Favourite ECM Titles

This is the best thread on the music forum in ages. Can anyone compare "The Astounding Eyes of Rita" with any of "Rabih Abou Khalil's" works?

I pretty much own every Brahem and Abou Khalil album so let me chime in.

Rabih Abou Khalil has a lot of different albums out, which can be generally loosely described as oriental / jazz fusion. Oriental melodic and rhytmic signature (I am not a musician clearly).

The astounding eyes of Rita is more traditional oriental, as are my other two Brahem favorites that I mentioned. In "The astounding eyes of Rita" Brahem goes back to the moods of his earliest albums.

Rabih Abou Khalil also has one very traditional oriental sounding album out called Nafas (GET IT - Great stuff), while Brahem's most Jazzy album is Khomsa.

While we are on subject, there is another ECM favourite which is a must have and you are sure to like if you like any of the brahem stuff. This album is "Making Music" by Zakir Hussain.

By the way, the reason some folks picked up a Brahem album may be because "The astounding eyes of Rita" was record of the month in Stereophile a while ago. I first heard him (Barzakh) in an oriental furniture store in London and was immediately hooked.

The third giant of the Oud (and guitar) worth mentioning is Thierry Robin. I never quite got into him as much as Brahem and Abou Khalil, but he does oriental / world fusion, and his best known album "Gitane" earned 4.5 starts on allmusic.com. Worth checking out.

Here are my top picks for ECM recordings, that is top of my ECM collection. I have about a dozen or so ECM recordings so I am sure (and very happy) that there is lot left to discover.

1- Changes - Keith Jarrett, Jack Dejohnette and Gary Peacock
2- Tin Can Alley - Jack Dejohnette and Special Edition
3- Return to Forever - Chick Corea with among others Airto Moreira and Flora Purim.

And speaking of Oud players (actually just one of many instruments he plays), has anyone been turned on to Stephan Micus? I have several of his releases on ECM. Towards the Wind is one of my favorites. Desert Poems is on my short list.

FYI: The Chants, hymns, and Dances release mentioned previously is probably the best CD purchase I've made in the last 10 years (out of hundreds). I can't recommend it highly enough.