Jazz, Gnu and New: ECM Reissues To Excite Vinyl Fans

ECM's "Luminessence" series pays tribute to the impressive legacy of Manfred Eicher's label, founded in Germany in 1969. Several of its most historic and beloved releases are being reissued on audiophile vinyl cut from the original analog tapes (or, in the case of more recent albums, from high-resolution digital masters) and presented in heavy gatefold sleeves with original artwork along with additional photos and liner notes. The vinyl pressings are flat, glossy, and nearly flawless, and the sound that Eicher produced has never been more gorgeously present. The group discussed below is stylistically and chronologically eclectic, including Keith Jarrett's final session as a sideman (Kenny Wheeler's Gnu High (1976)), a new chapter for the master vibraphonist Gary Burton (1973's The New Quartet), a landmark session by pianist Marilyn Crispell featuring Jarrett's trio compatriots Gary Peacock and Paul Motian (Amaryllis (2001)), and a contemporaneous double album by that bassist's ex-wife, singer/songwriter Annette Peacock on which her piano and vocals are complemented by a string quartet (An Acrobat's Heart (2000)).

Kenny Wheeler
Gnu High
ECM
1976

Canadian flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler may be jazz music's quintessential late bloomer. Born in 1930, he made his way to London to seek his musical fortune at the age of 22. From 1959-1965, he played as a member of John Dankworth's orchestra and studied composition. From this fertile period emerged his first album as a leader, Windmill Tilter (Fontana, 1969), a suite inspired by Cervantes' Don Quixote that was written entirely by Wheeler and performed with the Dankworth orchestra. The album garnered much acclaim and today is considered a classic of British jazz. Nevertheless, it took Wheeler four years to issue another album (the similarly orchestral Song For Someone (Incus, 1973), and it took being signed by ECM for him to finally make his first small group recording two years later, at the age of 45. But what a "debut" this is! Featuring Jarrett on piano, Dave Holland on bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums, Gnu High is now regarded as an all-time classic, making many "1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die" lists and influencing a slew of subsequent jazz musicians.

It has been reported that Jarrett was not entirely comfortable with Wheeler's music, but that is not readily audible in the long, waltz tempo piece that fills Side 1, "Heyoke," named after a mythic Native American character. In fact, it is the pianist's playing that stands out the most: he solos throughout the three-part suite, including an astonishing middle interlude in which everyone else drops out as if spellbound by his musical expression. Wheeler contributes the breezy main theme and solos effectively in the first and last parts, varying his phrasing and tone to be alternately warm and round, then sharp and biting. DeJohnette and Holland alternate between propelling the piece forward and dissolving into exhilarating freedom, with the drummer capping the whole side off with an all-cymbal solo leading to Wheeler's final written theme. It's a mesmerizing 22-minute experience that is worth the price of admission alone. Side 2 features a comparatively short, elegantly swinging tune, "Smatter," with a typically excellent solo by the leader, followed by the 13-minute "Gnu Suite." This track begins with a slow ballad melody beautifully played by the composer, followed by his solo as DeJohnette introduces a loping 4/4 swing. The band drops out for Holland's solo in which he outlines and then embellishes the original melody with his distinctive, meaty bass tone, beautifully captured by engineer Tony May. Solos by Jarrett—again sounding completely in tune with the music's flow—and a light-footed DeJohnette lead to a final traipse through the main theme before the album comes to a close.

Alternately melodic and abstract, inventively composed and free, propulsive and suspended, Gnu High is an album that mesmerizes throughout. It sparked a decades-long association of Wheeler with ECM, resulting in nearly 30 albums right up to his death in 2014. Late bloomer or not, the support and respect that ECM gave him allowed Wheeler's talent to flower.

Gary Burton
The New Quartet
ECM
1973

After studying at the Berklee School of Music in the early 1960s, vibraphonist Gary Burton played with pianist George Shearing and saxophonist Stan Getz before starting his own quartet in New York City. This group, including guitarist Larry Coryell, bassist Steve Swallow, and drummer Bob Moses, played a pioneering strand of fusion incorporating strains of rock and country into jazz. Following several excellent albums for RCA with this group and a stint at Atlantic with a varied cast of characters (including Jarrett), Burton moved back to Berklee to teach, deciding to find local Boston musicians for a new quartet. He was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the local players, and when ECM came calling, he recruited guitarist Mick Goodrick, drummer Harry Blazer, and an astoundingly fluid electric bassist named Abe Laboriel (the latter's son, Abe Laboriel, Jr. is well-known today for being Paul McCartney's drummer for the past quarter century).

The New Quartet's approach is not startlingly different from that taken on Burton's RCA and Atlantic records, but the times—mid '70s vs. late '60s—make all the difference. Blazer is clearly as much at home with a funky backbeat as he is with traditional swing, Laboriel solos with astonishing speed and melodic invention a year or two before Jaco Pastorius rocketed to fame, and Goodrick, while employing a clean tone, incorporates rhythm guitar figures from funk and rock into his playing to great effect, enlivening opener "Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly," a Chick Corea composition, with a wah wah guitar solo. "Coral," a floating ballad written by Jarrett, precedes "Tying Up Loose Ends," a standout track featuring a riff that climbs, crab-like, up a bluesy scale, sounding rather like British fusion bands Nucleus and Soft Machine. Laboriel offers up his best playing on Burton's "Brownout," contributing a bass solo that is fast, funky, and fun. Though Side 2's opener, Carla Bley's "Olhos De Gato" is brooding and mysterious, featuring Burton's lovely bending of pitch, the overall feel of this album is upbeat and joyful. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the two Mike Gibbs tunes that close the album: "Four or Less" features a yearning, upwardly mobile chord sequence punctuated by quick cadences and some playful free episodes, while "Nonsequence" is a groovy dancer that recalls the "old" Burton quartet of Lofty Fake Anagram (RCA, 1967), save for Laboriel's lightning electric bass runs.

The New Quartet updated Burton's sound for a new decade and initiated an impressive run of albums for ECM that earned him the undisputed mantle of modern master of the vibraphone.

Marilyn Crispell
Amaryllis
ECM
2001

American pianist Marilyn Crispell has forged a remarkable career exploring free playing in a wide variety of settings. Critics compared her early work to that of Cecil Taylor due to her dense, frenetic style: Crispell herself has said she was "playing like a thousand notes a minute. . .a constant barrage." Anthony Braxton, whose group she joined in the 1980s and 1990s, encouraged her to relax and incorporate a keener sense of breadth, space, and phrasing into her playing, and by the time of Amaryllis she had completed this transformation. Accompanied here by legendary free jazz bassist Gary Peacock and sensitive, melodic drum virtuoso Paul Motian, Crispell's enigmatic but emotional playing embodies the ECM Records ethos and casts a spell on the listener.

Each trio member brought tunes to the February 2000 sessions at Avatar Studios in New York City. Peacock's "Voice from the Past," "Requiem," and "December Greenwings" are the most immediate. The bassist's compositional style typically incorporates strong, epigrammatic melodic phrases punctuated by dramatic pauses. The interplay between Peacock's deep-toned bass, Motian's decidedly non-linear percussion, and Crispell's playful piano soloing on "December Greenwings" is a highlight of the album, evoking the darting flight of birds hinted at by the title. Motian's "Conception Vessel/Circle Dance" medley deftly combines the title track of his 1973 ECM solo debut album with a tune he recorded in 1989 in a very different arrangement with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano (One Time Out, Soul Note Records). Here, Crispell's piano cascades like a waterfall as Peacock and Motian provide a steadier rhythmic drive than elsewhere on the album.

In addition to the songs prepared for the session, producer Manfred Eicher also captured four stunning, completely free pieces that represent the most beautiful sounds on Amaryllis. Peacock begins the title track by establishing a harmonic framework that Crispell immediately grasps as if she had played it for years, while Motian provides intermittent brushwork on cymbals and snare. "Voices" and "M.E. (for Manfred Eicher)" begin as duets between Motian and Peacock, and here it is Crispell's turn to add a sparse accompaniment of ringing piano notes. "Avatar" is led by the piano, stating a wistful theme that Motian in particular seems to grasp immediately, matching Crispell's accents and rhythmic shifts beat for beat. These abstract performances demonstrate the players' astonishing ability to listen and complement each other in real time, and Eicher is to be commended for capturing such explorations for posterity. Two more forceful songs close the album: Motian's "Morpion," also found on his earlier Soul Note release, sounds like a boxing match between his drums and Crispell's piano, while Mitchell Weiss's gospel-tinged "Prayer" is perhaps the most straightforward tune here, with a gorgeous middle section where Crispell plays unaccompanied.

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture," a wag (possibly Martin Mull) once said. This is rather apt when it comes to a recording like Amaryllis: difficult to describe or explain, its beauty must be experienced and enjoyed rather than analyzed.

Annette Peacock
An Acrobat's Heart
ECM
2000

"We play our own music/we sing our own songs/I made my own music for right or for wrong," sings Annette Peacock on the opening track of An Acrobat's Heart, "Mia's Proof." A more succinct statement of purpose could not be made for this singer, musician, composer, electronics pioneer, and inspiration to many other musicians, jazz or otherwise. At 19, Annette Coleman married bassist Gary Peacock and was immediately immersed in the whirlwind of the New York City avant-garde as her new husband played and toured with Albert Ayler, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Paul Bley and many others. After the Peacocks divorced, Annette married Bley and the new couple met Bob Moog, who gave the singer one of his analog synthesizers. Peacock created patches that allowed her to control the synth with her voice, touring with Bley and recording the landmark album I'm The One (RCA, 1972), an eclectic mix of blues, jazz, electronics and poetry that David Bowie counted among his favorite records. Several other solo albums followed in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as collaborations with high-caliber musicians such as Bill Bruford, before Peacock took a 12-year hiatus from recording that ended with An Acrobat's Heart, her only solo album for ECM.

This double LP features Peacock's sparse but appropriate piano playing, along with the Cikada String Quartet, accompanying her purring, honeyed vocals on a set of songs exploring love, relationships in varying stages of dissolution, and a desire for personal freedom. So consistent are the lyrical themes and the musical framing—languid and gentle ballads, like jazz standards pared down to their minimal elements—that there are few highlights that stand out. Rather, it's best to hear the album as a suite of themes and variations, and there is no doubt that the sum total is beguiling. Peacock's lyrics are directly confessional: "Tho i love u darling, i love happiness more. . . Remember/how we grew into/the dream that lived/until we killed/love. . .No matter how I keep on trying/my thoughts won't stop about you. . .When you're not here/within me/the mem'ry/is all I can feel. . .My soul searches through universes for you, but I can't say/'I love you' out loud. Cause if I do, I might believe it too." Sonically, there are few touchstones. Perhaps some of the songs of Nick Drake, such as "Way To Blue," on which he was accompanied by strings, or Elvis Costello's The Juliet Letters (Warner Brothers, 1993) with the Brodsky Quartet (though the latter's lyrical and musical approaches are far more varied). How often the listener will want to put this album on may depend on their state of romantic yearning. This is a song cycle for the heartsick, or perhaps for that time of year when the wind blows autumn's colors away into winter's white landscape.

Four very different albums, then, which provide a microcosm of the ECM label's vast catalog: ethereal, intellectual, abstract, and adventurous. The Luminessence series of reissues is a boon for vinyl fans, making it easy for listeners to hear ECM classics in pristine analog sound without endless crate digging for clean original copies. The mastering, pressing quality, and packaging are all superb, fully in keeping with ECM's reputation for quality. With new batches of titles being released several times a year, Luminessence seems set to delight jazz fans for years to come.

Tracks and Personnel

Gnu High

Tracks: Heyoke; Smatter; Gnu Suite.

Personnel: Kenny Wheeler: flugelhorn; Keith Jarrett: piano; Dave Holland: bass; Jack DeJohnette: drums.

The New Quartet

Tracks: Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly; Coral; Tying Up Loose Ends; Brownout; Olhos De Gato; Mallet Man; Four Or Less; Nonsequence.

Personnel: Gary Burton: vibraphone; Mick Goodrick: guitar; Abe Laboriel: bass; Harry Blazer: drums.

Amaryllis

Tracks: Voice From The Past; Amaryllis; Requiem; Conceptio Vessel/Circle Dance; Voices; December Greenwings; Silence; M.E.; Rounds; Avatar; Morpion; Prayer.

Personnel: Marilyn Crispell: piano; Gary Peacock: bass; Paul Motian: drums.

An Acrobat's Heart

Tracks: Mia's Proof; Tho; Weightless; Over; As Long As Now; U Slide; Before U Said; The Heart Keeps; Ways It Isn't; Unspoken; Safe; Free The Memory; Ever 2 B Gotten; Camille; Lost At Last.

Personnel: Annette Peacock: vocals, piano; Cikada String Quartet

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