ECM at 40: Enjoy Jazz Festival: Days 3-6, October 22-25, 2009

John Kelman

Senior Editor since 2004

With the realization that there will always be more music coming at him than he can keep up with, John wonders why anyone would think that jazz is dead or dying.

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Published: October 27, 2009

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"The Blue Sound" Wrap-Up

And so, ECM's 40th Anniversary Celebration at Enjoy Jazz ended on a tremendous high note. As a variety of ECM staff from Munich and New York regrouped—along with members of Brahem and Rava's groups, journalists, festival staff, and friends and fans of Enjoy Jazz—at the Festval Café for a few drinks and goodbye, it could have been a sad moment. But after the successes of the past four days, where so many—but not all, never all; that would simply not have been possible in such a short time—of the label's strengths were brought into sharp focus, if anything people left the festival with a sense that there was still far more work to be done, and that there will absolutely be a reconvening in ten years, when ECM hits the half century mark.

AAJ's next Enjoy Jazz piece will cover performances by Bill Frisell's 858 Quartet; a solo performance by Brad Mehldau; drummer Jimmy Cobb's So What Band paying tribute to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959) at 50; and singer Cassandra Wilson.

Visit ECM Records, John Abercrombie, Alexandre Gismonti, Miroslav Vitous, Gerald Cleaver, Dino Saluzzi, Anouar Brahem, Enrico Rava and Enjoy Jazz on the web.

Photo Credit
All Photos: John Kelman

Days 1-2 | Day 3-6 | Days 7-10 | Days 11-12

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