George Russell - Listen To The Silence (rec. 1971, orig. rel. 1973)

Back to George Russell with another commissioned work, this time for the 1971 Kongsberg Jazz Festival, and recorded at its live premiere performance (with some studio effects added later) on 21st June 1971, Kongsberg Church, Norway.  Taking some lines from Rainer Maria Rilke, Maurice Nicoll, Dee Brown and snippets from Newsweek and the New York Times for its libretto, Listen To The Silence is a choral work calling for two choirs as well as jazz ensemble.  

 

The chanting voices get things underway before Russell, Garbarek & co enter to drive the music forward, and the work continues in this manner with the church acoustics giving the stentorian vocal delivery a definite atmospheric boost.  The instrumental sections are frequently more minimal and stripped-down compared to Russell's other work of the era, but this works in favour of the overall stark mood, and makes the Garbarek-Rypdal section at the start of Event IV all the more outstanding.  Subtitled "A Mass For Our Time", Listen To The Silence might be a bit 'of its time' in subject matter, but it remains a captivating listening experience to this day.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Trip To Prillarguri

Othello Ballet Suite

Vertical Event VI

George Russell Sextet feat. Jan Garbarek - Trip To Prillarguri (rec. 1970, rel. 1982)

More live recordings from George Russell and co taped at the Södertälje Estrad, this time back in March 1970 (although not released until 1982, when Soul Note took over their chunk of Russell's material).  This one's a belter - it may as well be Jan Garbarek's Esoteric Circle quartet from 1969 performing live with the addition of Russell on piano and Stanton Davis Jr on trumpet.  Three of the pieces here are Garbarek-penned, including two that appeared on the Esoteric Circle LP.  From Russell's catalogue we get themes from Souls Loved By Nature and the earlier classic Stratusphunk, plus a closing rendition of Ornette Coleman's Man On The Moon.  Electrifying stuff throughout, and a definite highlight in both Russell and Garbarek's discographies.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Othello Ballet Suite

Vertical Event VI

George Russell - Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature (three recordings)

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature is the signature work by jazz composer, theorist and pianist George Russell (1923-2009), presented today in no less than three different recordings.  Got hold of these in a Black Saint/Soul Note reissues box, so more Russell to come.  First up, The Essence Of George Russell, which may or may not contain the earliest recording of the Sonata: it's unfortunately the only thing lacking a recording year in the original double LP's notes.

First a drummer, George Russell's key contribution to jazz was as a music theorist championing the Lydian mode, which influenced everyone from Miles Davis and Gil Evans to the young Scandinavian musicians he'd work with on moving there in the 60s, many of whom would become ECM heavyweights.  Listening back to Terje Rypdal's Odyssey box set after hearing Russell is quite enlightening, for example, and it's Rypdal who is the guitarist on the "Essence" recording of Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature, the lineup also including Jan Garbarek, Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen (you can probably guess by now what drew me to the Russell box).  On the original "Essence" double LP there were two additional pieces making up side four - only one of these, the enjoyably wild Now And Then (recorded 1966), is included on the CD due to time restrictions.

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature, then, is structured in 14 segued 'Events': some where propulsive basslines and funky drums drive it forward, and others where the rhythms fall away and Stockhausen-like taped sounds come to the fore, as well as African field recordings.  The writing for horns can be both tight and melodic and much freer, particularly when Garbarek takes the spotlight (Jan's credited as having a hand in composing some themes, presumably these spotlights).  Taken all together, it's a rich and rewarding immersion in early fusion, avant-garde but accessible jazz composition and judicious electronic/tape music integration.

This next recording, originally released on the Flying Dutchman label in 1971, is perhaps the best known.  Soul Note's later reissue added the "1968" to the album cover - I'm not certain why, as Russell's original liner notes state the recording was made at a concert near Oslo in April 1969.  Perhaps "1968" refers to composer revisions that year, e.g. the reduction to sextet -  the larger group of musicians is slimmed down to just the core lineup, who are the same other than Red Mitchell now playing bass rather than Andersen.  This version also ups the tempo in places compared to the "Essence" recording, the whole thing running under an hour compared to just over the hour mark on Essence. 

Russell revisited the Sonata for this 1980 version, recorded in an Italian studio in June of that year with mostly American musicians.  It's recognisably the same work, two continuous sides with seven Events apiece, so hasn't undergone any major compositional reworking.  The turn-of-the-80s studio fidelity does make the ingenuity of the writing and musicians' interplay come across clearer, so it's a worthwhile contrast to the other two recordings.

 

19?? recording (The Essence Of George Russell)

1968 recording

1980 recording

pw for all: sgtg

Garbarek, Rypdal, Stenson, Andersen, Christensen - Sart (1971)

Some more Terje Rypdal today, alongside an all-star cast of ECM legends on one of the label's most memorable releases from its formative years.  Sart is often regarded as a Jan Garbarek album overall, and indeed this is Disc 1 of the Garbarek box set that also covers Witchi Tai To and Dansere (links below), but really everyone in this quintet deserves their equal billing as per the album cover.

Most of side one is taken up by the title track, with Rypdal wah-ing it into gear as a post-Bitches Brew fusion exploration.  Garbarek is in full-on overblown free jazz mode, but Bobo Stenson's calmer piano keeps the track partly rooted in earlier post-bop traditions.  Fountain Of Tears finds Rypdal in even more avant-garde mode, sliding right up the guitar bridge as Garbarek and Stenson get in more fractured soloing.  A mellow ending sees Garbarek switching to flute.

Side two is introduced with a piano solo, and Stenson continues to sound sublime as Rypdal and Garbarek kick Sound Of Space into gear, both turning in great solo spots.  For the remainder of the album, short composing/playing spotlights for Andersen and Rypdal bookend another great group performance.  Essential early ECM at its finest.

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pw: sgtg

Jan Garbarek at SGTG:
Afric Pepperbird (with Rypdal, Andersen & Christensen)
Triptykon (with Andersen)
Popofoni (with Stenson, Rypdal, Andersen & Christensen)

Witchi-Tai-To (with Stenson & Christensen)

Dansere (with Stenson & Christensen)
Solstice: Sounds And Shadows (with Christensen)
Sol De Meio Dia
Paths, Prints (with Christensen)
Song For Everyone
Making Music

Neighbourhood

Arild Andersen - Clouds In My Head (1975)

Sticking with ECM for the moment, but heading back into the 70s for another legendary bassist, here's the debut album as leader by the always prolific Arild Andersen, in an all-Norse quartet.  Starting off with the bright swing of 305 W 8th Street (singer Shiela Jordan's NYC address where Andersen once stayed), the intricate, melodic bassline that takes flight makes it unmistakeable whose album this is right from the off.

From there on, there's gentle, reflective material like Last Song (placed second, natch) and the gorgeous Song For A Sad Day (Knut Riisnæs taking a leaf from Garbarek's book, perhaps even more so in the title track).  The mellowness is interspersed with more uptempo tracks like Outhouse, which brings to mind The Windup from Belonging in its tightly-wound theme, the pensive Cycles, and the closing blast of The Sword Beneath His Wings, which was featured in Anderson's firey Molde set of 1981 (link below).  Jon Balke is a perfect, sympathetic pianist throughout, and Andersen's compositional and playing talents make this a lovely record to return to over and over.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Shimri

Green Shading Into Blue
Molde Concert
and featuring Arild Andersen:
Afric Pepperbird
Triptykon
Popofoni
In Line
Bluish

Achirana

Vassilis Tsabropoulos with Arild Andersen and John Marshall - Achirana (2000)

Greek pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos made his ECM debut with this October 1999 session, and he's since become an ever more exquisite composer and player.  He's first heard in this most modern-ECM of formats, the piano trio, subtly and with gentle understatement as the title track gets underway.  It's the first of two group improvisations, with the second, Diamond Cut Diamond, being much more alive and propulsive and proving this is a well-chosen trio that gelled really well in the studio.

From there, it becomes increasingly clear that the real group leader is probably Arild Andersen, as soon as he wraps a characteristically solid-oak-carved bassline around his composition Valley.  A further Andersen-penned track is She's Gone, based on a Norwegian folk song.  Throughout the rest of the material written by Tsabropoulous, Andersen plays some of his most sublime bass work, whilst the pianist carries on in gorgeously understated mode.  John Marshall proves to be a great sympathetic drummer throughout, making this one of the very best ECM piano trio albums.

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pw: sgtg

Arild Andersen Quartet - Green Shading Into Blue (1978)

The follow-up to the gorgeous Shimri (link below) found Arild Andersen's quartet still as light and refreshing as an autumn breeze, but capable of channelling more blustery weather as well.  Sole hits a wonderfully light groove, with Lars Jansson judiciously introducing electronic keys for the first time.  The Guitarist really ought to have been named The Flautist, and is a serene breathing space before the next lengthy track, Jansson's Anima.  Juhani Aaltonen switches back to sax for some of his most firey playing on the album, whilst Jansson and Andersen provide mellower interludes.

Side Two kicks off with a groovy tribute to Andersen's partner of the time, Radka Toneff, before settling down into the rural twilight of the album cover.  The title track finds Jansson back on understated synth, as Andersen, rock-solid as ever, leads the way for Aaltonen's sax.  The home stretch of Jana is an upbeat drive home as the last light fades, capping off a typically gorgeous and evocative Andersen album.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Shimri
Molde Concert
and featuring Arild Andersen:
Afric Pepperbird
Triptykon
Popofoni
In Line
Bluish

Various Artists (incl. Jan Garbarek Quartet) - Popofoni (1973)

Anyone watching the Åpen Post show on Norwegian TV on 6th March 1969 (which I doubt will include any readers here, but you never know -YouTube link, sorry no subtitles) would've caught a fascinating, bizarre debate about pop music/popular culture vs. classical music/high art.  The programme caught the attention of Arne Nordheim, previously featured on these pages here, and of the Ny Musikk organisation and the Henie-Onstad arts centre.

The plan was hatched (in an uncanny precedent for Ode To Marilyn) to get hold of some prime Nordic musicians - step forward Jan Garbarek, Bobo Stenson, Arild Andersen, Jon Christensen and Terje Rypdal - and have them collaborate with some of Norway's foremost modern composers to produce music that would represent a meeting point between popular music and the avant-garde.  Arne Nordheim, Alfred Janson, Gunnar Sønstevold, Kåre Kolberg and the soon-to-be ECM-ers, plus additional musicians, duly obliged, and a concert of the results was held in April 1970.  Three years later, this limited-edition double album emerged as a document of the project, which had been titled Popofoni.

The six tracks here are certainly fascinating, essential listening, especially if you're familiar with early ECM classics like Afric Pepperbird / Sart / Rypdal's debut.  Imagine these records with a whole extra layer of avant-garde composition/production over the top, and that's pretty much what Popofoni sounds like.

The 20-minute opener Arnold, composed by Gunnar Sønstevold, is a free jazz groove with echo-laden vocals wafting over the top, and occasional organ and tape effects.  Nordheim's two tracks that follow are even better works in the same vein, with the eerie collage of Solar Plexus (his first response to the TV debate) ending in a scratchy, sampled dance orchestra, a hail of gunfire then an emptying sink (or toilet?).  The second disc is dominated by Alfred Janson's 25-minute Valse Triste, where the jazz musicians veer between free playing and lounge pastiche, feeling their way towards the eventual schlager payoff, whilst spoken samples of the TV debate pepper the sonic landscape.  Kåre Kolberg's Blow Up Your Dreams is a more succinct attempt at stretching a conventional song (sung by Karin Krog) to fit an avant-garde frame, and as a closer we get a brief Rypdal composition in which he plays flute rather than guitar.  An utterly essential collection.

Original double-LP cover

Disc 1
Disc 2
pw: sgtg

Arild Andersen - Shimri (1977)

Yeah, I know... I've probably written things like 'autumnal ECM gorgeousness' a hundred times in different posts - but this is the absolute zenith, one that oozes it from every pore.  In October 1976, Arild Andersen brought this Norwegian-Swedish-Finnish group into the studio for his second album as bandleader, and came up with this mellow beauty that was released the following year.

The opening title track shimmers like a glassy lake, with Juhani Aaltonen's sax smouldering in the embers of a lakeside campfire, before a gentle breeze carries forward the slightly more upbeat No Tears with some stunning piano from Lars Jansson.  As twilight descends, Aaltonen switches to flute for the next three songs, all of them gorgeous beyond words, before the last and longest track goes back to sax.  This finale, Dedication, gets a lot more firey than the rest thanks to the momentum Aaltonen gives it, but doesn't disturb the mood of the rest of the album - rather, it just balances it out perfectly.  As if we hadn't heard enough of Andersen's bass mastery already, he takes a solo just before the end.  For me, this is the absolute highlight of his discography.  Essential peak ECM.

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Arild Andersen - Molde Concert (expanded edition 2000, orig 1982)

ECM magnificence from the Molde Jazz Festival in August 1981, partly released as a single LP in 1982, then restored to almost (one track from the LP had to be dropped to squeeze in under 80 mins) full glory on CD in 2000.  The great Norwegian bassist was joined for this fine selection of his tunes (plus the Miles Davis/Tony Williams-penned encore) by Bill Frisell on guitar, John Taylor on piano, and sometime Weather Reporter Alphonse Mouzon on drums.

We've mostly heard Taylor and Frisell in mellow modes on this blog up til now (check the label tags for previous posts), and there is a good showing of downtempo loveliness in the Molde setlist - Targeta, Lifelines and Koral for sure - but for the most part, this album absolutely rocks.  Finding the confidence that he recalled wasn't quite there yet on Fluid Rustle, Bill Frisell hits cooking temperature right from the set opener and just gets increasingly jaw dropping from there.

It might just be the fact that he's a jazz guitarist with a full on rock snarl here, but Frisell made me think of Steve Howe at least once - check Cameron near the end, where Andersen also gets a great solo spot.  The 13 minutes of The Sword Beneath His Wings are also a highlight for Frisell and for everyone - Andersen might be the bandleader, but this is very much a firing-on-all-cylinders group effort.  Even the drum solos are awesome, as on Six For Alphonse.  Highly recommended.

original LP cover

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Tomasz Stańko - Bluish (1991)

Triptykon made me dig this out - primarily to listen to more Arild Andersen in a trio format, where he turns in another rock solid performance, this time underpinning Tomasz Stańko.  The trumpeter was just emerging from an incredibly strange fusion era in the 80s (someday I'll post Freelectronic In Montreux, it's hilarious) and got right back to basics with this sublime trio recording.  Well, there's just three instruments credited; not sure what's going on in the two takes of Andersen's composition If You Look Enough, whether it's a vestigial synth or just delay effects on the bass or suchlike.

Bluish, "named after the place in your brain that is responsible for your addictions" (Stańko, in a 2010 autobiography) would've been a perfect ECM release - drummer Jon Christensen rounds out the trio.  In 1991 however, Stańko was still three years away from long-term commitment to the Eicher stable, so Bluish came out on a Polish label; luckily, it's still fairly easy to get hold of on CD.

Stańko would eventually hit ECM on an deeply melancholy, grey-streaked note that saturated his work for the rest of the 90s.  On Bluish, there's only hints toward this, notably on Third Heavy Ballad.  For the most part, this a light, airy album that swings, takes odd little diversions that could only be Stańko (notwithstanding the Andersen-composed bookends), and generally revels in its tight-but-loose atmosphere of mature free jazz at its most understated and effective.

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Jan Garbarek w. Arild Andersen & Edward Vesala - Triptykon (1972)

This is probably my favourite Jan Garbarek album.  His playing style was becoming more distinctive with each release, coming well and truly out of the shadow of Albert Ayler, and he was still a couple of years away from starting to become Jan Garbarek™, ECM ice king extraordinnaire.  That said, there's already evidence of him starting to mellow, in the goregous Selje (a fjord region on the west coast of Norway) where he switches to flute, and the understated Sang.  For the vestiges of early, skroning Garbarek at his freest, head straight for the 12-minute title track.

It can't be stressed enough however that this isn't just Garbarek's album - what I love most about Triptykon is that I can sit down for a listen through this album and focus solely on Edward Vesala snaking his way around the kit like no other jazz drummer on earth.  Or indeed, spend the duration listening to Arild Andersen putting in a phenomenal rock-solid performance on bass, taking a great solo on the title track and a memorable switch to the bow in the closing track.  One my favourite expressions of the trio format in jazz, up there with Money Jungle; Triptykon is a true team effort.  Should further evidence be required, just check them out in a rare French TV recording (below).

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Previously posted at SGTG: Afric Pepperbird

Jan Garbarek Quartet - Afric Pepperbird (1970)

Another gem from my favourite jazz label, this time one of its earliest (only the seventh to be released), and for my money its first masterpiece. All four of these eventual ECM mainstays - Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdal, Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen - make their debut appearance on the label here, recording a bracing but surprisingly accessible set of four lengthy pieces and four minatures.

Garbarek was still in thrall to Albert Ayler at this early stage in his career, and there's plenty of free jazz blowing around here. Scarabee, however, opens the album subtly with the beginnings of the tone that Garbarek would become known for, with just the occasional skronk, surrounded by twinkling percussion.  Eventually he lets rip, but the track as a whole still leaves lots of space, not least thanks to Christensen supplying a rock-solid foundation.  Beast of Kommodo, the album's longest track, shows off Garbarek's versatility as a reedsman, while Terje Rypdal sticks to one insistent riff until eventually getting an almost bluesy solo, in contrast to his later, more identifiable style.

On Side 2, both Blow Away Zone and the title track start out with Garbarek and Rypdal playing in unison.  On the former, Rypdal goes on to make striking use of a slide up at the bridge of his guitar.  Meanwhile Garbarek is at his freeest, with his 60s free jazz influences clearly on display, sounding more than once like a train whistle on its way from Oslo straight to Valhalla.  Afric Pepperbird itself settles into a swampy groove, with Rypdal breaking out the wah pedal.  All in all, a highly recommended early high water mark from a unique label starting to stake out its territory.

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P.S. check out this quartet in concert from a year later!

Bill Frisell - In Line (1982)

There's a lot of Frisell out there to listen to from the last 33+ years of his solo career as a master jazz axeman - most of which is still on my to-do list, having so far only approached his catalogue in my capacity as an ECM nut.  After loving his work as a sideman to Eberhard Weber and Jan Garbarek in the late 70s/early 80s, I grabbed his three ECM solo albums, of which this one remains my favourite.

There's no Weber here, but another ECM bass regular, Arild Andersen, provides a subtle underpinning to about half the album.  Frisell is mostly muted and understated too on his first time out as leader, nimbly picking out a bunch of gorgeous melodies.  On 'The Beach', he expands his palate with layers of delayed guitar sound to create a stunning soundscape that marks the album's high point for me.

As with a handful of other ECM albums, the CD reissue replaced the original artwork with something much more nondescript and mid-80s, so I've plumped for the original LP cover for this post of In Line.  So I actually stand corrected in saying there's no Weber here - as with about a dozen other ECM releases, the original cover was by Maja Weber, late wife of the great bassman.

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