ECM

profile

In 2002, ECM celebrates 33 years of independent music production. Given the rigorous quality control that is the label's hallmark and its scant regard for conventional notions of "commerciality", this is no small achievement, especially considering that almost all ECM recordings have been produced by ECM founder Manfred Eicher. His experiences as a musician, playing both jazz and classical music, laid the groundwork for areas he would explore as a producer and company director. After studying at the Berlin Academy of Music, his work as a production assistant at numerous orchestral and chamber music sessions impressed upon him the care taken in the recording of classical music. Believing it was possible to approach jazz recording with a similar sensitivity and attention to detail, he launched ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music). Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, encountered at the Bologna Jazz Festival in 1968, was one of the first artists to be approached by Eicher. However, the label's first release was Free At Last by pianist Mal Waldron, a former associate of Coltrane, Dolphy, Mingus and Billie Holiday. Recorded in November 1969, it was pressed on highest-quality vinyl in a limited edition which quickly sold out, financing the production, and so the process continued. The timing of ECM's launch was propitious. The music industry was devoting most of its attention to rock and important jazz musicians were neglected. Early on, Eicher contacted players he admired, including Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley, Marion Brown, Chick Corea, Gary Burton and Dave Holland, and invited them to record for his new Munich-based label. The 1970 recording of Afric Pepperbird was of particular significance. Garbarek's group featured guitarist Terje Rypdal, bassist Arild Andersen and drummer Jon Christensen, all still closely associated with the label. Pepperbird was both Garbarek's first ECM recording and the first made in Oslo. It also marked the beginning of a creative alliance between Eicher and engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug. Together they established new criteria for recorded sound in jazz, immediately apparent on a series of breathtaking solo piano albums: Chick Corea's Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Paul Bley's Open, To Love and Keith Jarrett's Facing You. Although many of the new generation of American jazz musicians were given the opportunity to make their first recordings for ECM, it remained a European company with a decidedly European approach to music and artwork. Several of ECM's early recordings met with a public response that neither the artists nor the company had anticipated. Keith Jarrett's triple album Solo Concerts, the double album Köln Concert, and Chick Corea's Return To Forever now number amongst the most influential and popular albums in jazz history. Since the mid 70s, ECM has averaged more than 20 recordings per year, helping established artists approach new horizons and continuing to find creative musicians. A remark made by Time magazine in 1981 remains applicable today: "A young jazz musican would want to be on the ECM label the way a short-story writer would want to be published in the New Yorker". The quality of the label's albums at all levels - musicianship, production, engineering, package design and pressing (in the vinyl era) - has been widely recognized and ECM has collected many international awards. Important players of all instruments have been well documented by ECM, with the roll-call of bassists, pianists and guitarists particularly comprehensive. All the great contemporary bass players have been showcased, including Gary Peacock, Miroslav Vitous, Dave Holland and Barre Phillips - all of whom have released solo albums - as well as Charlie Haden, David Izenzon, Malachi Favors, Eddie Gomez, Marc Johnson, Palle Danielsson, George Mraz, Kent Carter, Mark Levinson, J.F. Jenny-Clark, Stanley Clarke, Barry Guy, Chris Laurence, Bruno Chevillon, Anders Jormin, Arild Andersen and the influential electric bassists Steve Swallow, Eberhard Weber and Jaco Pastorius. When ECM began, the guitar's status as a jazz instrument was still disputed by purists. A stream of outstanding albums has settled this issue and brought numerous guitarists to the attention of press and public. The ECM roster has incorporated John Abercrombie, Ralph Towner, Terje Rypdal, Pat Metheny, Egberto Gismonti, Derek Bailey, Bill Connors, Bill Frisell, Mick Goodrick, John McLaughlin, John Scofield, Kevin Eubanks, Steve Tibbetts, Sam Brown, David Torn, Steve Vai and Raoul Björkenheim. The long list of landmark guitar recordings includes Abercrombie's Timeless, Towner's Trios/Solos, Metheny's Bright Size Life, Frisell's Rambler and Rypdal's Whenever I Seem To Be Far Away. Exceptional pianists recording for ECM - in addition to the aforementioned Bley, Jarrett, Corea and Waldron - have included John Taylor, Steve Kuhn, Egberto Gismonti, Dollar Brand, Art Lande, Bobo Stenson, Herbie Hancock, Howard Riley, Mike Nock, Richie Beirach, Jon Balke, Ketil Bjørnstad, Jan Hammer, Stanley Cowell, Alex Schlippenbach, Rainer Brüninghaus and Django Bates. If jazz on ECM represents the consolidation and extension of ideas first introduced by, amongst others, the Bill Evans Trio, the Jimmy Giuffre 3 and the early Paul Bley groups - jazz's "intellectual" wing - important impulses have also been drawn from the fiery expressionism of free jazz. Marion Brown's Afternoon of A Georgia Faun, Circle's Paris Concert and Dave Holland's Conference of the Birds (all three featuring the young Anthony Braxton) channeled the intensity of free playing in new ways in the early 70s and are acknowledged today as classics. The Art Ensemble of Chicago, many critics feel, made their best recordings for ECM (all of them engineered by Martin Wieland, a dependable partner on "free" productions over the last quarter-century). Furthermore, such diverse albums as Garbarek's Triptykon, Lester Bowie's All the Magic!, Gary Peacock's Voice From The Past and Hal Russell's Hal's Bells all testify to the enduring influence of Albert Ayler. The Old and New Dreams band, meanwhile, campaigned on behalf of Ornette Coleman's legacy. Its personnel - Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell - collectively, individually and in various permutations, have contributed many bright moments to jazz on ECM. Redman and Haden, of course, were also half of Keith Jarrett's volatile "American Quartet", completed by Paul Motian, which has two timeless and overwhelmingly powerful records on ECM: The Survivor's Suite and the live Eyes Of The Heart. Trumpeter Leo Smith worked with Manfred Eicher in pre-ECM years, issued a challenging album with Charlie Haden, Lester Bowie and Kenny Wheeler in the late 70s, and returned with Kulture Jazz, a summary of black music history, in the early 90s. Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, frequently instanced as Europe's first free jazz player, has contributed two hauntingly beautiful quartet recordings to the catalogue, Balladyna (with Dave Holland, Tomasz Szukalski and Edward Vesala), and Mother Johanna Of The Angels (with Bobo Stenson, Anders Jormin and Tony Oxley). Balancing post-bop technique, free expression and a romantic melancholy all his own, the Canadian trumpeter/flügelhornist Kenny Wheeler has realized several albums that merit "classic" status, including Gnu High with Jarrett, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette. Enrico Rava, Palle Mikkelborg, Markus Stockhausen, Mark Isham and Michael Mantler are five more highly individual trumpet stylists. Of the saxophone players, Garbarek and John Surman have the most ECM appearances to their credit, and both have worked a wide range of contexts. Surman's series of solo albums has been highly acclaimed; he has been heard furthermore in duo (with Jack DeJohnette), in trio (with Karin Krog and Pierre Favre), in quartet (his own and that of Miroslav Vitous), with his large ensemble The Brass Project and as guest on recordings by Barre Phillips, Mick Goodrick, and John Abercrombie. Garbarek has proven perhaps the player most amenable to the challenges of spontaneous encounters with other musicians in production projects - there are many in the ECM catalogue, which reflects, additionally, the development of the immensely popular Jan Garbarek Group. ECM Records has also supported Charles Lloyd's return to the jazz scene and shown him to be, in the company of sensitive Scandinavian co-musicians, a master of the tenor ballad. Other important saxophone players heard on ECM over the years are Michael Brecker, Dewey Redman, Dave Liebman, Bennie Maupin, David Murray, Arthur Blythe, John Purcell, Anthony Braxton, Sam Rivers, Charles Brackeen, the Art Ensemble's Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman, Carlos Ward, Marion Brown, Charlie Mariano, George Adams, Steve Coleman, Wolfgang Puschnig, Heinz Sauer, Gerd Dudek, Juhani Aaltonen, Trevor Watts and Evan Parker - to name but a few. Louis Sclavis is an improvising clarinettist drawing inspiration from contemporary composition, much as Jimmy Giuffre drew inspiration from Impressionism: both musicians can be heard on ECM. Hariprasad Chaurasia (on Zakir Hussain's Making Music) and James Newton (on his own Axum), meanwhile, demonstrate the flute's subtleties in parallel improvising traditions. Drummer-leaders: Paul Motian became a composer and a bandleader with ECM's encouragement. Edward Vesala's visions were also given an outlet, beginning with Nan Madol, a record truly ahead of its time, in 1974. Jack DeJohnette led three intriguing bands, Directions, New Directions and Special Edition, co-led a fourth, Gateway, and contributed, with boundless imagination, to numerous productions. Pierre Favre's particular sensitivities have been documented on his duo recordings with singer Tamia and his band Singing Drums and on albums with Dino Saluzzi and Paul Giger. Peter Erskine powered the Bass Desires band and now leads his own, Bill Evans-inspired, trio. Of the session drummers, none has proved more resourceful than Jon Christensen, a participant on dozens of albums. Latterly, Tony Oxley has brought new colours to recordings with John Surman, Paul Bley and Tomasz Stanko. Very many great small group drummers, between them covering every area of jazz creativity, have been represented. A partial listing: Barry Altschul, Bob Moses, Roy Haynes, Freddie Waits, Eric Gravatt, Don Moye, Philip Wilson, Ed Blackwell, Billy Higgins, Billy Hart, Thurman Barker, Marvin "Smitty" Smith, Stu Martin, Andrew Cyrille, Manu Katché, Audun Kleive, Fredy Studer, John Marshall, Eddie Prévost, John Stevens, Louis Moholo. Percussionists have included Collin Walcott, Airto Moreira, Dom Um Ramao, Nana Vasconcelos, Zakir Hussain, Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman, Vikku Vinayakram, Trilok Gurtu, Marilyn Mazur and Robyn Schulkowsky. Female vocalists, in and out of the jazz tradition, have made important contributions. Norma Winstone, for example, with Azimuth, the Kenny Wheeler Orchestra, and on her own Somewhere Called Home; Sheila Jordan with Steve Kuhn and Steve Swallow; Karin Krog with John Surman; Aina Kemanis with Barre Phillips, Alex Cline and Marilyn Mazur; Maggie Nicols with Alfred Harth; Christine Jeffrey with the Music Improvisation Company; Jeanne Lee with Marion Brown; Flora Purim with Return to Forever; R.A. Ramamani with Charlie Mariano and the Karnataka College of Percussion. Folk singers Agnes Buen Garnas and Mari Boine have helped Jan Garbarek research his roots. Lena Willemark brings improvisation to medieval Swedish folk music, and vice versa. Tamia and Meredith Monk sing in unknown tongues. Poet and singer Sidsel Endresen invites jazz players to underline the meaning of her texts. And then there are the string players - highly original musicians such as cellist David Darling, and violinists Paul Giger and Michael Galasso - improvisors all, yet outside the idioms - or more exactly, each in an idiom of his own devising. French violinist Dominique Pifarély draws influence from Stephane Grappelli and from free jazz, Bechir Selmi plays out of the pan-Arab traditions, and Shankar uses the ragas of the Karnatic system to launch his modal explorations on the custom-made electric double violin first introduced on Who's To Know, a stunning recital of Indian classical music. Musicians from diverse backgrounds have been brought together by ECM, and have frequently found a common understanding. Many successful touring bands were formed in the studio, including Jarrett's European Quartet; Belonging, with Jan Garbarek, Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen; the Gary Burton/Chick Corea duo first heard on Crystal Silence, Ralph Towner's group Solstice with Garbarek, Christensen and Eberhard Weber; the Egberto Gismonti, Jan Garbarek and Charlie Haden trio Magico; violinist Shankar's group with Garbarek, Zakir Hussain and Trilok Gurtu; Paul Bley's quartet with John Surman, Bill Frisell and Paul Motian, and Pat Metheny's 80/81 group with Michael Brecker, Dewey Redman, Haden and Jack DeJohnette. Even Jarrett's enduring trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette initially came together in 1977 for the studio recording of Peacock's Tales Of Another. Beyond jazz, ECM's repertoire has reached out to embrace the world's indigenous musical traditions, including Indian raga, Pakistani vocal music, Scandinavian folk song, African drumming, Brazilian choro, the diverse musics of Islam, Argentinian tango and Korean ritual music. Long before "world music" became a slogan, the group Codona (Collin Walcott, Don Cherry, Nana Vasconcelos) made an art out of extreme eclecticism, blending and contrasting the most diversified traditions. The unique guitarist/pianist/composer Egberto Gismonti claims to be equally inspired by jazz, the European tradition, and the sounds of the rainforest - all these elements had a role to play on his astonishing debut Dança das Cabeças, also featuring Nana Vasconcelos. Bandoneon virtuoso Dino Saluzzi offers a panorama of South American musics on Kultrum and Mojotoro. Anouar Brahem, a master of the oud, is a modern musician who builds upon Tunisian tradition "and all the music left in my country by the colonialists." Trevor Watts's saxophone solos fly over the interlocking rhythms of five Ghanaian drummers. World traveler Stephan Micus uses instruments from all the continents in his atmospheric solo albums. Saxophonist Wolfgang Puschnig and singer Linda Sharrock confront the deep pulsations of the SamulNori percussionists in South Korea. And Lena Willemark and Ale Möller show, on Nordan, how a single tradition - in this case the Swedish folk tradition - can offer a wealth of expressive potential. From the late 1970s, ECM extended its range still further with the work of modern composers including Steve Reich, Meredith Monk and John Adams. A revelatory encounter with the work of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt persuaded Eicher to create the ECM New Series. Launched in 1984 with Pärt's Tabula Rasa, the New Series bridges the centuries, illuminating areas of early music, for example, while also investigating the widest range of contemporary composition. The Hilliard Ensemble mediate easily between the past and the present, offering authoritative, often magical, interpretations of Gesualdo, Perotin, Tallis and Walter Frye, yet able also to grasp the essence of Pärt's Passio and Miserere or Gavin Bryars's Glorious Hill. On Officium, a three-way collaboration between the Hilliard singers, producer Eicher and Jan Garbarek, the Norwegian's saxophone seems to become an extension of the voices in the context of the Officium defunctorum of Morales. The New Series has focussed on composers from the east - Shostakovich, Pärt, Kancheli, Veress, Kurtág, Tormis, Schnittke and Górecki amongst them - but has by no means neglected the western composers. 12 Hommages à Paul Sacher, performed by Patrick and Thomas Demenga, presents a fascinating landscape of contemporary music by composers from Lutoslawski to Boulez, Britten to Holliger, Berio to Bech, Ginastera to Henze. Violist Kim Kashkashian has given what is regarded as the definitive reading of Hindemith's Viola Sonatas, and has also offered emotionally-charged performances of Kancheli's Vom Winde beweint and Britten's Lachrymae as well as Linda Bouchard's cryptic puzzle-piece Pourtinade. Gidon Kremer performs with Keith Jarrett on Pärt's Fratres, and is extensively featured in the Edition Lockenhaus series he initiated with Manfred Eicher. The range of Jarrett's powers as an interpreter are displayed in his acclaimed account of Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues op. 87 and his Bach recordings - the two books of Das Wohltemperierte Klavier(Book 1 and Book 2), the Goldberg Variations and the French Suites. Bach's Cello Suites, meanwhile, have been the subject of Thomas Demenga's recordings, contrasted in each case with modern composition - by Elliott Carter, Sándor Veress and Heinz Holliger. Christopher Bowers-Broadbent has collaborated with the Hilliard Ensemble in their Pärt recordings and under his own name has performed organ works by Pärt, Maxwell Davies, Philip Glass, Satie, Bryars, Górecki, Milhaud and Messiaen. Messiaen's most distinguished pupil, Karlheinz Stockhausen, is also represented on New Series with the chamber version of Michaels Reise, performed by the composer's ensemble with Markus Stockhausen as the virtuoso trumpet soloist. Meredith Monk's unclassifiable works form a sub-category within the New Series. Beginning in 1981, ECM has documented many aspects of this composer's work, from Dolmen Music to the opera ATLAS. The New Series is open to influence from the other arts; Heinz Holliger's Scardanelli-Zyklus, which takes the late writings of Hölderlin as a starting point, is one example. An album of Bruno Ganz's readings of Hölderlin, René Char and Johannes R. Becher is another. The borders, furthermore, between ECM's catalogue of improvisational music and the New Series are fluid, with many musicians - Jarrett, Garbarek, Heiner Goebbels and Paul Giger among them - recording for both. Alongside his musical endeavours, Eicher's passion for music is equalled by his passion for film, and many filmmakers have responded with a similar passion to the music. Eicher has developed close associations with several film directors, including Jean-Luc Godard, whose films Nouvelle Vague, Allemagne année 90 neuf-zéro, Helás pour moi and Histoire(s) du cinéma incorporate music from ECM - as does Xavier Koller's Oscar-winning Journey To Hope. ECM has released two albums of music written by Eleni Karaindrou for Greek director Theo Angelopoulos's films The Beekeeper, Landscape In The Mist and The Suspended Step Of The Stork. In 1991, Eicher co-directed his first feature film, Holozän, based on the Max Frisch novella, Man In The Holocene. The film, released in 1992, was awarded the Special Jury Prize of the 45th Locarno Film Festival. Steve Lake

releases

InPraise Of Dreams by Jan Garbarek

Selected Recordings by Jack DeJohnette

Rosslyn by John Taylor Trio

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Eislermaterial by Heiner Goebbels
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Towards The Wind by Stephan Micus
"Stephan Micus was inspired by recordings of the great duduk virtuoso Jivan Gasparian and was able to study with Armenia's greatest folk musician in Yerevan in the autumn of 1999..."
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