/blindfold/

One track has US sidemen to keep a little bit of connection to bop tradition :) - many ethnic influences otherwise

Have fun listening, I'm catching a couple of sets at the local jazz club, but I'll be in the thread later today.

>Track 1
I’m not really sure what I’m hearing here. Piano, trumpet, plus percussion? Plus some kind of string instrument as well. It’s sort of nice the way it builds up into a kind of soundscape. Then right as it was starting to get stagnant they shifted to the more minimal thing. But I’ll say this quieter second half goes on a little too long without much development or anything. I know last week Jazzpossu said something about the Matthew Shipp track that it was hard to make sense of out of context of the rest of the album and I think this is something similar. I think it could be pretty enjoyable in the context of an album but on its own I guess I don’t feel much about it.

>Track 2
I’ll guess this is Jan Garbarek. The tone of the sax sounds pretty dated now. It’s that sort of overly romantic sound. The tune is kind of cool but really the solos don’t do that much for me. The ideas aren’t all that interesting and coupled with that dated cheesy tone from the sax, I can think of players I’d rather hear playing a song like this. Same with the piano solo really. The rhythm section felt pretty passive most of the track… Maybe I’ll have to give it one more listen though. It could be one of the 70’s records he did with Bobo Stinson.

>Track 3
Now this I like quite a bit. Reminds me of John Abercrombie. The drumming is especially good. He never really does anything that actually stands out but he keeps subtly changing what he’s doing and it fits the music very well. I’ll guess this is something led by the guitarist. Maybe one of those Scandinavian guitarists like Jacob Young or Jakob Bro.

>>69277097
>Track 4
Clarinet and possibly oud? I’d guess this is something Anour Brahem has done but I haven’t heard much of his stuff. It also reminds me a little of some of the things that Zakir Hussein has done. I liked this one overall. It definitely leans more toward the traditional folk music side of things with a nice minimalist style to it that fits the ECM sound. Not bad.

>Track 5
Normally I would think the accordion would be kind of gimmicky but they’re kind of actually playing on the tango style I think. So it ends up that it’s the sax that sounds weird. I also don’t really get the tune… it’s very repetitive but in a way that’s hard to predict. It also has that “intentionally messy” sound to it. So overall I just don’t really get it.

>Track 6
Sounds like Dave Holland on bass. Oh yeah this is See Saw from Conference of the Birds. It’s a bit of a stretch to call this one international though isn’t it? I think Rivers, Braxton, and Altschul are all American? Anyway I like Rivers’ solo the best here but the contrast between the solos is nice and I love Altschul’s drumming, that little splash cymbal that he uses is pretty cool especially when things start to get crazy in Braxton’s solo.

>Track 7
Haha yeah this is some classic ECM stuff. It sounds quite a bit like video game music though doesn’t it? This kind of thing comes off sounding very gimmicky today I think. I’ll guess this is somebody like Terje Rypdal or Eberhard Weber.

>>69277132
>Track 8
Is this My Foolish Heart? Definitely is. Interesting version how it gets pretty far out there but the melody is still definitely there and easy to pick out if you know the tune. The only ECM violinist who comes to mind at the moment is Mark Feldman but I don’t think this really sounds like him.

>Track 9
This sounds a little bit like a standard too. Ooh this is cool. Great drumming here too. Killer piano. I like the hints of Afro-Cuban he’s throwing in there. Everything about this was great. I feel like I should probably know who this is but I really have no idea. I will definitely have to get whatever album this comes from.

>Track 10
This is another one that feels like it’s hard to make sense of out of context of the album. It’s not bad, but it feels like kind of an interlude to give you a little bit of a break between two more interesting or more intense pieces. Could be somebody like Enrico Rava or Paolo Fresu. For some reason it has that kind of sound to me.

>>69277097
Many great guesses and ID's here - I guess a lot of this week is heavy on context

Track 6 is indeed this week's nod to US tradition and players to not make everything too removed from jazz tradition

>>69277656
>Track 6 is indeed this week's nod to US tradition and players to not make everything too removed from jazz tradition
Couldn't find anything in that style from a mostly European band? I might take a look and see if I can find something on ECM that's like that.

>>69277892
I didn't really put that much effort into it - I started more as a non-US leaders theme, but ended up venturing more into ethnic themes and thought one low hanging fruit would be nice to keep in

1. This seems pretty far removed from jazz to me but I guess that goes along with the international theme. Especially the European sound. It’s cool how at first it sounds like they’re all playing something different but then eventually you can tell they’re all playing together. 3 stars.

2. This sort of sounds like if John Coltrane had gotten into smooth jazz. It’s a little bit cheesy sometimes but it’s better when they get into the free jazz sounding stuff more. Not bad. 3 stars.

3. This sounds more like what I know of ECM. Very minimal and quiet. I like the combination of guitar and trumpet. Could it be Kenny Wheeler? I don’t know but this one was my favorite so far. 3.5 stars.

4. This has a definite world music feel to it. Mostly from the percussion and the sound of the string instrument. Maybe that’s the oud that keeps showing up on blindfold playlists. I don’t know much about that instrument though. Overall this one was decent but I don’t really have much to say about it. 3 stars.

5. This was kind of cool. I’ve never heard an instrument combination like this before. I think it works kind of well and I feel like it’s an interesting blend of jazz with like French music or something. I’d be interested in hearing more of this. 3.5 stars.

I'll do the rest a little bit later.

>>69278568
>1
Certainly one of the major thoughts going into this thread was the role of ECM as a label that helped establish and promote new forms of improvised music that wanted to avoid cultural appropriation of black American music, while still being strongly influenced by the spirit and some elements.

This particular track is for me a particularly engaging piece of contemporary free improvisation from an album that has some very heavily ethnic connections elsewhere, that I wanted to hear what you guys think of.

>2
For me this one exemplifies some core qualities of European ECM, I'll get to all that in the reveal.

>3
Not Wheeler, but certainly an example of current century ECM stylings. JTG is on some right tracks.

>5
jtg has the base ethnic flavor correct in this fundamentally being a somewhat perverted tango, but there's some relatively obscure context that I think makes it interesting taken out of context, but I guess you'll be the judges of that.

Anyway. this track is basically an interlude in the original album context, but rather rich in the kind of international ECM flavor that this /blindfold/ turned out to be and also a bit of a repeating motif across multiple ECM releases..

>>69277892
Actually one thing that I would have liked to bring out more is that ECM is an interesting label in how it appears rather different to US and Euro jazz fans - they put out a very large number of albums yearly and from all I've seen their marketing and distribution is very heavily skewed towards pushing different albums in different markets.

In overseas-ECM related, I had the pleasure of seeing Michael Formanek yesterday playing the Ensemble Kolossus material released on the ECM album The Distance with a local all-star'ish Sibelius Academy Alumni Big Band.

It was really great stuff - I loved how it was so varied in styles while leaving really great spots for soloists. Looking at Formanek's calendar, this was the first time some other ensemble was performing Ensemble Kolossus music and he seemed rather impressed giving many smiles and thumbs up to soloists making good use of spaces left with some individual in mind in creative ways.

I was particularly impressed with local guitarist Ilari Filander doing a magnificent job in filling in Mary Halvorson's boots. This was the first time I heard him in a setting this controlled and he was just killing it in a way that fit the material - here are some samples of what type of playing he is usually doing, not someone you'd think would flourish in a big band setting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWoM0efabCU

>>69277179
Bump with informations

>8
yeah, pretty unique approach so I chose the standard as the track, this is indeed My Foolish Heart

>10
this is actually the ending track - from a highly context driven album

For any who might be interested here, the New York jazz club Smalls streams all their shows live every day, today going from 4pm to 4am on smallslive.com

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>>69280788
>smallslive.com
I guess I really should get signed up to see the old broadcasts, I spend my jazz-appreciation-dollars in less productive ways anyway - being 7 hours ahead in time zones makes it very unwieldy to watch anything live. Not a big fan of looking at YouTube live recordings, though, shit just sounds bad, but I guess Smalls would be better quality.

Attached is a pic of Minnow the resident jazz cat of Small's from when I had a chance to go there on my short New York visit last year - very cool club.

>>69280855
hmh. that's not my pic though, appears it's from Flickr that I had saved for random reasons, the quality was surprisingly good - now that I mentioned it I'll try to find a pic of my own

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>>69280883
here's my wife's hand scratching a very unimpressed Minnow, the Small's club jazz cat

>>69278568
6. I’m getting an Ornette Coleman vibe from this one. Sounds very post boppy. I’m liking what the drummer’s doing a lot and I like it how they go pretty free but it still swings mostly. I guess there’s no trumpet but two saxes instead. This one’s my favorite so far. 4 stars.

7. Pretty weird stuff. It seems like you couldn’t really get away with making stuff like this today. It seems like it’s just focused on weird sounds and synthesizers and whatever else is going on. Probably my least favorite so far. 2 stars.

8. Solo violin. I liked it at the start but I started to lose interest about half way through. And it isn’t even that long. Solo instrumental jazz can be ok sometimes but I didn’t really like this one. 2.5 stars.

9. This is nice. That melody is pretty catchy. It sounds like it’s piano and guitar together. I like everything that’s going on but the drums stand out to me the most. This one was cool. 3.5 stars.

10. I liked this one too. It’s the kind of thing I think of when I think of ECM. Very spacious and quiet and just kind of drifts along where you can’t tell what’s improvised or not. It’s fine to listen to but maybe a little bit generic in the category of ECM stuff. 3 stars.

>>69280855
>from when I had a chance to go there on my short New York visit last year - very cool club.
I hope I get a chance to go someday.

>>69280975
>6
yeah - I can get behind this being in the Ornette tradition, certainly a classic ECM release in the traditional jazz canon

>7
when I was first getting into ECM, one of the first albums I got from the local library was by the people involved here because it had a 5 star review in Allmusic or something and I just couldn't get it at all

I find their stuff fairly compelling now, but it is pretty unique and in many ways downright weird - I'm mostly curious what people make of this (and whether the original composition is obvious)

>8
Solo violin is a strange beast - I've seen this person play a solo set and the visuals of playing add quite a bit to it.

On this list because nationality covering and due to the relative scarcity of solo violin improvisation/jazz albums in general - I don't think I could name any apart from this one off the top of my head.

>Track One
Loved the use of colour in this one. The acoustic instruments were being played so unusually that it was a little hard to tell which sounds were electronic and which weren't.
The first half reminded me of how I tend to experience Autechre's music. I wasn't feeling much emotionally but it was still really captivating. But while Autechre's music sounds like it could have been generated by an algorithm at times (and there was a detachedness to a lot of this too) the trumpet was quite soulful and really stood out against the more impassive accompaniment.
It was really beautiful and I'm not sure I've heard anything quite like this in jazz. It's more akin to something Venetian Snares or Glass would do.
The pianist was phenominal too. He seriously nailed the sort of mechanical vibe they were going for.
As the track progressed, it got a lot more delicate sounding and bits of Stravinsky influence started creeping in.
Overall this pushed a lot of my buttons and I'm excited to go pick this record up.
>track two
I've been listening to a lot of Coltrane albums recently so I was pretty in the mood for this sort of thing. Those eastern European elements made for a pretty interesting mixture too.
I can't fault that sax solo. It developed nicely with a variety of melodic content and was played very lyrically.
I don't think the band were as interactive as they could have been but I liked their contributions. In different circumstances I'd probably have disliked the straightforward crotchet beats in the drums and bass but I think it fit the aesthetic really well and when they strayed from that, things started feeling a bit messy so I'm thinking it was better that they were keeping a consistent and obvious beat. Plus, I think the sort of matchy feeling was really appropriate.
The pianist was ok. I loved how he was playing during the head, adding in fills/answering phrases but in comparison, there wasn't as much interplay in the solos.

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>Track Three
Another good track and one I actually know quite well. This is from Tomasz Stanko's Dark Eyes. A really beautiful modal record that I like to put on during long commutes. It's really good music for letting scenery float by.
I don't want to say the whole album is like this(it isn't) but there's a vibe to the record that's exemplified nicely here.
Stanko's breatheytone goes really well with that signature ECM echo and he's got this sort of gentle intensity I normally associate with players like Miles.
This is modal jazz done really, really well, the players work so much tension into their solos even playing over a one note ostinato. They manage to turn a simple idea that would probably infuriate me if done by a less competent band into a really compelling tool for building solos. Harmonic freedom is not an excuse to play harmonically simple ideas and these guys don't take that easy route that you get a lot of fusion and spiritual players taking.
>Track Four
Something a bit more...middle eastern? Indian? One of those.
Those percussion instruments sound so cool. That big booming timpani-esque one keeping the beat is pretty awesome but the sharper sounding one is getting loads of interplay in with the [ethnic string instrument]. The [ethnic string instrument] was probs my favourite guy on here too. The continuity between his accompaniment and his first solo was very impressive. He kept going with that rhythmic ostinato as the basis of his solo and it flowed really nicely.
>Track Five
What the fuck is even going on here? This is the goofiest tango I've ever heard but it's so endearing. If John Zorn wasn't American, I might have suspected it was him...this is the sort of musical comedy he specialises in.
>Dat fade out

It's kinda a shame that these are just international players. Something like pic related would be right at home on this playlist.

>Track Six
Dave Holland's See Saw from Conference of the Birds. Off the top of my head, I can't think of an ECM record I enjoy more than this one.
The album is pervaded by this barely contained insanity with the music bleeding into the edges of free jazz but even the craziest moments on the record are still very well controlled and executed.
Holland is a fantastic leader guiding everyone along and masterfully setting the pace of the songs while still giving the band room to explore some pretty wild ideas.
You can hear that really well on this one with Altschul playing off Rivers and Braxton's honking and overblown phrases but ultimately falling back into line with Holland's insistent atonal walk. Things aren't allowed to fall apart until Holland is ready and even when he drops the walk, the band finds itself back to the bop groove or, at the ends of solos when the other sax joins in, into the head. The contrast between some of those bits is cray. From some of the freest playing on the album, they seamlessly manage to drop back into precomposed material and they end up playing it with so much conviction coming out of those free blowing sessions.

>Track Seven
Sounds like some of Brian Blade's fusion stuff, albeit a bit less bland. Return to Forever with more drugs would probably be a better comparison. The vocals are a little much but I respect the experimentation and the guitar playing is really solid.
They should have wrapped things up way before that last unaccompanied guitar solo though.

>Track Eight
I didn't think this was particularly jazzy but after a while, I started hearing bits of melody that I recognise. I think this is a standard that I know pretty well. Obviously, it's being abstracted a lot but there's something there.
It's a little rambly at times but there's enough coherently articulated melody and heartache that I don't mind some of the skittering atonal interruptions. I do think they could have been executed a lot more tactfully though.
>Track nine
There are unusual amounts of consonance for such a boppy performance. At times it was almost a bit ragtimey.
Not sure I've much else to say about this but it was pretty fun.
>Track Ten
This is deffinitely something that would have been better in the context of an album. It was very dramatic and well executed but I found it hard to buy into just by itself. It'd probably be unfair to criticize it in the way I feel like doing now cause it deffinitely wasn't supposed to be heard following that scampering upbeat bop number.

>>69280788
>>69280855
Even though I've been to New York three times in the past five years I still haven't been to Smalls. Though I watch their live streams all the time. It just happened that the nights I was there I wanted to see people who were playing at other clubs.

>>69280946
Who did you see when you were there?

>>69281219
>there wasn't as much interplay in the solos.
Exactly what I thought

Btw, I was thinking of putting together a "Third stream" playlist. 5 classically influenced jazz tracks with 5 jazz influenced classical tracks. What do people think? I know it's not very in sticking with the sort of musicians we normally had but hey, I've put Bjork and Yes on tracklists and people didn't complain too much.

>>69285155
Sounds cool. I've got a few ready to go:

Ornette Coleman compositions
HATology label
Criss Cross label pt. 2
SteepleChase label pt. 2

Posting Cuban jazz in remembrance for my boi castro
https://youtu.be/qWMZPy2wLOU

>>69290072
>Irakere
pretty good taste

Morning bump

>>69290176
wew, finally someone on this website knows about Irakere.

I was never too much of a fan of the ecm sound. too quiet and spacey. but of course they've released so many great albums with great players.

1. This is weird. Reminds me of certain free improv I've heard like evan parker. except there's definitely a rhythm and a "swing" here, at least develops into one. It's a testament that ensemble to get sounds out like that, and to play together like that. There's some weird string instrument too. pretty interesting but it goes on a bit too long

2. This sounds like Jan garbarek. He's got a distinct new age tone that annoys the hell out of me. Hes a competent improviser though, i like when he gets more unhinged. The composition sounds more like a classical arrangement and the foreign/Scandinavian influence is always a nice touch.

3. I think I've heard this before. Reminds me of Manu Katche? The drumming is very good. I think Eicher's production suits this recording well, with the long pretty tones, and the way the piano and drums sort of float along with it all, makes a nice very nice atmosphere.

4. Another foreign piece. Not entirely sure what instruments are being played here. I'd guess some immigrant from the middle east. the percussion does a lot in few words i think. the interplay between the clarinet and string instrument is great.

5. man this is even weirder as the last one. like a jazz ensemble playing a gypsy waltz. I hope there's some sort of album element I'm missing here that was an annoying listen.

6. this is familiar too. from Dave Holland's conference of the birds. I've always meant to get more of sam rivers when i listen to this. surprised such an album would be featured, this is one of the most recognized ECM records. maybe after koln concert return to forever and music for 18 musicians. Holland and the drummer really make themselves heard without even taking a solo. also didn't know dave holland was british. huh

7. Another unorthodox piece. the rhythmic vocalizations are kind of relaxing. there's not much too the improvising but he plays off the singing well. again there's probably something album specific to this so it doesn't do much for me

8. this is my foolish heart. I was just listening to waltz for debby an hour ago lol. I don't care for the violins tone or the dynamics. the improv isn't enough for the violin to carry this song alone i think.

9. This doesn't sound like your typical ecm, european, eicher-produced song. Very nice bop piano trio. such nice solos too, some really tight playing. I'd like to hear the rest of this, even though this one seems to stand out by itself more than all the others.

10. Feels kind of appropriate to bookend the playlist with this. The composition is kind of a march. the piano sounds very Scandanavian. the singer really pushes out those words. I'm sure this another contextual piece, but it fits in here.

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Does everyone agree that that ECM has the best album covers? I mean so many of them are literally works of art. Even the ones that are just text are amazing. Also want to share this album. its not european at all but its such a great ecm release. i mean just look at that line-up!

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>>69292155
ECM has a lot of great covers from different time periods - certainly one of my favorite labels for cover design alongside Blue Note (particularly in the 60's) and TUM Records.

I remember reading somewhere that ECM headquarters in Munich has hundreds of potential cover art photos and pictures lined up ready to go, so there's a large selection of theme fitting material to choose appropriate art for new albums.

I like these minimalist ones from the 70's with this thick barred gradient-thing like this Jarrett album and Abercrombie's Timeless.

>>69290072
>tfw you hear about Castro's death in a blindfold thread
This is a strange website.

>>69292587
same for me - appropriately enough one composition this week is firmly rooted in the Cuban revolution

>>69291243
Irakere used to be quite popular here in Finland in the 70's and one of the founding members, bassist Carlos Del Puerto lives here.

It was a pretty cool and emotional moment when Chick Corea came to Helsinki with his updated Vigil band a few years ago with Carlos' son Carlitos Del Puerto on bass and they revealed Carlos in the audience.

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>>69281984
bumping with some pretty cool and extremely Polish poster design for an ECM fueled jazz festival in Poland help a couple of weeks ago that Tomasz Stanko is the artistic director of - very nice line-up, too

>>69277179
>>69280693
>My Foolish Heart
That's what it was! I knew I recognised it. That was a damn far out interpretation though.

bump - I have some business to attend to so reveals will come a few hours later than usual - keep this alive for the next 5 hours or so in case I won't be able to bump

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>>69292155
Columbia tho

>>69292155
>Does everyone agree that that ECM has the best album covers?
Probably. I will say they definitely have the best overall aesthetic.

>>69292536
>I remember reading somewhere that ECM headquarters in Munich has hundreds of potential cover art photos and pictures lined up ready to go, so there's a large selection of theme fitting material to choose appropriate art for new albums.
That's pretty interesting. I always kind of wondered how that worked.

>>69292742
>Irakere used to be quite popular here in Finland in the 70's
I never would have guessed that. Is Latin jazz very popular there in general?

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Does minimalism jazz exist?

>>69294715
That's kind of the whole gimmick of ECM

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Track 1:
Tigran Hamasyan, Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset, Jan Bang - Traces VII
from Atmosphérés (2016)
Tigran Hamasyan - piano
Arve Henriksen - trumpet
Eivind Aarset - guitar
Jan Bang - live sampling

Opening up with one in a series of collective compositions/improvisations entitled Traces from Armenian born pianist Tigean Hamasyan with Norwegians Arve Henriksen on trumpet, Eivind Aarset on guitar and Jan Bang on live sampling giving the no-drums, no-bass trios music a nice electronic tinge. This is from a recent double-CD Atmosphères that mainly consists of more abstract ethereal pieces like this and interpretations of the music of Armenian priest and musicologist Komitas, considered the founder of Armenian national school of music and a pioneering ethnomusicology.

This particular track is one of my personal favorites from this year, I've often listened to it several times in a row despite it's length.

In Northern Europe, ECM sound is often characterized as having a "northern coolness" and a certain minimalism to it that musicians like Henriksen and Aarset are also well known for.

Also worth noting is that since the 90's all ECM CD's start with 5 seconds of silence - tying in with ECM's motto "the Most Beautiful Sound Next to Silence", so as the only chosen track with that bit of silence gets to start this week's proceedings.

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Track 2:
Jan Garbarek - Hasta Siempre
from Witchi-Tai-To (1973)
Jan Garbarek - saxophone
Bobo Stenson - piano
Palle Danielsson - bass
Jon Christensen - drums

The tune Hasta Siempre written by Cuban Carlos Puebla in the mid-60's to honor Che Guevara turned out to be an appropriate choice as Fidel Castro passed away during this /blindfold/. It's performed here by the Jan Garbarek-Bobo Stenson Quartet - Garbarek is a name that comes up quite often when Europeans try to describe what "the ECM sound" means to them.

The rise of ECM coincides with the rise of a new generation of European musicians who were looking to making jazz influenced and improvised music that owed less to African-American culture. In the 50's and early 60's a lot of European interest in jazz was driven by cold war US propaganda - many older jazz fans cite the daily jazz programs broadcast on the US state funded Voice of America radio all over Europe as a primary source of new jazz at that time and US State Department also sponsored many tours of top jazz musicians. At that time much of European jazz playing revolved around trying to copy what the American musicians were doing.

In the mid-60's this started to change in Europe with more original styles and a wider array of ethnic musical influences with also some overlap with the leftist music of the time where themes like opposing the war in Vietnam and US imperialism in Latin America were common - basically similar stuff to Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra. This was also fueled by Soviet funded cultural propaganda in the 70's bringing Latin American groups like Irakere to Europe - here in Finland Latin American culture was quite popular in the 70's and these groups were well received with some like Irakere and Chilean vocal group Inti-Illimani (maybe best known for their version of El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido) even recording for Finnish Love Record during their visits.

>>69294272

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Track 3:
Tomasz Stanko Quintet - Terminal 7
from Dark Eyes (2009)
Tomasz Stanko - trumpet
Jakob Bro - guitar
Alexi Tuomarila - piano
Anders Christensen - bass
Olavi Louhivuori - drums

Trumpeter Tomasz Stanko in one of the most enduring characters of Polish jazz, he has also been appearing on ECM releases for a long time from the mid-70's in more rough avant-garde leaning groups to more softer and lyrical material such as this in this century.

This is Stanko's European quintet with Danes Jakob Bro on guitar and Anders Christensen on bass and Finns Alexi Tuomarila on piano and versatile drummer Olavi Louhivuori - coincidentally I'd have a chance to see Tuomarila and Louhivuori play together with bass player Mate Eilertsen as Alexi Tuomarila Trio, for anyone who liked this, that trio's album Seven Hills is worth checking out in addition to other contemporary Stanko albums.

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Track 4:
Anouar Brahem Trio - Ashkabad
from Astrakan Café (1999)
Anouar Brahem - oud
Barbaros Erköse - clarinet
Lassad Hosni - percussion

Tunisian oud player Anouar Brahem with his trio get to represent Middle-Eastern influenced styles this week. This album Astrakan Café is particularly strong in ethnic flavor.

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Track 5:
Edward Vesala - Fingo
from Lumi (1987)
Taito Vainio - accordion
Pentti Lahti, Jorma Tapio, Tapani Rinne, Kari Heinilä - saxes, flutes
Esko Heikkinen - trumpet
Tom Bildo - tuba
Iro Haarla - piano, harp
Raoul Björkenheim - guitar
Heikki Virtanen - bass
Edward Vesala - drums

Finland has strangely enough had a long love affair with the tango as a popular from of dance music going back over 100 years - particularly in the countryside. In the 50's and 60's many jazz-minded musicians would make a living playing in dance bands that toured the country with tango being probably the most popular style in the 60's. So it also was for young drummer Edward Vesala who would then go on to essentially bring the emerging free jazz and avant-garde of the late 60's to Finnish jazz and also be one of the first Finnish musicians to get international recognition and record on international labels like ECM collaborating with the likes of Peter Brötzmann, Tomasz Stanko and Jan Garbarek in the 70's.

In the 80's and 90's his main band was Sound & Fury that collected together young musicians with an interest in the avant-garde. Many of Sound & Fury's ECM albums include one interludish twisted tango paying homage to Vesala's musical roots. This one is from 1987, bringing in accordionist Taito Vainio in a rare appearance outside of straight-laced traditional Finnish dance music.

So essentially the flavor here is that of a "difficult" avant-garde outfit playing their version of low-brow popular dance music of the past looking back at days when jazz musicians would play tango to pay the bills.

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Track 6:
David Holland Quartet - See-Saw
from Conference of the Birds (1972)
Dave Holland - bass
Sam Rivers - sax
Anthony Braxton - sax
Barry Altschul - percussion

Brit Dave Holland's Conference of the Birds is probably the most celebrated ECM release in more traditional bebop-based jazz, linking us back a bit this week to US jazz. The album takes it's name from a 12th century Persian poem so there's that.

Maybe I should have gone with the title track with Rivers and Braxton on flutes for this list - it has a certain world music flavor to it, but as said I put this together rather quickly starting with just a "non-US leaders on ECM" theme before going deeper with ethnic stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ALPmRk3Ht4

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Track 7:
Egberto Gismonti & Nana Vasconcelos - Aquarela Do Brasil
from Duas Vozes (1984)
Egberto Gismonti - guitar, voice
Nana Vasconcelos - percussion, voice

Brazilians Egberto Gismonti (who plays both piano and guitar) and percussionist Nana Vasconcelos released several duo albums on ECM that have a pretty unique flavor to them with fairly odd vocals, hypnotic, often minimalist repetitive percussion and sparse instrumentation.

Here they play Aquarela Do Brasil, maybe best known to jazz fans as Jobim's Brazil from the Stone Flower album, cinema fans might also know it from the soundrtrack of Terry Gilliam's classic movie Brazil. It's almost a deconstruction - the theme might be hard to miss even if you're familiar with Aquarela Do Brasil until the vocals do a more straight take on it almost 4 minutes in.

Often experimental music is more on the atonal and aggressive side, but I think these guys carved a pretty unusual niche for themselves while staying melodic and gentle.

>>69298482
The title track is really beautiful but it's really the odd one out on the album. It's so chill and folksy compared to everything else.

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Track 8:
Dominique Pifarély - My Foolish Heart
from Time Before and Time After (2015)
Dominique Pifarély - violin

There aren't that many French musicians recording for ECM in a leading role and not that many solo violin jazz albums either, so we can hit two rare birds with one stone with Dominique Pifarély's Time Before and Time After from last year - the album consists of live recordings of very improvisational material and this one standard, My Foolish Heart, probably best known in jazz circles as Bill Evans' version.

Pifarély draws on folk, classical, avant-garde and jazz influences and it's certainly an earful of an album to listen to. He also has a new quartet album out on ECM this year, but haven't heard it yet myself.

The melody of My Foolish Heart always reminds me of the theme music to the 70's TV series Happy Days, the first three phrases being very similar. I wish someone did a jazz mash-up of those or some "Bill Evans plays Happy Days theme song" thing.

>>69298572
yeah, it certainly feels a little out of place compared to the other material there

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Track 9:
Stefano Bollani - Joy In Spite Of Everything
from Joy In Spite of Everything (2014)
Stefano Bollani - piano
Jesper Bodilsen - bass
Morten Lund - drums

This is Italian pianist Stefano Bollani with his trio that has played together on and off for over 10 years with Danes Jesper Bodilsen on bass and Morten Lund on drums.

This album from a few years ago feature Americans Mark Turner on sax and/or Bill Frisell on guitar on all other tracks, but this joyful ending track is just the trio. I think Bollani is at his best in playful moods like this.

>>69298708
I remember seeing this when it came out but never got around to checking it out. Actually Bollani is someone I've never really listened to at all. I'll definitely have to check out this album.

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Track 10:
Markku Ounaskari, Samuli Mikkonen, Per Jorgensen - Sjuan Gúr
from Kuára (2010)
Markku Ounaskari - percussion
Samuli Mikkonen - piano
Per Jorgensen - trumpet, voice

This is an album that's very heavy on the concept and ethnic roots of the music - it's based on and inspired by the folk songs and pagan hymns of the udmurtian, vepsian and karelian people - all Finno-Ugric cultures living (and slowly dying) in small pockets of western Russia - with some Russian Orthodox psalms mixed in.

Finns Markku Ounaskari on percussions and Samuli Mikkonen on piano originally performed this material as a duo, they are joined on this album by Norwegian trumpeter Per Jorgensen and have since often performed with sax player Trygve Seim with the focus more on free improvisation.

The album is a very somber tribute to the music and traditions of some very endangered cultures. This ending track Sjuan Gùr is originally an udmurtian folk song.

>>69295045

any recs for a noobie?

>>69299563

what kind of minimalism are you looking for?

here are some contemporary things to try:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH4lkK-vSco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL-9lkmCZso
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlriHXLcCbI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6jx3OoVHnk

from artists closer to jazz tradition, Bill Evans and Ahmad Jamal could appeal to people looking for minimal jazz expression:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6A88wSno2o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev-3kIXlEGA

>>69300777

I only have entry-level knowledge of minimalism, Glass, Reich, Riley, and Young mostly.

thanks for the recs though, I am gonna check those out later.

>>69298140
I downloaded this but never got around to listening the first few tracks. Jan bang does some cool live sampling work.
>Also worth noting is that since the 90's all ECM CD's start with 5 seconds of silence - tying in with ECM's motto "the Most Beautiful Sound Next to Silence"
that's actually super cool, I never exactly noticed that.

1) Definite oriental feels, reminds me of Gafsa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGFnBXj0PbM

2)That's Che Guevara, how fitting with the recent news, are you a wizard?

3) Opening of that show with the captured soldier that comes back sleeper agent forgot the name, I like how the piano is used as a percussion instrument kinda like a melodic high hat