In the 1990s into the 2000s, I had the pleasure of interviewing jazz drummer and composer Paul Motian for both Modern Drummer and DownBeat. Motian's playful yet cantankerous spirit shone through in both conversations. The first interview took place at the ECM Records offices in Midtown Manhattan. Motian was clutching The Harold Arlen Songbook, which he had just purchased at Colony Records, now sadly closed. The second interview, at a pizza joint next to the Village Vanguard, was a lively affair, with my friend the actor Ken Forman and guitarist Bill Frisell also in attendance.
Motian had no patience for fools, and if not for Ken and Bill, the second interview would likely have been a complete failure. They deftly reframed my pointed questions into broader topics, prompting Motian to speak not just as a great drummer but as a great artist.
In 2023, ECM Records launched Luminessence, a vinyl-reissue series aimed at recapturing the label's signature sound; Robert Baird wrote about its launch in the March 2024 Stereophile. The ECM style combined the fiery energy of post-bop and avantgarde jazz with a spacious, wide-open, swinging sensibility. That unique blend of styles created an expansive and adventurous feel that is a hallmark of the ECM catalog, including such early Motian albums as Conception Vessel, Dance, Le Voyage, and Psalm.
Another ECM hallmark is the label's signature sound, established by ECM owner-producer Manfred Eicher and longtime engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug. Spaciousness, clarity, wide panning, warmth, and a fog-laden, mountain valley atmosphere gave the records a unique sonic signature.
Luminessence titles are mastered from the original analog tapes and presented in premium tip-on gatefold jackets. Some editions include new liner notes and previously unreleased photos.
Amaryllis, pianist Marilyn Crispell's 2000 ECM release, showcases both hallmarks: the sonic signature and spontaneous improvisation. Crispell is joined by bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Motian. It was her second album on ECM. Her first, from 1997, was dedicated to the music of Annette Peacock. Amaryllis blends original compositions by the three players, with improvisations so rigorous they feel through-composed.
Amaryllis drifts like a restless spirit, each track shifting in intensity and hue. It unfolds as a sprawling dialogue, by turns languid and playful, sun-dappled and shadowed. The title track swells and shimmers, ever expanding; "Requiem" crackles with Motian's stickwork, raining sparks; "Voices" bubbles with the joy of children at play. Amaryllis is a masterwork, and the recording is stunning.
In the 1990s, I shared a rehearsal space at Westbeth, the renowned artists' community in New York's West Village; it was the former home of Western Electric. Once a month, an older fellow would appear in sunglasses and softly prod us: "Where's the rent?" Years later, I found out it was Paul Bley, the pianist and composer, sneaking into our basement lair to make us pay up.
Bley influenced Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea. His 1972 album Open, To Love is hailed on the ECM website as "the third fabulous chapter in ECM's quietly revolutionary solo piano manifesto." The first two were Corea's Piano Improvisations (1971) and Jarrett's Facing You (1972). Open, To Love draws its material from compositions by Bley's former partners, Carla Bley and Annette Peacock.
One thing that sets Open, To Love apart is its bold piano sound: Crackling, sustained notes and a deft use of space generate drama and forward momentum. Across seven tracks, Bley weaves bluesy runs, ringing chords, razor-sharp single-note articulations, and delicate asides, framed by ilent spaces that evoke (in this listener at least) the sensation of gliding over icy open water. Open is striking for its emotional depth and its bold sound.
Bennie Maupin's 1981 release The Jewel in the Lotus feels like a long-lost soundtrack to some ancient ritual. Strongly influenced by the ambient soundscapes of Miles Davis's Bitches Brew (on which Maupin played bass clarinet) and In a Silent Way, Maupin's work draws you in with slow, yawning crescendos that plunge into frantic improvisations punctuated by declarative piano chords. Ending the first side, an ethereal, ambient section is surrounded by disembodied vocal cries like smoke rising from a pyre. The album further delves into otherworldly ring-modulator tones and gurgling water percussion, blending seamlessly with "expansive acoustic improvisatory textures," as the liner notes put it. The long sections of atmospheric improvisation, anchored by Buster Williams's resounding upright bass, are incredible. It's a singular album, like nothing I've heard, before or since.
The album's personnel include Maupin on reeds, voice, and glockenspiel, with drummers Billy Hart and Freddie Waits, bassist Williams, and percussionist Bill Summers playing "water-filled garbage can" and many other instruments. Herbie Hancock is on piano and "e-piano," and Charles Sullivan plays trumpet.
Other recent titles in ECM's Luminessence series are Old and New Dreams by the ensemble of that name; Gateway by John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette; and Pat Metheny's Bright Size Life. ECM should add to the list John Abercrombie, Jan Hammer, and Jack DeJohnette's explosively improvisational Timeless, bassist Marc Johnson's scalding Bass Desires; the standards-romping Still Live by the Keith Jarrett Trio; Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins's Rejoicing; and the Dave Holland Trio's Triplicate—all brilliant albums that deserve a new vinyl release.
