ECM has introduced, established, supported, and broke an astonishing
array of unique instrumentalists over the years, not to mention
photographers like Franco Fontana by way of their cover art and design layout. However, they were not without detractors or controversy.
Manfred Eicher, who founded ECM records and thoroughly applied his
personal vision to the whole style and sound of the label, did so to
such a degree that you really had to be either sympathetic to his
aesthetic, or you had to take that as part and parcel of that ECM
sound while listening past that on to whatever ECM recordings of
theirs you were interested in hearing solely for the musicians it
featured. Interestingly, Eicher was a huge Bergman fan, and there is a
bit of an apt comparison there..... at least in as much as that both
Eicher and Bergman had a singular vision colored by an strong
aesthetic and always did things their way despite having an
astonishing strong host of willing artists with which to work with.
Okay, enough contemplating the aesthetics of ECM and its impact as an artistic entity--how about just trying to list the amazing guitarists
that made their rep, or at least part of it, on ECM recordings?
Terje Rypdal------>
To my mind he's perhaps the quintessential ECM guitarist. Terje was
kind of northern Europe's jazz/fusion Siamese step-cousin to non-jazz guitarists like Jeff Beck, Dick Dale, or even pink floyd's david gilmore---maybe it's the strat, or the abandon and perceived slop that results in that.... or perhaps the overall emotive impact? Anyway, he
had a gazillion goosepimply moments on ECM, and i have a couple dozen personal desert island favorites. Okay, to start with, every last bit
of After the Rain, all the solos on Water Stories (maybe his best
stint as a guest soloist ever), the early, intensely Eurocentric take
on Miles' Bitches Brew on the self-titled 1971 recording, Terje Rypdal--especially the opening and last tracks, "Keep it like That
Tight" and "Tough Enough" ,a few of the strings and tight fusion
arrangements on If mountain Could sing, the power trio and even (gasp)
Van Halenisims on the first Chaser's CD, a few of the lovely, lushly orchestral bits on Lux Aeterna, especially the title cut of the final movement, lux Aeterna, and, well, on and on it would go if it weren't
for the fact that i have probably forgotten a few and a bunch of
others have great, stunning cuts here and there, like the title cut on Skywards for example. But i also intentionally didn't include a few of
the other often-mentioned recordings like the vitous /DeJohnette
recording "To be continued" or the other Bjornstad’ non-Water stories recordings, and the David Darling duets. Great, great players on there one-and-all of course, and Rypdal is always at the very least worthy
of a listen as a guitarist, but none of these are near the level of
the recordings i singled out,IMpO. Btw, i had the opportunity to study with/play for David Darling when i a teenager, and he was a great enthusiastic guy who gave me a lot of positive encouragement and
advice. But i'll never forget one day when he took me aside and told
me that he thought Terje Rypdal was the best guitarist in the world,
"better than Van Halen" i think he said, and that he was unknown only
because he was a European and not an American .This was probably 81 or
82 after EVH had pretty thoroughly broke on the scene and was already considered to be a serious bad-ass rock guitar guy....and while i
surely had a more pronounced liking for Rypdal myself, i honestly
think David didn't realize that EVH had probably already at that point influenced Rydal himself to a certain degree here and
there..........an amazing thing really for an already established, world-class artist late in their professional career. Like Miles, who
clearly understood the implications and potential resources of Jimi
Hendrix, this, as much as anything else, underscores the non-orthodox, unselfishly creative mindset of someone like a Terje rypdal----and
hats off to that, no?
Ralph Towner------>
If it Rypdal isn't the guy, then Ralph Towner definitely is! I was
fortunate enough to attend a master class with Towner and Abercrombie
when they were touring their great Saragossa Sea recording, and Towner
shared a lot of beautiful information complete with playing
examples----like when you set a thing properly in motion, it's still
there in the listener's mind even if you drop it entirely and move on
to another different, though related idea.The trick is to truly set it
into motion, a thing that might require less repetition than you'd
think, too. Ok,True story: i bought my first Oregon record ,Distant
Hills, with money from my paper route on summer day by riding my
10speed to the neighboring town of Westboro, Massachusettts and
picking it out of the record bin at the now defunct Caldor's
department store. On the way home i pulled off into a sizzling,
stereophonic bug humming field and stared at the back of the album
cover for a long time wondering what the hell a classical guitar,
oboe, upright bass, and sitar /tabla could possibly sound like together......man, was i on my way or what? Towner's an amazing guy on
the nylon string....a kind of like Bill Evans meets leo Brower,but for
me it was always his 12-string that stood WAY out in contrast to what
others were doing in that context . Not a lot of guys made this
instrument theirs....i saw Coryell two or three times dueting with
polish violinist Michael Urbaniak, and in this setting he almost
exclusively played the 12-string.However ,he was more of less playing
what he always played acoustically, only faster than you'd expect
circular picking on a 12-string. Other players, especially Robbie
Basho who comes right to mind, and Leo Kottke added some other, non- sixstring personality and dimension to it. But man, Towner really took
it out there into Towner-land........and hey, if if you don't believe
me, just look no further than Ralph Towner with Glen Moore Trios/Solos record.Anyone familiar with this recording?it's no doubt a kind of an
ECM throwaway in the great pantheon of accepted classics, but
interestingly enough I think Towner has some of his best solo 12-
string playing (and i've heard a pile too) on this record....so, if
you can, check out the cuts 1 X 12 and 3 X 12---amazing stuff.
Bill Frisell------>
Okay, if the quintessential ECM guitarist isn't Rypdal or Towner, then
it's certainly frisell. I mean what can you say at this
point......he's recorded with everybody and everybody else’s uncle...
he always sounds great despite having been on ten trillion recordings
in a zillion diametrically opposed settings, and next to Metheny he's definitely the most universally influential ECM guitarist. I was lucky
enough to open for him and Tim Berne at the WCUW JazzFest in the
Worcester, Massachusetts Science Center's Planetarium while they were supporting their record Theoretically .And man was it great to sit a
few inches from the bespectacled Frisell and his SG as he bent the
neck and challenged the truss rod to deny him his microtonal, lonely
whistle sonorities.
Pat Metheny------>
Well if the quintessential ECM guitarist isn't Rypdal or towner or
Frisell, then there might be space for an argument that it's Metheny. Probably not, but without a doubt he's their most influential
recording artist. Listening back, it's amazing, considering his pre-
Bright Sized Life output that BSL just screamed, quintessential genius
in his debut recording......and it's still my favorite Pat Metheny
record by far, even after all these years. Just an aside in all this,
as I really don't have a vested opinion not being devoted big fan or a devoted not-fan. I rather tend to see Metheny in the context of the
great ECM guitar pantheon, and perhaps even more so, the great jazz
guitar pantheon, both of which I see him in as an honorary member in
that given milieu doing his thing. Oddly enough, Metheny wasn't always
a well-respected jazz guitarist, as i'm old enough to remember that
Metheny was, at least initially, heavily slagged by many of his jazz contemporaries as a kind of bubblegum jazz musician---more of less ala
Kenny G today....funny how times have and have not changed, no? BTW, i
saw Miles Davis With Mike Stern on guitar OPEN for Pat metheny in a
free concert on the Boston commons,and i shudder to think of what
Miles had to say during negations for that tour! Anyway, Stern was
great that night, but Metheny really upped the anti as i saw it back
then, and he and his band turned in a remarkable performance that
really stood above.
Egberto Gismonti------>
A real marvel, and perhaps the most underrated/underappreciated member
of the great ECM guitar pantheon.
David Torn------>
Man-o-man,ohhhhh-man. check the first everyman band record.check it,
check it,check it, just check it....... because it's the portrait of a classic in repose. In much the same way that Coryell and McLaughlin
had brought the dynamic of Hendrix and '60s psychedelia to jazz guitar
before him, it's my contention that David Torn brought a Phillip K.
Dick-like futuristic dynamic to jazz where EddieVan Halen is re-
envisioned as Ornette Coleman and heavy metal adds something beyond
the electro magnetic fence to what's already there as jazz
guitar....well Torn did just that with his playing on the first
Everyman Band record. But unlike Coryell and McLaughlin's pioneering
work, which had many guitarist following in their footsteps, I can't
think of hardly anyone who really followed up Torn's example--not even
Torn himself! (Actually, Torn's playing on Jan Garbarek's It's OK To
Listen To The Gray Voice is a nice bit of middle ground between the
more oblique, exotic loop-based mature sound that he's best known for
today and this singular sort of early heavy metal-jazz/rock-fusion
sound.) Many players might mention Holdsworth as the first example of
this sort, as he influenced Van Halen and clearly Torn as well in his
early Everyman Band period, and all that is true enough and Holdsworth
stands way apart from most all other players in terms of the degree to
which he was able to assimilated a classic Coltrane-like dedication
and compass to improvisation. But there's a stylistic aggressiveness
and attitude on the first eponymous Everyman Band recording that
really separates Torn's playing from anything else at the time and
most things that came after as far as fusion guitar goes. Just
remember you heard it here first.....because i think this record is a
future fusion guitar benchmark that jut has to wait it's time.
Steve Tibbetts------->
The Minnesota native was already a well-respected underground legend
for his independently released solo recordings before he signed on to
ECM. And hey, anybody remotely jazz-related who says something to the
effect of "who would you rather listen too ,Motorhead or Earl Klugh?”
is pretty cool in my book---especially if they make a music like
Tibbetts did. Anyway, i saw tibbets live at the WAG a few times, and
man was he great. For a duo they had an absolutely HUGE and BEAUTIFUL
sound with percussionist Marc Anderson alternating between a plethora
of hand percussion, steel drums, and a modified trap kit really being
every bit as amazing as Tibbetts. Also, Tibbetts occasionally got a
massively garish, distorted tone by using an obscure effect called a compander--->I.e. an expander/ compressor which enables the signal to
open up into a huge and aggressive attack arcs depending upon the pick attack. FWiW, one of my personal big time hero/ motivators was another Minnesota guy Sigurd Olson. I know he was a controversial figure
locally as he was hung in effigy outside the courthouse by a group of
local good ole boys over the boundary waters canoe area wilderness
act. Well good for him, and god (or whatever) bless him and his
snowshoes and canoes--and for what it's worth, it was his early, quasi- spiritual /religious experiences out-of-doors as described by David
backe in his Wilderness Theology that drew me to him as an oddly
simpatico personage.
John Abercrombie------>
Kind of the great utility guy, or seventh player award guy of the
classic ECM guitar stable. Abercrombie always took an equal-
opportunity approach to either the world fusion of a Nana Vasconcelo
or Conlon Walcott, or the meanish John McLaughlin-esqe fusion of a
Timeless or the first Gateway recording or the classic jazz-rock of Liberman's great 1973 ECM recording, Lookout Farm .Abercombie never
had a singular, defining style per se, but almost always sounded good
and special and really adapted well to the various ECM projects and personalities he collaborated on. And, for what it's worth, he was
also much more of an orthodox jazz guitarist than any other big-time
ECM guitarists aside from Methany and Frisell.
Bill Connors------->
Another ECM chameleon type guy who stood somewhat outside of the
excepted pantheon of individualistic, stylized ECM guitarists. I
always liked his early RTF McLaughlin-esque guitar, and especially his
later vibes, flute/sax and acoustic guitar trio recordings with Tom
Van Der Geld a lot, despite the fact that there really wasn't any comparatively obvious originality in his approach given the overall
context of most of the other players mentioned here.
Am I forgetting anybody? Well, of course I am, as there were a ton of
other relevant guitarists who recorded under the ECM banner,
especially later, like Raoul Bjorkenheim, Jacob Young and Eivind
Aarset. But as a label with a guitar-roster ranging from the Music Impovisation Company's Derek Bailey to the Tonight Show's Kevin
Eubanks to Whitesnake's Steve Vai, it's hard not to leave somebody
deserving a mention out,such as some of the more obscure figures like
Steve Eliovson, Hajo Webern,Ulich Ingenbold , and Om's Christy Doran,
et al.
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