Jonas' Wail is worth a Brand

**Alyn_Shipton** · 09-09-21, 15:40

JRR is not a repeat.

**Serial_Apologist** · 09-09-21, 17:56

Originally posted by Alyn_Shipton View Post

JRR is not a repeat.

Well thank god for that!!!

**Serial_Apologist** · 12-09-21, 16:13

Brilliant JRR today. I was particularly struck by the Tomasz Stanko track, not having even heard of that album before. Dave Holland really was at his peak at that time and the Ornettish group approach really suited him. I wasn't aware he'd worked with Stanko. Most impressive was Szukalski - on soprano, I would have thought; and sounding like a more adventurous version of Jan Garbarek. Someone will now probably come on to say he is or was one of Poland's best-known saxophone players!

Good too to hear Ingrid and Liam performing their version of "Alone Together", from the album of standards (mostly) they recorded as a duo. For those who think of Ingrid as an "out" player that track (and the album as a whole) is instructive in showing her pushing at the edges in a relatively straight ahead setting, although, that said, I remember when getting that CD off Liam remarking that it was a wonder that he always managed to recover the chord changes after drifting so far off them - to which he replied that he didn't, always!

**Quarky** · 12-09-21, 17:53

Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post

Brilliant JRR today. I was particularly struck by the Tomasz Stanko track, not having even heard of that album before. Dave Holland really was at his peak at that time and the Ornettish group approach really suited him. I wasn't aware he'd worked with Stanko. Most impressive was Szukalski - on soprano, I would have thought; and sounding like a more adventurous version of Jan Garbarek. Someone will now probably come on to say he is or was one of Poland's best-known saxophone players!

Good too to hear Ingrid and Liam performing their version of "Alone Together", from the album of standards (mostly) they recorded as a duo. For those who think of Ingrid as an "out" player that track (and the album as a whole) is instructive in showing her pushing at the edges in a relatively straight ahead setting, although, that said, I remember when getting that CD off Liam remarking that it was a wonder that he always managed to recover the chord changes after drifting so far off them - to which he replied that he didn't, always!

Agreed totally

, and thanks for the insider information!

**Ian Thumwood** · 13-09-21, 06:09

I was also intrigued to hear that track from "Balladyna" although i was aware of the album. I am a fan of Tomasz Stanko and one of my favourite types of jazz groups are those where the harmony of dispensed with. I think that these kinds of groups really rely on the drummer needing to bring their personality to the fore -the more creative the drummer, the better the group. Nice to be reacquainted with the late Edward Vesala's drumming as he is something of a forgotten name these days. The track was typical ECM from the time when the label was effectively finding new solutions and contexts for Free Jazz and the avant garde with the result that the music still retains it's edge 45 year years later. I have to admit that I wasn't so taken by it as SA although I thought that the group's sense of time was fascinating. There is actually a very similar record made under Gary Peacock's name with Stanko, Jack DeJohnette and Jan Garbarek called "Paradigm" which is exceptional and for my money one of Garbarek's most potent performances from the time when he was playing jazz. It was a form which was later re-visited by Gary Peacock on "Guamba" but, for my money, "Paradigm" was, from recollection, far superior. It is difficult to be sniffy about Garbaek's playing in this kind of context and it is a shame that he effectively left jazz from the late 1980s onwards.

Anything with Dave Holland playing bass is going to be exceptional. I cannot agree that this era represents him at his peak simply because he is easily one of the most consistent and reliable jazz musicians recording since the late 60s. The albums made with Steve Coleman in the 1980s largely define that era and the quintet that he led from the late 1990s and throughout the first decade of the 2000s was simply one of the best groups in jazz of any era. For my money, he is probably amongst a handful of ECMs most reliable artists ( Abercrombie, Stanko, Jarrett, Bley, Gismonti, etc) and tends to underscore my perception that the more solid ECM recordings are those which have a purer relationship with jazz. The pick up used on the "Balladyna" session did not make his bass sound as natural as we are now used to hearing. Still, it does make you feel a bit sad that ECM seemed to define the state of jazz in the 70s and 80s and found such fertile ground by taking inspiration from Ornette's original quartet whereas the label now seems to be obsessed with brooding melancholy. It had more about it back then. In it's current state, ECM always strike me as being a bit like Everton insofar they make some big name signings yet don't necessarily reach the levels of the past and rarely look capable of acheiving this. I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with this label but certainly think the magic spark is missing these days if for no other reason than ECM has ultimately become part of the mainstream. Everyone else seems to have caught up with Eicher. It was refreshing to hear this early Stanko track and listen to how original European jazz could be at that time even when taking cues from American free jazz of the 1960s. Some of these early ECM records have been out of print for so long that you forget just how much it was endebted to Free Jazz.

Jonas' Wail is worth a Brand

Jonas' Wail is worth a Brand

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