This album is an exciting post-bop confection that blends world music flavors with energetic uptempo pieces and reposeful ballads.Ĭlick to load video 42: Bobo Stenson: Reflections (1996)Ī veteran Swedish pianist, Stenson has played with many American musicians during their European travels, ranging from Sonny Rollins to Don Cherry. Led by US pianist Art Lande, the group that recorded Rubisa Patrol was a short-lived ensemble comprised of noted trumpeter Mark Isham, who went on to become a soundtrack composer, bassist Bill Douglass, and drummer Glenn Cronkhite. Key track: “Sorrows” 43: Art Lande: Rubisa Patrol (1976) The music is beautifully-wrought, and the album’s most affecting songs are suffused with a brooding melancholy. Key track: “Bella” 44: Trygve Seim: Different Rivers (2001)Ī Norwegian musician who was purportedly inspired to pick up the saxophone after hearing Jan Garbarek, Seim made his debut as a leader with this album, consisting of ten cinematic pieces performed by a 13-member ensemble that included noted trumpeter Arve Henriksen. Rava receives sterling support throughout from his sidemen, John Abercrombie, Palle Danielsson, and John Christensen, who themselves would go on to contribute to many recordings for Manfred Eicher’s label. Key track: “Lundu” 45: Enrico Rava: The Pilgrim And The Stars (1975)Ĭombining melancholic atmospherics with a cinematic vibe, this early album from an Italian musician, who switched from trombone to trumpet after hearing Miles Davis, was seemingly tailor-made for ECM. The result is a rich musical tapestry on which plaintive melodies and pungent motifs meet rolling arpeggios and fleet-fingered fretboard work. This mesmerizing album, whose title translates as “Dance Of The Slaves,” finds the Brazilian fretboard virtuoso alternating between 14-, 12-, ten- and six-string guitars. Key track: “The Elephant And The Orchid” 46: Egberto Gismonti: Dança Dos Escravos (1989) This beauty (the first of his two ECM albums) found the New York trumpeter being produced by Brian Enoand Daniel Lanois on a mesmerizing meld of horns, synth washes, tape loops, and tribal drums. Hassell’s many credits (which include Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, Tears For Fears, and Ry Cooder) read like a Who’s Who of rock, but his own albums have been more experimental. Key track: “For Louie” 47: Jon Hassell: Power Spot (1986) Not an archetypal ECM album, it draws on Dixieland, blues, and gospel flavors and is peppered with offbeat humor (one track, featuring trumpet and vocal effects, is called “ Miles DavisMeets Donald Duck’). He did make a few solo albums along the way, and this one was his second for ECM. Maryland horn-blower Lester Bowie (1941-1991) was often associated with groups during his career, including Art Ensemble Of Chicago and Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy. Key track: “Wind Dolphin” 48: Lester Bowie: All The Magic! (1982) The music is by turns contemplative and energetic, but is sufficiently probing and cerebral to fit the archetypal ECM template. This was his second – and final – ECM album, recorded with a sextet in Germany. Key track: “Balladina” 49: Julian Priester And Marine Intrusion: Polarization (1977)Īn in-demand trombonist from Chicago, Priester has played with everyone from Dinah Washington to Sun Ra and Herbie Hancock, but only made a handful of solo albums. The resulting trio album, Free At Last, with its bold experimentation, encapsulated some of the musical virtues that later became synonymous with ECM’s unique philosophy. On November 24, 1969, this well-regarded 44-year-old New York pianist/composer, who was then living in Europe, made history by leading ECM’s first-ever recording session. Listen to the best of ECM Records on Apple Music and Spotify. Think we’ve missed any? Let us know in the comments section below. Launching the company in November 1969 (with American pianist Mal Waldron’s album Free At Last), he steadily built ECM into one of the most unique labels in jazz, with its own distinctive sound, style, and look.Įven today, ECM is still at the cutting edge of contemporary jazz, as our pick of the label’s 50 best albums prove. More than that, Jarrett’s success transformed ECM into a major contender in the jazz world, and the best ECM albums reveal an astonishing commitment to quality control that has more than ensured its place in the jazz pantheon.īut while Jarrett, who first recorded for the company in late 1971 and, 48 years later, still records for it, had a big part to play in the label’s success, it was producer Manfred Eicher whose vision made ECM a reality. It wouldn’t be totally inaccurate to describe the German jazz label ECM as “the house that Keith Jarrett built.” After all, the American pianist’s 1975 album The Köln Concerthas sold a staggering three and a half million copies and undoubtedly helped to establish – both financially and aesthetically – Manfred Eicher’s Munich-based imprint.
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