and their return will be welcomed by the great German bassist’s many supporters.
Gary Burton & Chick Corea Crystal Silence – The ECM Recordings 1972-79
1768057 CD4 ECM £24.35
Dazzling duo recordings by two of modern jazz’s most creative players in a 4-CD Set, bringing together the legendary “Crystal Silence” and the Grammy-winning discs “Duet” and “In Concert, Zürich, 1979”.
This 4-CD box set reprises the history-making recordings “Crystal Silence” (1972), “Duet” (1978) and the live double album “In Concert, Zürich, October 28, 1979”. The duo was a seldom-tested format in jazz when pianist Chick Corea and vibraphonist Gary Burton, at the instigation of Manfred Eicher, came together for “Crystal Silence”, but its luminous music proved a resounding success and that first ECM recording became enormously influential, changing directions in modern jazz. ”
Jan Garbarek Group Dresden – In Concert 2709572 CD2 ECM £18.90
The first ever live album from Jan Garbarek and certain to be one of the year’s most successful ‘jazz’ releases, Dresden captures a fiery and powerful performance, a fine document of the Norwegian saxophonist’s exceptional improvising capacities. And it’s a magnificent release with which to welcome ECM’s 40th anniversary season.
Stefano Bollani Trio Stone in the Water 1794161 CD ECM £12.30
Stone in the Water is the first of Stefano Bollani’s ECM recordings to feature the Italian pianist’s “Danish Trio”, a group that already has six years of playing experience behind it, and produces a sound that is supple, subtle, flowing.
Keith Jarrett Paris / London - Testament 2709583 CD3 ECM £18.90
Released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of ECM, these solo concerts from the great American pianist are recordings to put alongside the very finest in Keith Jarrett’s solo idiom. Recorded last year, they are released as a specially priced 3-CD set – three albums for the price of a double-album.
Manfred Schoof Quintet Resonance 1780453 CD2 ECM £16.90
A specially priced double album, Resonance is the great German trumpeter’s personal anthology of his favourite music from the 1970s, originally on three ECM / Japo albums but never before released on CD.
Tord Gustavsen Ensemble Restored, Returned 1798987 CD ECM £12.30
Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen has built a huge and enthusiastic worldwide following through his ECM discs and touring, and Restored, Returned – released exclusively in the UK on the eve of an extensive tour – will broaden that popularity still further.
Anouar Brahem The Astounding Eyes of Rita 1798628 CD ECM £12.30
In the 21st century Anouar Brahem has become one of ECM’s most popular artists, with a staunch worldwide following and near-unanimously positive press reactions. The label’s 40th anniversary brings a new album of warm, dark sounds and dancing, organic pulses from the Tunisian oud master, performed by his new band.
John Abercrombie Quartet Wait Till You See Her 1798630 CD ECM £12.30
The John Abercrombie Quartet has become one of the most widely-admired groups in contemporary jazz. It is both a deeply swinging group and an adventurous one – as their fourth ECM album attests. With a range that can encompass everything from standards to bebop to free play to chamber music or raga-esque excursions, the quartet extends the jazz tradition yet there is a consistent warmth and humanity to the sound, always evident in the harmonic and melodic material that Abercrombie writes for the group.
2701112 John Surman, John Abercrombie, Brewster's Rooster CD £12.30
Drew Gress & Jack DeJohnette
A powerful and exciting album from renowned English saxophonist John Surman with a ‘supergroup’ that includes fellow ECM band-leaders John Abercrombie and Jack DeJohnette and, completing the quartet, highly-regarded bassist Drew Gress, making his label debut. The album features seven new tunes by Surman, plus Billy Strayhorn’s wistful “Chelsea Bridge” and John Warren’s “Slanting Sky”. Soulful ballads, hard driving uptempo tunes and fiery improvisations are all to be found here.
1774798 Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble The Moment's Energy CD £12.30
Evan Parker, widely recognised as one of the most important saxophonists of the post Coltrane period, returns with the fifth ECM disc from his trail-blazing Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. An extended new work commissioned by the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, it features a 14-strong international line-up. This group’s pioneering work has effectively established a model for a new kind of improvising chamber orchestra, creating fresh colours from the blending and contrasting of acoustic instruments and live
1788137 Miroslav Vitous Group with Michel Portal Remembering Weather Report CD £12.30
One of the founders of Weather Report, great Czech bassist Miroslav Vitous, celebrates the creative spirit of that famous group in a blazingly inventive recording. The obvious musical empathy between Vitous and drummer Gerald Cleaver is a joy and trumpeter Franco Ambrosetti and saxophonist Gary Campbell contribute inspired solos – as does legendary guest Michel Portal on bass clarinet. The music, almost exclusively by Vitous, alludes to Wayne Shorter’s “Nefertiti” and to Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” as well as to Miles Davis and Antonín Dvorák, and also pays tribute to Joe Zawinul.
2701114 Steve Kuhn Trio & Joe Lovano Mostly Coltrane CD £12.30
A recording that pays homage to a musician of overwhelming importance - and for one-time Coltrane pianist Steve Kuhn, an album of powerful memories. Kuhn and Joe Lovano improvise gloriously together, riding the surging waves of Joey Baron’s polyrhythms, in a programme of tunes written by or strongly associated with John Coltrane. The music is indeed mostly Coltrane: tracks include “Welcome”, “Song of Praise”, “Central Park West”, “Spiritual” and more.
1797280 Egberto Gismonti Saudaçöes CD2 £18.90
Egberto Gismonti’s first new ECM recording in 14 years (the title Saudações means greetings) is a double-album that displays his range. Disc one features Gismonti the composer on a 70-minute journey through his native Brazil, Sertoes Veredas, an orchestral suite that takes account of the country’s culture and history, landscapes and cityscapes, vividly evoked by Cuba’s all-women Camerata Romeu. Disc two presents Gismonti the guitarist in a virtuoso duo recital with his son Alexandre, romping through a programme of new arrangements of such well-known, favourite Gismonti pieces as “Zig Zag”, “Lundú” and “Dança dos escravos”.
ANDY SHEPPARD Movements In Colour 1795042 CD £12.30
British saxophonist Andy Sheppard makes his ECM debut heading an extraordinarily gifted international quintet in a programme of self-penned pieces, all buoyant and strongly melodic. The band, including guitarists John Parricelli and Eivind Aarset, tabla player Kuljit Bhamra and the great Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen, plays seven concerts in support of the album, beginning at Fuse Leeds on 30 April and ending at Manchester’s RNCM on 27 May.
JON HASSELL Last Night the Moon Came... 1792636 CD £12.30
25 years after his last ECM recording, the inspirational Power Spot, the Memphis-born trumpeter returns to the label with an album conceived as “a continuous piece, almost symphonic, with a cinematic construction”. One of the most influential musicians of the past 30 years, his idea of a borderless ‘Fourth World’ music has fired the imaginations of countless artists, among them Brian Eno with whom he appears at London’s ‘Ether 09’ on 9 April.
ENRICO RAVA New York Days 1772715 CD £12.30
ENRICO RAVA New York Days 1797340 LP2 £21.55
Soulful Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava’s stock has risen dramatically since his return to ECM in 2003 with Easy Living. Now he releases what may be his best album yet, a magical European/American collaboration recorded in the jazz capital of the world in early 2008. The highly inventive quintet features his protégé, pianist Stefano Bollani, master drummer Paul Motian, bassist Larry Grenadier and, in his ECM debut, saxophonist Mark Turner.
KEITH JARRETT/ PEACOCK/ DEJOHNETTE Yesterdays 1774447 CD £12.30
KEITH JARRETT/ PEACOCK/ DEJOHNETTE Yesterdays 1794205 LP2 £21.55
Released simultaneously on CD and vinyl (180 gram pressing - the first new ECM vinyl album in 15 years), the most successful piano trio in the world plays the repertoire that most delights its vast audience: music from the Great American Songbook. With a focus on bebop, there’s also some dazzling ragtime and beautiful ballads (including Kern’s “Yesterdays”, and “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”, all performed with a flair seldom equalled in the history of jazz. see more
CYMINOLOGY As Ney 1780149 CD £12.30
ECM debut for a young Berlin-based band already making waves internationally, Cyminology – a quartet led by the charismatic Cymin Samawatie, a singer of Iranian descent, with an Indian drummer, a French-born pianist and a German bassist – performs a unique intercultural chamber jazz, by turns poetic, sensual, melancholic, dynamic and pulsating. London hears Cyminology in concert on 20 March as part of the week ‘ECM LIVE at Kings Place’.
MICHAEL MANTLER Concertos 1780371 CD £12.30
Austrian trumpeter/composer Michael Mantler’s first album of new material for eight years, Concertos features a starry array of soloists from contemporary new music, jazz and rock; Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, legendary jazz trombone giant Roswell Rudd, pianist Majella Stockhausen (daughter of composer Karlheinz Stockhausen); mallet percussion virtuoso Pedro Carneiro, guitarist Bjarne Roupé, jazz tenorist Bob Rockwell, and Mantler himself, all superbly accompanied by Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin under Roland Kluttig.
ARILD ANDERSEN /TOMMY SMITH / P VINACCIA
Live at Belleville CD 1774448 £12.30
Thrilling live album by Arild Andersen’s new Norwegian/Scottish/Italian trio, the veteran bassist’s most exciting group to date. Featuring tenorist Tommy Smith and drummer Paolo Vinaccia and embracing hot post-bop playing, strong compositions, fiery improvising, beautiful balladry and waves of atmospheric sound-painting, it was recorded live in Oslo’s Belleville club. The trio will tour the UK, opening at the London Jazz Festival on 22 November.
MICHAEL MANTLER / Nick Mason & others
Concertos CD 1780371 £12.30
Austrian trumpeter/composer Michael Mantler’s first album of new material for eight years, Concertos features a starry array of soloists from contemporary new music, jazz and rock; Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, legendary jazz trombone giant Roswell Rudd, pianist Majella Stockhausen (daughter of composer Karlheinz Stockhausen); mallet percussion virtuoso Pedro Carneiro, guitarist Bjarne Roupé, jazz tenorist Bob Rockwell, and Mantler himself, all superbly accompanied by Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin under Roland Kluttig.
KEITH JARRETT / PEACOCK / DEJOHNETTE
Live in Japan 1993 / 1996 2DVD 1772710 £18.90
The second ECM DVD release of vintage Keith Jarrett material is a specially-priced coupling of two very different concerts by the Jarrett trio from Tokyo in 1993 and 1996. In the 25th Anniversary Year of the Standards Trio, and after the runaway success of the Setting Standards 3-CD box and the Standards I/II DVD set, this makes a fine Christmas gift for fans of today’s most widely-admired jazz group. see more
JULIA HÜLSMANN TRIO
The End Of A Summer CD 1773156 £12.30
Award-winning German pianist/composer Julia Hülsmann, described by Jazzwise as “a highly imaginative player possessing incredible rhythmic suppleness”, makes her ECM debut with a charming programme of ‘songs without words’ – strongly melodic piano trio music. It features mostly Hülsmann’s pieces though bassist Marc Muellbauer and drummer Heinrich Köbberling also contribute material, plus a cover of Seal’s pop song “Kiss from a Rose”.
ARVE HENRIKSEN w/David Sylvian/Jan Bang
Cartography CD 1780116 £12.30
First ECM leader date for the widely-admired Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen (who performs at the London Jazz Festival on 14 November), Cartography explores a range of changing, beautiful landscapes with electronic wizards Jan Bang and Erik Honoré and guests such as singers Anna Maria Friman and David Sylvian (here reciting his own poetry). It’s very “visual” music, like soundtracks for unmade films, emphasising melody and atmosphere.
ECM - 3 x CD BOX SETS
STEVE KUHN (w Sheila Jordan)
Life's Backward Glances (Solo & Quartets) 3CD 1779946 £23.00
In Steve Kuhn’s 70th birthday year three historic recordings by the great American pianist are issued for the first time on CD in a specially-priced, digitally re-mastered 3-CD box set under the title Life’s Backward Glances. The trio are his great solo recording Ecstasy; Motility, with his 1970s quartet featuring saxophonist Steve Slagle; and Playground which introduced the highly popular quartet with singer Sheila Jordan.
CODONA (Don Cherry / Nana Vasconcelos / Collin Walcott)
The Codona Trilogy 3CD 1767420 £23.00
A specially-priced 3-CD box brings together the marvellous recordings made in the late 1970s and early 1980s by the trio of trumpeter Don Cherry, percussionist Nana Vasconcelos and sitar player and multi-instrumentalist Collin Walcott: Codona, Codona 2 and Codona 3. Delightful listening, these albums by three highly-innovative musicians are also milestones in the history of improvisation between the genres - world music before there was a name for it.
BOBO STENSON TRIO
Cantando CD 1775462 £12.30
Swedish master pianist Bobo Stenson and long term bassist Anders Jormin - now joined by responsive young drummer Jon Fält - have developed a richly detailed sound-world like nothing else in modern jazz. To follow the magnificent Goodbye album, Cantando features a characteristically broad programme, with original pieces by Jormin, group improvising and music by Peter Eben, Alban Berg, Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Astor Piazzolla and Silvio Rodriguez. The trio makes a major tour of the UK and Ireland from 18-26 October.
VASSILIS TSABROPOULOS /
Melos CD 1757980 £12.30
ANJA LECHNER / U T GANDHI
The keenly anticipated follow-up to Chants, Hymns and Dances, the best-selling 2004 release by German cellist Anja Lechner and Greek pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos, Melos likewise features memorable Tsabropoulos and Gurdjieff compositions, but reverses the ratio while the duo’s beautifully expressive playing of the melodies is now augmented by contributions from Italian jazz drummer U.T. Gandhi.
SAVINA YANNATOU / Primavera en Salonico
Songs Of An Other CD 1772720 £12.30
The third ECM album – and the best yet – by “amazingly versatile”, resourceful Greek singer Savina Yannatou and her exciting band Primavera en Salonico is a magical recording, with achingly beautiful melodies, and spirited improvising erupting out of the arrangements of traditional songs from Armenia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Southern Italy as well as Greece.
CARLA BLEY BIG BAND
Appearing Nightly CD 1725516 £12.30
Appearing Nightly is celebrated pianist, composer and band leader Carla Bley’s nostalgic homage to the great big bands and songwriters that dominated American popular music in the first half of the 20th century: a resolutely contemporary live album, recorded in Paris, with particularly stellar contributions by saxophone soloists Andy Sheppard and Wolfgang Puschnig, trumpeter Lew Soloff and trombonist Gary Valente.
ECM - DVD
JARRETT / PEACOCK / DEJOHNETTE
Standards I / II Tokyo 2DVD 1772707 £18.75
This first ECM DVD release of vintage Keith Jarrett material is a specially-priced coupling of two very different shows by the Jarrett trio from Japan in 1985 and 1986. In the 25th Anniversary Year of the Standards Trio, and after the runaway success of the Setting Standards 3-CD box, another essential purchase for fans of today’s most widely-admired jazz group. see more
KETIL BJØRNSTAD
The Light CD 1757977 £12.30
Celebrated Norwegian jazz pianist, composer and writer Ketil Bjørnstad’s new ECM recording, a complete contrast to his rocking album with Terje Rypdal earlier this year, sets his own lyrics in Four Nordic Songs and the poetry of John Donne in the song-cycle The Light to music of ravishing beauty. They are performed by one of Norway’s greatest singers, Randi Stene, and “the giant of the Nordic viola” Lars Anders Tomter, with Bjørnstad himself on piano.
STEPHAN MICUS
Snow CD 1762533 £12.30
The unique, imaginary ‘world music’ that renowned multi-instrumentalist and world traveller Stephan Micus has created over three decades has attracted a substantial cult following. This 18th album for ECM, inspired by travels in Armenia and the mountains of the Caucasus, centres on the double-reed duduk, featuring it in unprecedented combinations with African, Asian, South and North American and European instruments, and the human voice.
MATHIAS EICK w Jon Balke / Stian Carstensen
The Door CD 1757979 £12.30
Young Norwegian trumpeter Mathias Eick, frontline soloist in the Manu Katché Group, makes his leader debut with a top flight band including highly imaginative pianist Jon Balke and Farmers Market accordionist Stian Carstensen.
JOHN SURMAN / HOWARD MOODY
Rain on the Window CD 1715540 £12.30
A very special project in the discography of saxophonist John Surman, one of ECM’s most admired musicians: an album of intimate duets with organist Howard Moody.
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