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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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
The Touchstone
Départ

Eberhard Weber - Fluid Rustle (1979)

Haven't posted an Eberhard Weber solo album yet, so it's long overdue to rectify.  This is my absolute favourite, in which the instantly recognisable upright-electric bassist pared back his unique music to just bass, vibes/marimba (Gary Burton), guitar/balalaika (Bill Frisell), and two vocalists (Norma Winstone and Bonnie Herman) adding wordless magic.

Making his ECM debut after being discovered by Weber on tour, Frisell is tentative and understated here - to a fault, in his own retrospective analysis, but his minimalist volume swells and gentle arpeggios are perfectly placed on this winter's morning walk of an album.  The side-long Quiet Departures starts off with Frisell in this zone, accompanied by Burton, before the bass and voices enter.  By the halfway mark, this pre-dawn chill has started to see some sunlight, as Frisell strums an open chord on the balalaika (with a more energetic lead guitar overdubbed), and the voices set off on a gorgeous melodic progression.

The sunlight continues to burst through on the title track, with Winstone and Herman in full voice as Burton and Weber sparkle all around them, before another subtle, fluid solo from Frisell.  The rest of the album turns colder and more desolate, with a plaintive Burton solo providing the centrepiece of A Pale Smile, and the closing Visible Thoughts ending the day back in the wintry dark as the voices turn into eerie whispers.  A highly, highly recommended standout album in Weber's peerless catalogue.

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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)

Norma Winstone - Somewhere Called Home (rec. 1986, rel. 1987)

One of ECM's finest releases of the 80s, and a jewel in the crown among its entire vocal jazz canon, this album was justifiably included in the label's 'Touchstone' series of essentials that were reissued about ten years ago.  English vocalist Norma Winstone had previously appeared on ECM from the late 70s onwards as part of Azimuth; for her first solo venture on the label Winstone retained fellow Azimuth traveller John Taylor (1942-2015) on piano, and brought in Tony Coe on clarinet and tenor sax to perfectly colour the sound.

From Winstone's own English-language arrangement of Egberto Gismonti's Café onwards, the repertoire is perfectly chosen, creating an extended meditation on nostalgia, love and belonging.  A further two ECM legends feature among the writers - the late Kenny Wheeler on the beautifully impressionistic Sea Lady, and Ralph Towner on Celeste, both given a new dimension by Winstone's lyrics.  Her words for Bill Evans' Prologue are another memorable high point on an album full of them; perfect mellow vocal jazz for a spring weekend. Enjoy.

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