Favourite ECM Titles


We all know ECM is releasing some amazing music both in sound quality as well as "Musical Value"!

They have released a bit over 1200 records if I am not mistaken!

What is your favourite ECM title?
argyro
Pat Metheny Group – Travels
Steve Tibbetts - Yr
Keith Jarrett - Koln Concert
Peter Erskine - Time Being
Gary Burton - Crystal Silence
Wonderful, Argyro, hope to get valuable information from this thread myself. My favourites off the top of my head:

Jarrett, Peacock, DeJohnette - "Whisper Not"
Jarrett, Peacock, DeJohnette - "My Foolish Heart"
Arve Henriksen - "Cartography"
Miroslav Vitous - "Universal Syncopations"

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I've drawn this nice little line since I know I'm deviating (profuse apologies), but everyone into this kind of music should also keep an eye on ACT Music and PIROUT. My favourites there:
e.s.t. - "Leucocyte" (ACT)
Rössler, Vogt, Vitous - "Between the Times" (ACT)
Copland, Peacock - "Insight" (Pirouet)
Jürgen Friedrich - "Pollock" (Pirouet)
One of my most favorite labels:
Arvo Part: Tabula Rasa, Arbos
Steve Reich: Music for a large ensemble, Music for 18 musicians
Colin Walcott: Cloud dance
Jack DeJonette: Special edition (the first one only)
Nik Bärtsch's Ronin-Holon
Tomasz Stanko Quartet-Suspended Night
Steve Reich-Music for 18 Musicians
Ketil Bjornstad & David Darling-Epigraphs
All of Tord Gustavsen's albums are a must with Being There being my favorite
Keith Jarrett-The Koln Concert
Terje Rypdal-Rarum VII is a good place to start since it has cuts from various points in his career. Great guitar work.
Tons more but those are the first releases that jump out at me.
John Abercrombie, Jan Hammer, Jack De Johnette - Timeless
Gary Burton - The New Quartet
Keith Jarrett - Solo Concerts - Bremen and Lausanne
Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians
Chick Corea - Return To Forever

West German vinyl sounded much better than the US releases.
Several choice albums have already been mentioned. I'd like to add:
"Conference Of The Birds" Dave Holland
"Yellow Fields" Eberhard Weber
Molvaer Nils Petter 'Khmer'
Pat Metheny 'Offramp'
Carla Bley 'Night Glo'
Carla Bley 'European Tour 1977' especially 'National Anthem in Minor...'
Pretty deep well... a few favorites:
Gateway (1st)
Eberhard Weber (The Morning After)
Terje Rypdal (Whenever I Seem To Be Far Away)
Contact Trio (Marks)
Gary Burton (Dreams So Real)
Dave Liebman (Lookout Farm)
Old and New Dreams (Playing)
Louis Sclavis Quintet (L'affrontment des pretendants)
Julian Priester (Love Love)

Lots of others deserve mention, but would replace these fast if I had to start over.
Steve Tibbetts - Northern Song (outstanding engineering)
Pat Metheny Group - Pat Metheny Group (only mediocre engineering job, but still a classic in every other way)
Ralph Towner - Old Friends, New Friends
A very obscure title, but I would like to add:
Paul Giger "Ignis"
A beautiful piece
a lot of my favorites are already mentioned (most everything by John Abercrombie, Gary Burton, Steve Tibbets, Ralph Towner, and Jack DeJohnette) . . . ) but here's a couple more:

"Matchbook" (Towner/Burton)
"The Touchstone" (Azimuth - Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone, John Taylor)
Pat Methany 80/81 which features the late great Dewey Redman on tenor sax. I'm not a big Methany fan but this record is SO compelling. Typically beautiful ECM recording quality. I have it on vinyl. It has been reissued on cd but I can't attest to the cd quality.
How about Marcin Wasilewski/Trio and January CDs, pianist for Tomasz Stanko?
Also like most of the early ECM Metheny.
Forgot to mention, I find some of the Paul Motian CDs interesting as well.
Treje Rypdal - "Chaser" and "Blue"
Tord Gustavsen - "Being There"
Just off the top of my head. I'd have to check my stash for more, which I'm sure there are.
Slothman, thanks for mentioning Steve Tibbetts's "Yr". Brilliant! (How can I not have had this recording for so long.)
Maybe this thread should be renamed "the genius of Manfred Eicher" as for a while, he produced all albums under this label. Eicher is a genius for getting the most out of an artist. I agree with the previous comments with respect to Pat Metheny. It seemed he hit his high with "80/81" and "New Chautaugua" with mixed results after. Some of my favorites (there are so many its almost pointless):

Chick Corea: Solo Improvisations, Vol's 1 & 2
Kenny Wheeler: Gnu High, Deer Wan
Egberto Gismonti: Solo is my favorite but virtually anything he did with ECM is great
Rainer Bruninghaus: Freiweight
Mick Goodrick: In Passing
Old and New Dreams: An all star ensemble with Dewey Redman and DOn Cherry.
Dave Holland: Extensions and Life Cycle

The list is endless.
This has become a very nice discussion indeed.

As for my favourites, lately I've been listening a lot to the "New Series" and particularly Arvo Part!
The gorgeous piano trio albums by Marilyn Crispell on ECM...I believe there are three of them. Also, anything by Stanko, Rava, Stenson and Lloyd...beautiful. But you know, they're all (ECM) pretty darn good.
Yesterday I listened to Nils Petter Molvaer - Khmer !

A fusion of jazz and electronic music, really amazing!!!
I've enjoyed a number of ECM titles over the years. I appreciate the fact that their offerings are frequently a bit "different" as far as being a little out of the mainstream and yet always of high quality. Really kind of refreshing!
Dino Saluzzi & Anna Lechner's _Ojos Negros_
Vassilis Tsabropoulos' _Achirana_
Bobo Stenson's _War Orphans_
I have quite a few ECM recordings and some fine ones have already been listed so I'll add these:

Egberto Gismonti - Danças Das Cabeças
Rolf Lislevand - Nuove Musiche
Rolf Lislevand - Diminuito
Kim Kashkashian - Neharot
Anouar Brahem - The Astounding Eyes Of Rita
Gianluigi Trovesi - Vaghissimo Ritratto
Jon Hassell - Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street
Here's a very recent one (actually younger than this thread)

Ralph Towner & Paolo Fresu, "Chiaroscuro"

Apart from being artistically brilliant, I've added this to the CDs I like to take with me for auditioning gear
Steve Tibbetts! I play Steve's LPs at shows and people **always** ask 'what's playing?' Steve is his own combination of folk and progressive rock. Steve has been recording since the mid 1970s. One of the more serious masters of the guitar as well. Lately he has been recording and performing with a Tibetan singer- very beautiful stuff!

I met Albert Porter originally as he is a Tibbetts fan also- he heard me playing 'yr' and came into our room at CES and introduced himself...
Steve Tibbetts with CHOYING DROLMA vocals
w/ NAGI GOMPA NUNS ,
She donates the money from their shows to her school in
Nepal. Here is her website.

http://www.choying.com/
Hi guys, two awesome new releases this month (although certainly not everyone's cup of tea, let's be clear about that)
Nick Bärtsch's Ronin, "Llyria"
Jan Garbarek with the Hilliard Ensemble, "Officium Novum"
Get a little taste here:
http://player.ecmrecords.com/officium-novum
http://player.ecmrecords.com/baertsch
Enjoy
Karel
Here's a very recent one (actually younger than this thread)

Ralph Towner & Paolo Fresu, "Chiaroscuro"
I agree!
If you like Ralph Towner (I have most of what he's done) you need to get this one. I think it's his best. Even if you don't know if you like Ralph Towner, this is worth checking out
The Charles Lloyd albums are great too. The new one, 'Mirrors' is really terrific.
Michael Mantler, "The Hapless Child".
Ha! Not really. I'm not that crazy. But it does have a connection to my most favorite - Terje Rypdal. My favorite ECM title is Terje's "Chaser".
My favorite label.
Manu Katche-Neighbourhood
Keith Jarrett Trio- At The Blue Note
Jack DeJohnette-Special Edition
Ralph Towner-Batik
Marcin Wasilewski-Trio
Yves Robert-In Touch
Tomaz Stanko-any of his
Regards,
What's the deal with Michael Mantler? Is he supposed to be cheesy or something?
Most of the responses to this thread have centered on jazz releases but ECM has wonderful classical releases as well. I discovered a talented Russian composer on this label who up to now I never even heard of: Valentin Silvestrov. Check out Bagatellen and Seranaden or any of his other releases.
Gary Burton Quartet,ECM 1293

Gary Burton......Vibes,Marimba
Makoto Ozone.....Piano
Steve Swallow....Bass Guitar
Mike Hyman.......Drums

These guys were ready and came to play.
Right now I am very much into Anouar Brahem and Vasilis Tsambropoulos. Two great artists, the first one plays the oud and the latter the Piano!

I would suggest from Anouar Brahem as a first listen (cause you got to have them all): The outstanding eyes of Rita

And from Vasilis Tsambropoulos: Chants, Hymns & Dances!

Happy Listening,

Mike
A few gems not mentioned yet:

Anoar Brahem - Barzakh
Anoar Brahem - Conte de l'incroyable amour
Egberto Gismonti - Danco dos Escravos
Egberto Gismonti - Sanfona

"Barzakh" is up there with ECM best selling record ever (Keith Jarrett's - The Koln concert) as one of my all time favorite albums.
Argyro, I had not noticed your Anouar Brahem recommendation. If you appreciate his music, you should also give a listen to Rabih Abou-Khalil, another master of the oud. Start with the album Al-Jadida. You will not be disappointed!
I 3rd the Anouar Brahem recommendations. Does anyone have the Astounding Eyes of Rita? This is on my short list of CD's to purchase.
"The Astounding Eyes of Rita" is excellent and highly recommended. One of my current favorites. If you don't mind compilations, "Vague" an ECM import of Brahem's music is a good choice. I just ordered a copy.