The best of the ECM label

I find some of the music on ECM astounding, and some of it boring as heck. My favorite has to be Terje Rypdal. Start out with "Blue" and "Chaser". Then dive deeper into him if you are so inclined.

This is, of course, subjective judgement, but here goes. I've bought ECM for decades, one of my favorite labels. Rockadanny is right, some of their releases are boring though. Some I definitely think aren't boring: Anything by Steve Tibbetts (great guitarist who is always channeling his inner percusionist.) In particular "Safe Journey," "Exploded View," & "A Man About a Horse." John Hassell's "Last Night the Moon Came Dropping its Clothes in the Street." Marcus Stockhausen/Terje Rypdal/Arild Andersen's "Karta." Charles Lloyd's "Sangam," "Canto," & "Voice in the NIght." Tomasz Stanko "From the Green Hill." Bobo Stenson Trio "War Orphans." Also greatly enjoy Terje Rypdal's entire catalog.

Peter Erskine Trio; As it is.
Beautiful recorded piano trio album.

Fourth album from the subtle Erskine Trio continues to explore space and texture and what the dummer-leader refers to as the "underside of music-making". As on previous showings, pianist John Taylor's still-undervalued compositional skills are to the fore, but Erskine and bassist Danielsson also contribute material - ranging from a waltz to a 12 tone piece - and the tradition of including a Kenny Wheeler piece on each disc is also brought up to date. Down Beat described this as a "Zen" trio; Erskine says "We never solo but we always solo."

Not sure we share the same opinion as to what avant garde classical is but I thought I would share an odd ECM story from this last week, Albert Porter was kind enough to give me one of the few ECM discs that he did not care for-Gismonti's "Danca des Cabecas" and one of the sides is not Gismonti, in fact it is a single track of solo piano, Keith Jarrett maybe. I have been handling vinyl intensively since the early 80's and have only come across such an oddity a few times.

Keith Jarrett; Live at the Blue Note