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| ECM: February releases “Jazz” on ECM has always addressed a wide range of possibilities. And never more so than in the first half of 2006 with releases by old masters, debuts by new names, fresh constellations of players, and sounds from everywhere – from Gambia to Norway, from Tunisia to India, from Switzerland to the USA. Paul Motian Band: Garden of Eden Recorded in New York, “Garden of Eden” is the first ECM album by the group previously known as the Paul Motian Electric Bebop Band, the name-change reflecting a modified artistic agenda. Bebop and bebop-influenced tunes remain a significant part of the group’s palette, and there are invigorating performances here of music by Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker but increasingly Motian’s own material is a priority, and it is sensitively illuminated by Paul’s “personal orchestra”, the guitars (three of them now) and saxes group he formed at the beginning of the 1990s. Release date: February 3rd. Terje Rypdal:Vossabrygg A live recording from Norway’s Vossa Jazz Festival, the title means “Vossa Brew”, and Terje Rypdal’s extended work celebrates the enduring influence of Miles Davis’s “Bitches Brew” - with double drums, double keyboards, the trumpet of Palle Mikkelborg and Terje’s inimitably stratospheric Stratocaster. A spirited crew of old friends, augmented by Rypdal’s son Marius on electronics, considers ways in which rock and jazz have interwoven with each other in the years since Miles drew up the blueprint. Release date: February 3rd. Anouar Brahem: Le Voyage de Sahar The eagerly-awaited sequel to “Le pas du chat noir” featuring the Tunisian oud master’s trio with piano and accordion. “Le Voyage de Sahar” has a more evolved improvisational component than its predecessor, while keeping the mystery and magic intact. Inside a programme of evocative new compositions by Brahem, the trio also revisits, and reinvents key pieces from “Khomsa” and “Astrakan Cafe”. As London’s Time Out wrote, “It is almost impossible to imagine a lovelier meeting of Arabic and European musics.” Release date: February 24th. Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin:Stoa ECM debut for Swiss pianist-composer Nik Bärtsch and his group Ronin. Bärtsch describes the group’s music as ‘Zen funk’ which gives some index of its precision and joyousness. Ronin’s music is built up of interlocking rhythm patterns and iterative ‘modules’, building blocks of diverse compositional parameter. Inside the tightly organized structure there is room for improvisation – “the pieces are spaces to be entered and inhabited” (Bärtsch) – and the music swings powerfully in a unique ‘ritualistic’way. Release date: February 24th. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |