I also love ‘Conference of the birds.’ It helped open the door for me to explore more adventurous playing. Happy belated b day to Jack Dejohnette. Such an amazing musician. Anthony Braxton is amazing. I want to find a better quality recording, but he’s recently played with Wolf Eyes! Great video. I need to explore more Keith Jarrett. Have a great weekend!
Hey Dereck, I really love it when you do videos in the style that you did this one, going through one LP after another. Was buying LP'S like crazy when a lot of these ECM LP'S were coming out, and the only reason I did not buy more of them is because of course, not enough money. The ones I did buy (not many), I do not have anymore. The only one I still own is the KOLN CONCERT. And yes those album covers, works of art. Even though I new what I was going to buy on any given day at the record store way back then, when I would come across some of the latest ECM releases, I would take a minute just to enjoy the cover. Thanks for bringing back those memories of looking at those album covers of artists I should of bought more of. Take care Dereck
Wow! I have all but a few of those. I first heard an ECM record in '72 and it was Chick Corea Piano Improvisation Vol 1. Next was Facing You. In '73 I was in Japan courtesy of the navy and bought a Japanese ECM sampler that featured Ralph Towner, Jan Garbarek, Paul Motian and more. I've never stopped loving ECM and play them frequently.I saw Ralph Towner with John Abercrombie, Keith Jarrett performing Arbour Zena, his American and European Quartets and more. Codona! So many excellent albums and artists! Old And New Dreams! My future wife and I had our second date seeing them in San Francisco. So good!
The ECM label is one that has had a big impact on me. It’s how I found some of my bass heroes, like Eberhard Weber and Steve Swallow. I love those Chick Corea piano improv records. Especially that first one where you hear the beginning of what would become “Sea Journey”.
Can’t say I like all the ECM records, but their album covers have been consistently one of the best out there. Stuff worth framing and hanging on your wall. Nice collection you have there!
Dereck, thank you for your time and effort to make this video! What a wonderful tribute to early ECM releases. No label has been more responsible for expanding my taste in music.
So awesome. I've always had a special place in my heart for those early ECMs. I have a catalog they put out in 1975 that I picked up at a record store, and I must have spent hours poring over that, fascinated by the covers and titles, and imagining what the records must sound like from the personnel and instrumentation, reading the review excerpts and trying to decipher the ones that were in German. I have almost all of that first 100, missing just 3 or 4, but a few are reissues that I'd prefer to replace with originals if I could only find really clean ones.
Love ECM, my local shop recently purchased a huge jazz collection including ECM’s,they have been selling them in the $5 bins. Needless to say my ECM collection is growing in leaps and bounds. Great video.
Hi, new subscriber here & thanks for the knowledge….thank god for Spotify because they have pretty all the albums you mentioned & I saved them all to my Spotify Library for listening to later, may take me a year to get thur them all😂😂😂😂 but just astounding music for my newbie ears…thank you & thanks for the rare Saturday show👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Thanks again for blessing us with your incredible knowledge and boundless enthusiasm for great music in general and the vinyl medium in particular. ECM is one of the few labels that is as great today as it was 50 years ago. I was a teenager when Koln Concerts, Timeless, Return to Forever, and Solstice were released and like all profound art they changed my life. I encourage us old folk to splurge on a couple new ECM releases from Kit Downes, Shai Mastro, Vijay Iyer etc to support extended ECM's influence another 50 years...and they once again press in Germany!
Thanks so much for sharing your ecm collection and insights dereck. That burton quintet ring Lp has one of my favourite guitar solos ever on it from metheny, on colours of Chloe . Perfection. Love that album, and the Towner trios is gold too! I could go on and on.
Derek, always great to see anything from the wall of music! I had never seen those really early ones, although I have many of the others you showed. I listened to Richie Beirach Eon the other night and along with your video I'm now on an ECM kick...again. This music was part of a real developmental time in my twenties back during the 80s. It has informed me artistically, and spiritually. So cool to see those early ones in immaculate shape. Having a pristine copy of any of those titles is definitely part of the aesthetic! Did you find, however, that they were more likely to be ruined by even an ok cartridge? The vinyl would look great, but when played it really cracked and popped. Anyway, more ECM, please. Thank you!
Good Afternoon Dereck, Thank you for another great video feed: this time on displaying the fantastic ECM Label. I own ECM from 1001 Mal Waldron Trio: "Free at Last" through to 1329 Gary Burton: "Whiz Kids". Totally agree with your assessment of ECM Dereck no two albums sound the same and yes the German Copies are the best in sound and presentation. I started getting into ECM in 1974 when I heard "Trios/Solos" & then "The Jewel in The Lotus". And have to agree with your assessment of Manfred Eicher: what a wonderful ear for music that man has. Thank you again Dereck. Hope you do another ECM soon. Stay safe and go well.
thank you for taking the time to highlight ecm, loved your summaries and passionate take on these records, I've gotten into ecm for the first time in recent years and now have several of your selections, glad we came into the world at a time to know this music, otherworldly and really special stuff
I have nowhere near the volume of ECM's that you have, but was inspired to pull mine and have a listening binge. If I counted correctly I have 69 on the shelves, most acquired while I dispensed vinyl at the local record emporium in the little prairie, college town where lived and worked in the early 70's. I always enjoy your videos and this one was special. Cheers!
Great presentation! I have many of those records and I have been collecting ECM records since I was in high school. I got in early on. ECM is something so unique and special. I have so much more I could say and share about my ECM records and artists I have seen live. I really can relate to your enthusiasm for this music and label that you expressed in the video. I know and feel the vibe.
Derek, It was great watching you review some of your ECM collection. I used to own about 90 percent of those shown before I had to downsize my vinyl collection. I loved the label so much that I filed the records separately and in ascending numerical order, the way I catalog most jazz labels (Impulse, Pablo, Flying Dutchman) as I could refer to them easier that way.
Just watched this video… Love your love for ECM! I see that Mike Esposito from the Ingroove doesn’t really get ECM. Even called the record company EMC and I wrote him to say- you need to get a bit more aware of this fantastic record label. Thank you Dereck.
Oh I so enjoyed this. I feel good, I have about 2/3 of the ones you showed. I actually keep my ECM separate from everything else, been considering putting them in order of release.
Such an enjoyable video and I couldn't agree more with many of your comments; particularly what you said about those beauty German plates! If I already have a clean US pressing, I'll snap up the same ECM title if I come across a German import even if it's in slightly lesser shape. Also, Jewel In The Lotus would be somewhere near the top of my all time favorite heap as well! Another one of my all time fave's which I am pretty sure you have in your collection; Barre Phillips Mountainscapes ECM 1076!
That was awesome!! I was first turned on to ECM with Pat Metheny. I think a lot of people were. Gary Burtons Dreams So Real might be my favorite ECM release
Wow! It’s great to see you waxing lyrical about my favourite record label, Dereck! If memory serves, I was turned on to ECM, via the New Series release, Officium, involving Jan Gabarek and the Hilliard Ensemble. Whilst I love that album for the intertwining alto sax and voices, I totally agree with you re Garbarek’s later releases and ‘that’ sound! The early recordings are terrific, though, I agree. I think, again, if memory serves, it was through starting to watch your channel,(has to be over 10 years now, at least!) I was turned on to ECM proper and have managed to get hold of many of those early albums, if not on vinyl, then on cd, for those that got a cd release, not all by any means. I now have well over 1000 ECM’s on cd and I try to pick up as many vinyl copies as I can. Thanks for your enthusiasm, it’s great to see someone who has the same passion for the label. Outstanding!
For early ECM, the German pressings I own are the 1971 self-entitled Terje Rypdal album, Paul Motian's Conception Vessel, and John Abercrombie's Timeless. All the other Terje Rypdal LPs are American pressing. I also have the Julian Priester LP Love Love, and was blown away. I knew from being blown away by Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi band-era albums that I would not be disappointed with Love Love and it blew me away. This album clearly shows (along with Eddie Henderson's Realization and Inside Out for the same reasons) that he clearly wanted to continue on with that Mwandishi-era sound as Herbie was turning towards a more funky direction with Headhunters.
I always thought it kind of funny that the only ecm that didn’t sound ( to me) as if it belonged in the roster is the first, 1001 by Mal Waldron, entitled “free at last”. Also he did the first album on ecm’s sister label japo. p.s. another desert island is 1077 Nan Madol by Edward Vesala.
My sister had quite the collection on vinyl but her dog urinated on them and ruined them all. I am trying to find all of them again but it's been difficult in my situation because I no longer have a record player and I am relying on compact discs to replace everything..she had the Beatles story for one thing and I haven't seen or heard of those records since. I believe they had interviews on them..That was in the sixties and alot of that music is hard to find now..Same with some prog from the seventies but I am not giving up
Some of the earlier vinyl selections are harder to get although I believe ECM has started to release some of its back Catalogue on CD. I was lucky enough to start collecting the ECM vinyl in the 70s and 80s. And to expand on Dereck's point no two ECM albums sound the same. To the untrained musical ear it may appear they do, but those that know the ECM Label well, can discern the musical differences in the ECM sound immediately. Go well.
In my experience, the European versions I come across here in Europe, all have bad quality covers. They have a sort of thin film of foil over them, that comes undone over time. So many old ones look like they are shedding skin or something😅
This collection of early ECM shows how classy the label was ... Unfortunately this energy is gone more or less if you're listening to the later stuff ... ECM disappeared more and more into an esotheric direction
