New ECM Records

[Stanko]

Originally Posted by jkelman

Ralph Towner's new cd with trumpeter Paolo Fresu won't be out in the US til March, 2010, but since it's out now in Europe, here's a review.

Bought also this... even though I'm sometimes critical of ECM's most recent trend, they can't say I'm not one of their best customers...

Obviously, in this case I wasn't expecting anything too adventurous, so the CD is more or less what I supposed it would have been: a high-level, melancholy example of chamber jazz.

Towner is one of my favorite guitarists: deep, varied and never banal. The use of the baritone guitar has immediately reminded me of Metheny's album (One quiet night... perhaps too quiet ), but Ralph makes a well-balanced use of it.
Fresu, whose beautiful timbre is of value itself, attests his poetic vein, imo half-way between Miles and... Enrico Rava.

"Punta Giara", "Zephyr" and the reprise of "Sacred Place" are the tunes I prefer.

A nice work, also considering there are very few guitar-trumpet duos (Snetberger-Stockhausen the only that flashes immediately into my mind...); dullness would probably be the main risk, in other hands; a risk absolutely avoided in this case.
All things considered, fair the CD length (46').

PS: I'm so sorry about my English...

[jkelman]

A double-disc reissue of almost all the material from German trumpeter's three JAPO discs, Resonance will appeal to fans of Eberhard Weber's Colours group that don't mind the music getting a little freer at times. Longtime Weber keyboardist Rainer Bruninghaus is even on part of the disc, elswhere it's Jasper van't Hof. The mix of trumpet, bass clarinet, keyboards, bass and drums was quite unique for the time. Review here.

[cgray]

Originally Posted by jkelman

Longtime Bruninghaus keyboardist Rainer Bruninghaus is even on part of the disc...

Just to clarify -- I think Mr. Kelman means "Longtime Weber keyboardist Rainer Bruninghaus...", no?

[jkelman]

Originally Posted by cgray

Just to clarify -- I think Mr. Kelman means "Longtime Weber keyboardist Rainer Bruninghaus...", no?

Oops...um....

Meant "Longtime Weber keyboardist"
Sorry! Edited...
John

[Alypius]

In the latest issue of Gramophone (arguably the leading classical music magazine), ECM was named label of the year for 2009. The editors especially cited ECM "New Music" offerings as one of the main reasons for the award. I figured that ECM aficionados like John and other contributors to this thread would appreciate hearing that Manfred's getting the recognition he so deserves--and even in the sometimes prickly world of classical music.

[dsschicago]

I apologize for the interuption about new ECM, but I'm flooding AAJ with a link to another AAJ thread about an Amazon Mp3 sale: 14 discs of selected Rarum for 18 bucks. Here's the thread...

http://forums.allaboutjazz.com/showt...556#post494556