JazzCorner.com has been the home of the ECM forums: to discuss and learn 'everything ECM' for close to three years, and so we take with great pleasure and pride to inform you about three current releases from ECM
Paul Motian, Chris Potter and Jason Moran: Lost in a Dream - released March 9th In February 2009, Paul Motian convened this trio for a special project at New York’s Village Vanguard. From a week of concert recordings, Motian and producer Manfred Eicher subsequently selected the material presented on Lost In A Dream. The album puts an emphasis on balladry, using ballads as vehicles for profound soloing and group playing. In these touching performances of Paul’s songs, increasingly open to improvisational intervention, we get to learn more of the specific capacities of the featured musicians - and of the potential of this combination of players.
Amongst the very first artists to appear on ECM, with Paul Bley’s trio and then with Keith Jarrett’s "American Quartet", Paul Motian’s career as a leader was begun at the label. Conception Vessel was soon followed by other important musical statements including Tribute, Dance, Le Voyage, Psalm and It Should Have Happened A Long Time Ago. His 21st century output for ECM includes two albums with his trio with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano, as well as Garden of Eden with the Paul Motian Band. He can also be heard on Enrico Rava’s Tati and New York Days and discs with Marilyn Crispell and Anat Fort.
The Paul Motian Trio with Greg Osby (replacing Chris Potter) appearing at New York's Village Vanguard THIS WEEK - March 16-21.
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Ralph Towner and Paolo Fresu: Chiaroscuro – released: March 16thAmerican master guitarist Ralph Towner may collaborate rarely, but his choices in partners have always been beyond astute. For this exciting new duo, of unusual, yet highly attractive instrumentation, he introduces a new partner in the form of Italian trumpet star Paolo Fresu whose remarkably pure and elegant tone is reminiscent of early Miles Davis. Towner’s compositions offer continually changing landscapes for Fresu’s horn to grace, in poetic and lyrical pieces which feature gradations of light and shade, of sound and shadows. Chiaroscuro introduces a new duo and a rare instrumental combination - trumpet and acoustic guitar. The repertoire: a program of old and new Ralph Towner compositions and duo improvisations, plus an old Miles Davis favorite, its presence a key to the musical priorities at work here.
The album was recorded in October 2008 in Udine, but the story of the Towner/Fresu alliance really begins further South, at a festival in Sardinia, 15 years ago. Towner had been commissioned to write music for a local ensemble. Fresu was its trumpeter. "I didn’t know him at all then," Ralph recalls, "but from the very first phrase that he played, I thought: 'This guy really understands melodies!' And I thought there and then that we should do some more work together."
The composition played that night, "Punta Giara", resurfaces here in rearranged form, along with pieces shaped especially for this album, including the title track, a study in strong contrasts. The atmospheric "Sacred Place", heard in two versions, and "Doubled Up" bring Towner’s new baritone guitar to the fore. Tuned a fifth below his classical concert guitar it allows him new flexibility in the low range, and the freedom to be, effectively, his own bassist on the clever “Doubled Up”, the most overtly jazz-like of the new tunes. "'Doubled up' has many meanings, of course, including doubled up with laughter. Here the theme is sequenced, so to speak, the events happen twice, each theme 'doubled'’ by the two players."
Ralph Towner and Paolo Fresu will be performing:
March 23rd at the Regatta Bar (Boston, MA)
March 24th at the Italian Academy at Columbia University (New York, NY) March 27th at YBCA Forum (San Francisco, CA)
March 28th at The Triple Door (Seattle, WA)
March 23rd at the Regatta Bar (Boston, MA)
March 24th at the Italian Academy at Columbia University (New York, NY) March 27th at YBCA Forum (San Francisco, CA)
March 28th at The Triple Door (Seattle, WA)
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Tord Gustavsen Ensemble: Restored, Returned – released: February 9th After three wonderful trio albums Gustavsen branches off in new directions adding two players familiar to ECM listeners – bassist Mats Eilertsen and saxophonist Tore Brunborg – and introducing the blues-inflected voice of Kristin Asbjørnsen on Tord's gorgeous settings of the poetry of W.H. Auden.
On JazzCorner.com's ECM Forum, Restored, Returned, has become an active discussion.
Tord Gustavsen Ensemble will be performing: March 28th at YBCA Forum (San Francisco, CA) and March 31st at Merkin Concert Hall, (New York, NY)
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SPECIAL BONUS for U.S. readers of JazzCorner's newsletter: A free poster of any of the titles mentioned above. ECM will mail them directly to you. Just email JazzCorner with subject line as ECM Poster and include your snail mail address.
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