Rainer Brüninghaus - Freigeweht (1981)

First album as leader for German pianist Rainer Brüninghaus, perhaps best known in the 70s for working with Eberhard Weber; he'd go on to have a long association with Jan Garbarek.  This gorgeously autumnal record was taped in August 1980, and fleshes out Brüninghaus' piano and synths with flugelhorn (Kenny Wheeler), French horn and oboe (Brynjar Hoff), with the late Jon Christensen on drums.

Much of Freigeweht is built on minimal, cyclical structures which, along with the keyboard textures and the mellifluous brass (not least with Wheeler involved), make the album a must-hear for anyone who likes the early Azimuth sound.  Honestly can't pick a favourite out of these six long-ish trips into turn-of-the-80s ECM magnificence, but the two longest (Radspuren, and the closing title track with its false-fade towards the end) are particularly good for getting lost in.  Highly recommended.

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pw: sgtg

Leo Smith - Divine Love (1979)

A gorgeous, spacey (the number of jazz albums with more of a sense of 'space' than this one must be vanishingly small) masterwork from the multi-talented Leo Smith, in the years just before he adopted the name 'Wadada'.  This was Smith's first album for ECM, and a well-deserved addition to their 'Touchstones' gallery last year; he'd return to the label sporadically after Divine Love, most recently just a couple of years ago.

Sense of space, then... take the opening title track, for example.  For nearly 22 minutes, it drifts in long, languid sighs and calls from Smith and from Dwight Andrews on alto flute.  No drummer keeping time, just sporadic little clatters of percussion, occasional vibes/marimba from Bobby Naughton.  Moments of nothing but pure reverberating silence.  This is free jazz retreating from the coalface of everyone blowing at once to find zen sanctuary.

Kenny Wheeler and Lester Bowie join Smith for a three-way trumpet conversation on the shortest track Tastalun.  Even at its most full-blown, the same ambient calm prevails, like watching the vapour trails of three different aeroplanes occasionally cross over each other.  To close, Charlie Haden provides a more grounded setting for Smith, Andrews and Naughton to move around in on the 15-minute Spirituals: The Language Of Love.  There's still nothing that could be called a beat for the musicians to groove to, but Haden and Naughton do provide a bit more sense of forward motion as the track progresses.  One of the most beautifully unique albums in the ECM catalogue.

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Azimuth - s/t (1977)

Gave this a fresh spin whilst out on a walk last week, as soon as I felt the first autumnal breeze coming.  Then as the opening insistent piano sequence and Norma Winstone's wordless loveliness washed over me, remembered I still haven't given the album a posting here, to complete the original Azimuth 'trilogy'.  They'd eventually release a fourth and fifth album, but those came nowhere near to capturing the brilliance of the three in the links below.

The trio of the English power couple of jazz (Winstone & Taylor) and Canadian-born Wheeler first came together to record as Azimuth in March 1977.  The result was not only one of the most definitively ECM-sounding records ever, but also offered a jazz-ambient twist on the archetype with Taylor's use of synth.  After the aforementioned opener, and the piano-based O, the looped sequence underpinning the group's title track fades in for twelve minutes of sheer magic.  Winstone floats over the top in drones and gasps, performing an aerial ballet with Wheeler's trumpet smears.

Taylor next returns to piano, but quickly introduces another synth sequence as well, as Winstone begins the first real lyrics on the album then mostly lets Wheeler take the lead for the rest of The Tunnel, another high point.  Wheeler gets a brief solo track afterwards, to set the stage for the beautiful piano-based closer Jacob.  One of the absolutely indispensible crown jewels in the ECM catalogue.

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Previously posted at SGTG:
The Touchstone
Départ

Azimuth - The Touchstone (1978)

Hope you're getting a chance to relax and reflect this week - I am for once; I'm usually at work this week and always wishing I'd just taken the days off.  Managed to think ahead this year, so here's some more Azimuth, this time even more mellifluous and ambient than usual.

Recorded a year and half prior to Départ, The Touchstone ticks all the Azimuth boxes.  It starts with an organ drone (this is where John Taylor started adding the instrument to the Azimuth palette) and Kenny Wheeler's melancholy trumpet smears, before giving way to those circular piano figures and Norma Winstone's soaring voice.

Things then pretty much carry on like that, with one exception - this is the sole Azimuth album (at least out of the original trilogy; my memory's slightly hazy on the '85 and '95 reunions) where Winstone doesn't sing any lyrics at all, but just fills each track with wordless, heavenly vocalising.  This is Azimuth at their most supremely chilled - enjoy.

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Azimuth with Ralph Towner - Départ (1980)

Autumnal ECM loveliness of the highest order.  Of course, that description could apply to about half of the label's catalogue, especially from its mid 70s to early 80s golden era.  This album though, recorded in the last month of the 70s, even has a track named Autumn, complete with suitably evocative lyrics from Norma Winstone.

Winstone, along with John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler, had by this point recorded two wonderfully airy, hypnotic albums as Azimuth, taking as much inspiration from Reichian minimalism as from the British jazz scene of their backgrounds.  For this third outing, ECM 's Manfred Eicher suggested adding a guest guitarist, and all three requested Ralph Towner, who they'd met the previous year.

Towner's chiming 12-string is therefore the first accompaniment to be introduced to album opener The Longest Day, over the top of Taylor's circular piano figures, before Winstone and Wheeler begin to take flight.  He switches to classical guitar for the aforementioned Autumn, and for the first two parts of the Touching Points suite.  This mid-album four-parter is particularly interesting as there's increasingly less typically Azimuth drift and more choppy free improv (especially in the third section), plus a chance to hear Taylor on Terry Riley-esque organ on the fourth section.  He sticks to organ for the gorgeous title track's intro, returning to piano for Winstone's brief haiku-like lyric, before everyone soars into the stratosphere again.

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see also: 
Sounds & Shadows (Towner)
Somewhere Called Home (Winstone with Taylor)
Double, Double You (Wheeler)

Kenny Wheeler - Double, Double You (1984)

Let's stick around with 80s ECM for another post - and a fine set of tunes from the late Kenny Wheeler (1930-2014), the Canadian-transplanted-to-UK trumpeter who wholly deserves to be namedropped as often as much more familiar names on the instrument.

Four months on from the legendary Jarrett trio recordings that we ended last week with, Jack DeJohnette found himself back in the same studio to give another rock-solid performance - but the real supporting star here as far as I'm concerned is pianist John Taylor, especially on the triptych of songs that takes up the whole second half of the album.  Wheeler and Taylor had of course worked together in Azimuth (I'll post a few of their albums eventually, but if memory serves I think Opium Hum did the essential first one not long ago) and were on telepathic form by this point.

Still haven't mentioned the absolute highlight of Double, Double You - the 14-minute opener, Foxy Trot.  Superbly constructed, with a lengthy, winding theme that constantly seems just about to trip over its own feet before it eventually slams back into the major key to resolve itself into a wonderfully memorable hook.  Everyone sounds great on this one.  Yes, even Michael Brecker, who I ordinarily wouldn't have much interest in - this record appears to have been his sole ECM appearance, and it's a good one all round.

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