German pianist Julia Hülsmann has made her mark with trio jazz fronted with a vocalist, either male or female, but had returned to the instrumental three when she signed up with ECM and recorded her first album with them, The End Of A Summer (2008). Now comes the follow-up threeRead More

One of ECM’s rising stars is back three years after knocking it out of the park with a sensational album the last time around. Marcin Wasilewski leads a trio from Poland You May Also Like: Marcin Wasilewski Trio feat. Joe Lovano – ‘Arctic Riff’ (2020)

During the first year or so of my post-college life, I developed a habit of visiting my local record shop every Saturday afternoon (it goes without saying that I already had this habit, maybe not so firmly attached to a particular day). It was an unassuming little store hiding inRead More

Part of the genius of Miles Davis (aside from the incredible compositions, insanely great trumpet work, and spooky ability to play just the right notes) was his amazing talent for selecting band members. You May Also Like: How Bennie Maupin Left Mwandishi Behind on ‘The Jewel in the Lotus’ WhyRead More

Some time ago…two years and three months ago to be more precise…we raved on the double-bass mastery of the Norwegian ECM Records mainstay Arild Andersen, and noted then that he “may not be the first name that comes up when one thinks of the greatest living acoustic bassists, but he’sRead More

Each of the year’s four Satoko Fujii records made our Best Of 2010 List. by Pico With the more accessible types of jazz out of the way in Part 3 and Part 4, this Best of 2010 series concludes with the least accessible stuff, the experimental and avant garde stuffRead More

Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden hadn’t played together in over 30 years before getting together in Jarrett’s studio to work on these duets. The two men went their respective ways in the late 1970s. In the interim, there has been a lot of music-making. What’s particularly amazing about the just-releasedRead More

Photo: Shawn Brickbill/High Two It’s been quite a while since the bassist and composer Michael Formanek has led a date but with his ECM debut The Rub And Spare Change, he’s more than made up for lost time. Out since October 12, The Rub marks his return as a leaderRead More

It’s ritual groove music time again. The Swiss pianist and bandleader Nik Bärtsch has broken musical ground with his Ronin outfit, pioneering jazz that’s melodically sparse and rhythmically robust. Not dance music but very funky, not piano bar jazz but very soothing, Bärtsch and his crew create paradoxes that resolveRead More

by S. Victor Aaron When I lived in a college dormitory, a guy down the hall from me turned me on to this ECM record Silent Feet by Eberhard Weber. The two long tracks and the one even longer track were entrancing to me, like going on this audial odyssey.Read More