Middleburg Eccentric
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February 28 ~ March 28, 2019 Page 41
March 2019 In Unison
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Steve Chase
ifty years ago was an important time for music. Many of the great rock bands were in their glory years; Woodstock blew the minds of square America; and ECM Records was born in Munich. It took me another ten years or so to discover the unique sounds of Edition of Contemporary Music (the full name of ECM) that Manfred Eicher and company produced, and I’ll bet that most folks today have never heard of the label. With a few notable exceptions, every ECM album is produced under a certain set of sonic sideboards, creating a subtle linkage between each work. Some might call ECM “soft jazz”, and that would not be correct. Soft jazz is the lifeless pablum of the jazz world that is best ignored, and I assure you, that ECM albums, filled with complexity, imagination, and virtuosity, are not soft jazz. ECM’s first album, Free At Last by Max Waldron Trio was released in 1969. I won’t recommend starting with this one, with its strident, sometimes cacophonous piano. I would instead head to many of the subsequent releases by great jazz artists like
Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, John Abercrombie, Pat Metheny, Gary Burton, Egberto Gismonti, and Steve Swallow. There are also a number of special series of classical music, from baroque like Handel, to the mathematical rhythms of Steve Reich, to post modern noise from John Cage. It is really an amazing catalog that you should explore and enjoy. For a long time, ECM refused to offer their music on my preferred streaming platform, Spotify, but about a year ago they finally jumped on, providing the entire catalog. In the spirit of introducing you to new music that you can really enjoy, here’s a six pack of some ECM albums from the seventies for you to try out, I think you will like them and maybe come back to some of them again and again. Chick Corea—Return to Forever (1972) Fresh from playing early jazz rock fusion with Miles Davis, keyboardist Chick Corea changes the jazz paradigm with his first Return to Forever album, a melodic but complex, Brazilian-infused set of tunes that I still hum in my head often. It’s not often that the first album of a band is the masterpiece, but this is the case with Return to Forev-
er. Corea is joined by Joe Farrell on reeds, Stanley Clarke on bass, Flora Purim on ethereal vocals, and Airto Moreira on percussion. Play it again and again, from start to finish. John Abercrombie—Timeless (1975) A good friend of mine passed this album to me in the early eighties, and oh boy, it blew my mind. The trio, made up of guitarist John Abercrombie, keyboardist Jan Hammer, and drummer Jack DeJohnette create an extraordinary set with complex polyrhythms, pounding jazz organ and synth, and jazz rock guitar different from anything else from the time. This one really smokes, even when they play a ballad. The title track is a magnum opus best enjoyed on headphones. Gary Burton Quartet-Passengers (1977)—Starting as an apprentice playing with Gary Burton, twenty three year old guitarist Pat Metheny defined himself fully on this album, the true predecessor album to his seminal Pat Metheny Group White Album. Leader and mentor Gary Burton, the great vibraphonist, is also joined bassists Steve Swallow and Eberhard Weber, and the great drummer, Danny Gottlieb,
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to perform one of the great jazz albums of the seventies. I cannot get enough of this one and it sounds as fresh today as it was on the turntable more than 40 years ago. Steve Reich—Music for Eighteen Musicians (1978) This minimalist, 52 minute meditation is made up of eleven distinct parts. Each section on its own is perhaps unremarkable, but woven together, a fascinating work emerges that was nothing short of a post modern classical breakthrough at the time. A listen requires some attention, with perhaps a glass of Copper Fox Rye. Egberto Gismonti—Solo (1979) I was once at a John McLaughlin concert where a third of the tunes played were written by the great Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Egberto Gismonti. This set provides a palate of solo compositions, featuring the killed and melodic piano and guitar playing of Gismonti. These are joyous and accessible compositions that will bring a smile to your face and wipe away the drudgery of a bad day. Really good stuff here, great for a dinner party. Pat Metheny Group—American Garage (1979)—that ECM
sound was held firm throughout the seventies until Pat Metheny and his band showed up at the farm in North Brookfield, Massachusetts to record a new album. The unique ECM sound has been called contemplative by critics, and Metheny felt Eicher’s production aesthetic was “restrictive”, so he produced American Garage himself to make a break in that ECM tradition. The result is a set of freewheeling but structured fusion tunes, filled with rock riffs, powerful synthesizer, fretless bass grooves, and a powerful rhythm set down by Danny Gottlieb. Keyboardist Lyle Mays also introduces his seminal ocarina sound on the Oberheim synthesizer, a tone that would thread together future Metheny Group albums. I saw this album tour half a dozen times, and they were some of the most exuberant live shows I have ever seen. Savor all of the tunes on this record, especially The Search, one of the Group’s very best. This month’s playlist is a selection of tunes from these six ECM albums, you can hear it on Spotify here: tinyurl.com/ y28mgyc4 Steve Chase is chillin’ to some ECM in Unison.
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