ECM jazz albums celebrate rebirth of the cool
THE German prestige label ECM under its founder and uber-producer Manfred Eicher is equally adept at picking up gongs in the contemporary, classical and jazz fields.
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THE German prestige label ECM under its founder and uber-producer Manfred Eicher is equally adept at picking up gongs in the contemporary, classical and jazz fields, as its recently announced seven nominations for the 60th Grammy Awards attest.
Among its recent jazz releases are two from guitarists Ralph Towner and Wolfgang Muthspiel, both of whom will be familiar to Australian music fans for their trio performances and recordings with our own Slava Grigoryan.
At 77 and with a prodigious body of recorded work behind him, multi-instrumentalist composer and performer Towner shows no sign of running out of energy, ideas or inspiration.
He takes the title of his latest album, My Foolish Heart, from the only song he didn’t write on this beautiful collection of 12 tracks. Listening to the Bill Evans Trio’s version of the jazz standard inspired Towner to take up the piano and form a jazz trio before turning to the guitar as his first instrument.
FOLKY
He gives it the classical guitar treatment, moving effortlessly through its delectable chord sequence.
It is followed by Dolomiti Dances, a track Towner recorded with his foursome Oregon. It’s a tune that sounds like you’ve heard it somewhere before and has a delightful folky feel.
After the five opening tracks on nylon strings, Towner gets out his signature 12-string acoustic for Clarion Call, using damping effects, harmonics and free-ranging runs up and down the fretboard.
He also exploits the instrument’s distinctive sound on the all-too-short Biding Time, one of a trio of gemlike miniatures that give this album such a refreshing feeling of variety.
Austrian wunderkind Muthspiel teams up with three of America’s finest jazz musicians for his album Rising Grace.
Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire is as much the star here as Muthspiel. Hailed by one critic as “the future of jazz”, the 34-year-old from Oakland, California, was a knockout three years back when he gave a show in the Magic Spiegeltent at Sydney Festival.
Although on this album Muthspiel shows his considerable talents in many guises, from the melodic classical-folk chord sequences on the opening title track to the straight head electric solos of a Herbie Ellis or Joe Pass on Wolfgang’s Waltz and Superonny, he’s equally happy acting as a facilitator for his fiercely talented quintet.
Akinmusire has the cool assuredness and beauty of tone of early Miles Davis where each note is thought out and placed in exactly the right moment. Although he possesses a prodigious technique, using his mouth and fingers to squeeze all the juice and goodness he can out of his trumpet, nothing is superfluous. Taste, subtlety and good judgment always prevail.
The rhythm section is one of the best in pianist Brad Mehldau, drummer Brian Blade and bassist Larry Grenadier.
Cool and beautiful are adjectives that you would not use for British pianist Django Bates who leads his tight trio Beloved on The Study of Touch. Nothing goes in a straight line here. Bates introduces an idea which is taken up by bass and drums but then there’s a sudden switch, a change of pace and mood, which although episodic in effect gives the 11 tracks a fascinating and deeply enjoyable sense of adventure, variety and newness.
This is excellent in the moment jazz from an artist who seemingly has a bottomless well of musical resources. He bounces his many ideas off a receptive duo in Swedish bassist Petter Eldh and Danish drummer Peter Bruun.
Bates mixes his own originals with Passport, a nice tribute to his hero Charlie Parker.
Although much of the material is cool and spacious, featuring Eicher’s crystal clear perfect production ethic, the foursome are able to fire it up when needed
And if breathy alto saxophone is your thing then look no further than Unloved, featuring Polish front man Maciej Obara with his quartet’s debut recording.
Obara and fellow Pole pianist Dominick Wania have played together for about 10 years and for this project they are joined by two talented Norwegians in double bassist Ole Morten Vagan and drummer Gard Nilssen.
Although much of the material is cool and spacious, featuring Eicher’s crystal clear perfect production ethic, the foursome are able to fire it up when needed, as in the closing moments of Sleepwalker.
Wania’s piano comes to the fore in Echoes — at nine minutes the longest track on the disc — but it is Obara’s inventive melodic thrust that is at the heart of this collection.
Birdland Records has all four albums available for $33.