Results for "ECM Records"

Nik Bärtsch: Entendre

by Mike Jurkovic
April 6, 2021

Prepared, primal architecture sparks the core of pianist Nik Bartsch's rapid fire, polymetric obsessions. So he titles his works moduls (German) or modules as the are known in King's English. Each piece adaptable and transactional to the next. Each variant available to lend its unique ruminative or propulsive elements to the music preceding or succeeding it. ...

Nik Bärtsch: Entendre

by Karl Ackermann
March 22, 2021

Swiss keyboardist & composer Nik Bärtsch has been recording for two decades, mostly with his Ronin and Mobile groups and their overlapping musicians. A ceaseless experimenter, his early release Hishiryo: Piano Solo (Ronin Rhythm Records, 2002) was a genre-neutral project where he played piano, prepared piano, and percussion. It has been almost twenty years between solo ...

Yotam Ishay

Born: 1990

Grammy-nominated composer, pianist, bandleader, and educator whose work moves fluidly between jazz, classical, and global traditions. Born in Israel and based in Brooklyn, his music is shaped by impressionistic harmony, Mediterranean rhythm, and deep improvisational practice.

His composition "Reminiscing" from debut album Opus 1 was featured in Netflix productions, and his solo piano album SEED received international acclaim from Japan's JAZZ LIFE and France's Djolo. His latest release, Singing of the Herbs(2025), continues his exploration of melody, texture, and cross-cultural musical dialogue. He has been recognized as a three-time finalist in the International Antonín Dvořák Composition Competition and received a Grammy nomination for his work with the Berklee Indian Ensemble on Shuruaat.

Nik Bartsch: Entendre

by Chris May
March 7, 2021

Back in 2006, Swiss composer and keyboard player Nik Bärtsch's ECM debut, Stoa, recorded with his group Ronin, sounded like the album James Brown might have made if he'd appointed Steve Reich musical director of his backing band, The J.B.'s. Simultaneously cerebral and on the good foot, it was minimalism, Jim, but not as we knew ...

Joe Lovano: Garden of Expression

by Karl Ackermann
March 6, 2021

Joe Lovano's entire recording career has been in the company of jazz greats since his debut with the Paul Motian Quintet in 1985. Lovano's hard bop days seem like a distant memory since his association with ECM began. Garden of Expression is the saxophonist's second project with his Trio Tapestry of pianist Marilyn Crispell, and drummer ...

Joe Lovano, Marilyn Crispell, Carmen Castaldi: Garden of Expression

by Ian Patterson
February 24, 2021

Joe Lovano has long been hailed as a standard bearer of mainstream tenor saxophone—a natural heir to Sonny Rollins. Always open to exploring new fields, be it from small to large ensembles, or from a Charlie Parker homage to honoring opera legend Enrico Caruso, Lovano's robust sound has been his signature. Trio Tapestry (ECM, 2019), however, ...

Ferenc Snétberger, Keller Quartett: Hallgató

by Mario Calvitti
February 18, 2021

Il nuovo lavoro del chitarrista ungherese Ferenc Snétberger, il terzo pubblicato da ECM, è condiviso con il Keller Quartet, anch'esso costituito da musicisti ungheresi, per un programma di musica classica registrato in concerto nella Grand Hall della Liszt Academy di Budapest nel dicembre 2018, in cui il chitarrista mostra la sua formazione classica sia come interprete ...

Shai Maestro: Human

by Mike Jurkovic
February 17, 2021

That pianist Shai Maestro dreams music is an understatement: With an intense romanticist's heart, he also plays in said dream state. And it is re-affirming to know that, after the hellish year the world has been dragged kicking through, that we can all dream too. Human dreams broadly with sunrises, sunsets and all the ...

Jakob Bro, Arve Henriksen, Jorge Rossy: Uma Elmo

by Mario Calvitti
February 16, 2021

Giunto al quinto album da titolare per la casa discografica tedesca dopo il suo esordio nel 2015 (ma un'altra decina di dischi li aveva incisi per altre etichette nel decennio precedente), il chitarrista danese Jakob Bro rinnova i musicisti del suo trio rinunciando al contrabbasso, finora sempre affidato a Thomas Morgan, per dialogare con un secondo ...

Joe Lovano / Marilyn Crispell / Carmen Casaldi: Garden of Expression

by Mike Jurkovic
February 14, 2021

Artists inspire art. Provide a contented place. So let your mind (sans the hoopla it entertains itself with) go where it may (lest it lean towards insurrection) and take Trio Tapestry--Joe Lovano, Marilyn Crispell, and Carmen Castaldi--in the with you. And don't forget to bring their second gorgeous, justly titled Garden of Expression along for the ...