Barre Phillips - Mountainscapes (1976)

One of the most satisfyingly avant-garde ECMs from the label's first decade, and also the first appearance in-house for reedsman John Surman, whose association with ECM continues to this day.  Recorded in March 1976, Mountainscapes was the result of the Surman-Phillips-Martin trio being given fresh purpose by the addition of Austrian electronics wizard Dieter Feichtner.  

 

The collision of free jazz and synth ooze makes for a unique and thoroughly enjoyable listening experience, with the tracklist simply a numbered suite to immerse yourself in.  Parts III and VII are duos between Phillips' bass improvisations and the eerie glow of Feichtner's synths, cut from a 40-minute free-form session (imagine that in its entireity sitting in Eicher's vault somewhere...).  The closing piece makes good use of a happened-to-drop-by John Abercrombie, adding another texture to this singular record.

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pw: sgtg

Collin Walcott - Cloud Dance (1976)

Essentially John Abercrombie's Gateway Trio with a very different lead voice, in the form of Orgeon/CODONA's multi-instrumentalist (here focusing on his considerable talents on sitar) Collin Walcott (1945-1984).  This stunning record was recorded in the same month as Gateway's debut, right in the white heat of ECM's golden age with a lineup who perfectly merge jazz with Indian musical forms.  

 

Lengthy explorations giving the quartet full chance to shine, like opener Margueritte, sit alongside miniature features for Walcott and Dave Holland such as Prancing and Eastern Song.  Abercrombie is by turns liquid and languid (Night Glider, the lovely title track) and throughly electrified (Scimitar).  Walcott's sublime playing remains the star of this album, and would continue to occupy a unique space in the ECM sound world (including with a reformed Oregon) until his tragic accidental death at the age of 39.

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pw: sgtg

Collin Walcott at SGTG:

Miles Davis - On The Corner

Egberto Gismonti - Sol De Meio Dia

Gateway - Homecoming (1995)

Twenty years on from their first session together (posted a couple of weeks back), and seventeen since they'd last recorded, the Gateway trio of John Abercrombie, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette reunited in style.  There was plenty of fire left in the trio, as evidenced right from the opening title track - after a cool, swinging earworm of a theme, Abercrombie cranks up the volume and a great group improv ensues.

As with their debut, Holland is the standout songwriter here, penning the title track and also the barreling-forwards Modern Times, the firey groove of How's Never (with a great drum solo) and also the spare In Your Arms.  Abercrombie writes three tunes, including the glowing embers of Waltz New - his guitar tone is never less than a thrill on this record, even when not at full pelt; and DeJohnette pens the closing pair, including a switch to piano on the gorgeous closer Oneness.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Gateway - First Album
Characters (Abercrombie)
Sargasso Sea / Five Years Later (Abercrombie/Towner)
Pictures (DeJohnette/Abercrombie)

John Abercrombie, Dave Holland & Jack DeJohnette - Gateway (1975)

John Abercrombie, Dave Holland & Jack DeJohnette's first session in March 1975 sparked a classic trio that would lead to a further album in the 70s, and two more in the 90s.  The debut Gateway album, though, isn't just one of the most inspired ECM albums (amongst a mid-70s purple patch where the label churned out classic after classic), it's one of the greatest and most firey guitar trio jazz records ever made.

It all starts though in a deceptively understated mode, as the laidback groove of Back-Woods Song lopes into life with a memorable hook and some effortless finesse in Abercrombie's solos.  Next there's a short diversion to give Holland and DeJohnette the spotlight, then the album really starts to cook.  After another melodic introduction, May Dance spins out into a lengthy free-for-all, giving the group's interplay room to really shine.

The album's second half cranks up a gear with the Abercrombie-DeJohnette head-to-head of Unshielded Desire.  Abercrombie's volume and tone, not to mention sheer chops, are up there with anything John McLaughlin blasted out in the early 70s.  Jamala, another Holland-penned tune out of four on the album, offers some atmospheric breathing space before the final epic of Sorcery.  If Metheny's Bright Size Life from the same era was a dewy Midwestern sunrise, Gateway is a midday scorcher.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Characters (Abercrombie)
Sargasso Sea / Five Years Later (Abercrombie/Towner)
Pictures (DeJohnette/Abercrombie)

Ricardo Villalobos & Max Loderbauer - Re: ECM (2011)

My favourite thing about the sheer volume of ECM's back catalogue is that you can spend years listening to hundreds of albums, and still have hundreds to discover.  When given free rein of the label's output in 2009 to sample and remodel, Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer's first hurdle must've been to decide where to start with their choices.  The thirteen albums that they settled on could easily have been a completely different set.  As per my opening line, I'm only personally familiar with two of them, the only two here of 70s vintage: John Abercrombie's Timeless and Bennie Maupin's Jewel In The Lotus.

Far from being some sort of 'remix album', Villalobos & Loderbauer worked with a live mixing board setup and a modular synth to improvise around the spatial structures of the original recordings.  Taking full advantage of ECM's famously audiophile frequency range and sense of space, they sampled not just instrumental/vocal elements but "also used pauses, gaps and the microphonic impressions of the rooms as source material", to compose the 17 new tracks that make up Re: ECM.

The resulting two-hour listening experience is a deep, subterranean dive into pure sound that continues to pay fresh rewards with every listen.  I've been living with this album on and off for about five years, and dug it out this month to enjoy during a major Villalobos kick that I've been going through.  There's enough here that's recognsiable to please fans of Ricardo & Max, in the minimal, jazz-inflected drum tracks when they appear - a far more reductive, ultraminimalist version of this approach would lead to Safe In Harbor.

There's also more than enough that's classically ECM, even when heavily manipulated, such as a faraway snatch of piano, bass (although nine minutes of Miroslav Vitous' bass buzzing midway through disc 1 may be the album's weakest point) or, in its most sublime moments, a haunting vocal from one of Arvo Pärt or Alexander Knaifel's ECM New Series releases.  Listen and enjoy, many many times, and let this singular project, a fully respectful homage to the ECM sound, wash over you.

Disc 1 link
Disc 2 link
pw: sgtg

John Abercrombie & Ralph Towner - Sargasso Sea/Five Years Later (1976/1982)

In memoriam John Abercrombie, 16 Dec 1944 - 22 Aug 2017

Oh well, I did say on Friday that normal service would be resumed on Monday for this blog... and if normal service now means bidding sad farewells to artists whose music has meant so much to me, then so be it.  John Laird Abercrombie was born in Port Chester, NY to Scottish immigrants, and after a lifetime crafting an instantly identifiable guitar signature, has passed at age 72.  Having neglected to pick up his latest album at the beginning of this year due to other musical obsessions, I'm definitely going to do so now, but for today here's my two favourites of Abercrombie's career, both in the company of ECM labelmate Ralph Towner.  Previously posted at SGTG: the completely solo Characters, and Jack DeJohnette's Pictures.

Sargasso Sea was recorded in May 1976, and proved a genius pairing of two of ECM's rising stars right from the start.  Ralph Towner's silky 12-string overlaid with Abercrombie's liquid electric lead makes for a stunning album opener, with the eight minutes of Fable scoping out the breadth of their melodic talents and virtuoso skill, as would the title track and the explosive Elbow Room.  Elsewhere, we get the sublime sound of both guitarists going acoustic in a melding of their individual styles, and even some occasional piano from Towner, most notably in the gorgeous closer Parasol.

Deciding to repeat this memorable duo pairing five years later, Abercrombie and Towner already had their album title right there, and produced an even more ambitious effort, with a couple of tracks here hovering around the ten-minute mark.  One of these is the atmospheric, improvisatory opener Late Night Passenger, with Abercrombie's volume swells and percussive echoes contrasting with Towner's prepared-guitar buzzing.  The liquid lead versus shimmering 12-string magic formula returns in Isla and the cavernous reverberations of Microtheme.  The following track, the solemn Caminata, gives further proof that Abercrombie, Towner and Manfred Eicher were turning up the focus on ambience this time around, letting the acoustic fill the space, always in support - never dominating - of these two massive talents.  The other lengthy improv, the exciting race for transcendence that is Bumabia, underlines this too.

RIP John, and thanks for all the wonderful music.

Sargasso Sea link
Five Years Later link

John Abercrombie - Characters (1978)

A year or so after appearing on Jack DeJohnette's Pictures, it was John Abercrombie's turn to record the only completely solo album of his career.  A masterclass in gorgeous melodies and perfectly-realised overdubbing, Characters comes across like a looser (semi-improvised at times), more fluid precursor to Pat Metheny's New Chautauqua.  Opening with a sole, echo-laden electric mandolin, tuned as to effectively be a soprano guitar (and Abercrombie staple in this era), the lengthy Parable eventually fills out into a spectacular tapestry of guitar layers.

After this memorable introduction, the meat of the album is composed of beautifully languid duets for different layers of acoustic and liquid electric guitar, plus a further two standout tracks in their use of effects.  Ghost Dance is chilly and atmospheric in its use of reverb and delay, and closer Evensong employs echo/volume pedal effects to almost evoke a small organ or harmonium, before filling out with spindly, rushing arpeggios.  This evocative soundscape closes a great album on a high, and makes you want to start right over again with the other outstanding track Parable.  The fact that there's nothing else quite like Characters in Abercrombie's catalogue makes it all the more essential listening.

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Jack DeJohnette - Pictures (1977)

Jazz drumming legend Jack DeJohnette, still going at 72, has been an explosive partner to many great musicians over the years, and a masterful, expansive improviser.  Pictures, however, is a much more intimate record, that by DeJohnette's own admission was something to put on and listen to when you "wanted to be alone".  It's also an ECM gem that tends to get lost in the shuffle among the better-known masterpieces of its era.

In a succinct 37-minute tour of DeJohnette's Picture gallery, we're treated to six works titled only by numbers, half of which feature guitarist John Abercrombie.  We start out with DeJohnette solo though, layering a swirling organ drone over a funky drum track on Picture 1, then accomplishing one of the most engrossing and thoroughly melodic drums solos you'll ever hear on Picture 2, owing to his masterful percussion tuning.

Just under a year previous to recording this album, DeJohnette and Abercrombie had been in the ECM studio with bassist Dave Holland to record their legendary first album as the 'Gateway' trio, and we're in similar territory for Pictures 3 through 5, the latter creating a high point in the album through Abercrombie's switch to acoustic guitar.

Picture 6 is back to DeJohnette solo, on percussion and piano.  Opening with a gorgeous, subtly reverbed piano statement (it's often forgotten what a fine pianist the man is, as he's spent so long in the shadow of Keith Jarrett in the Standards Trio).  This is gradually replaced by ominous gongs, which are rejoined by the piano from about the halfway point of the track, becoming more fractured and haunting, taking us to a stunning, evocative conclusion to a great little album.

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