ECM-Alben von Eleni Karaindrou, Tord Gustavsen Quartet, Arild Andersen / Paolo Vinaccia / Tommy Smith, Norma Winstone / Glauco Venier / Klaus Gesing

Eleni Karaindrou: Medea

Greek composer Eleni Karaindrou’s collaborations with stage director Antonis Antypas have generated some of her most powerful music. “Medea”, like the earlier “Trojan Women”, comes out of this association. Created to accompany performances at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, the music vibrates with emotional intensity. Karaindrou gives her themes to a small ensemble, its sound-colours creating an ambiance both archaic and contemporary, as textures of santouri, ney, lyra and clarinets are combined and contrasted. Even with reduced instrumental forces the composer seems to imply an orchestral scope. Giorgos Cheimonas’ Modern Greek adaptation of Euripides provides the lyrics, movingly sung by a 15-piece chorus under the direction of Antonis Kontogeorgiou and, on two pieces, by the composer.

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Tord Gustavsen Quartet: Extended Circle

The sixth ECM album from Tord Gustavsen, recorded in Oslo in June 2013, quietly but most assuredly takes the Norwegian pianist’s music to the next stage of its development.

Gustavsen’s quartet with Tore Brunborg, Mats Eilertsen and long-term associate Jarle Vespestad has matured into a group whose interactions draw strength from restraint, patiently building the music toward its climaxes. Here are new gospel-tinged pieces and ballads from Tord’s pen, gentle and luminescent group improvisations, and an ecstatic interpretation of the Norwegian traditional “Eg Veit I Himmerik Ei Borg” (“I Know A Castle In Heaven”).


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Concerts:
Norway, USA, UK, Germany, France, Belgium (details) 





Arild Andersen / Paolo Vinaccia / Tommy Smith: Mira

After the eruptive excitement of their Live At Belleville album, which was widely praised around the world (and secured for leader Arild Andersen the Prix du Musicien Européen 2008 from the Academie du Jazz in France), the trio now delivers a studio album. In Oslo’s Rainbow, bassist Andersen, tenorist Tommy Smith and Paolo Vinaccia rechanneled their music’s energies into a programme of soulful ballads and mid-tempo free-floating sound explorations. The pairing of Anderson’s muscular bass and Smith’s vaulting tenor is exceptionally compelling (as the recent “Celebration” album also confirmed). Most of the tunes on “Mira” are from Arild’s pen, though his cohorts also contribute material, and there is an unexpected interpretation of Burt Bacharach’s “Alfie”, beautifully played by Tommy Smith here.

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Norma Winstone / Glauco Venier / Klaus Gesing: Dance Without Answer

The great British jazz singer Norma Winstone once again casts her net wide for source material for this third ECM album with Italian pianist Glauco Venier and German clarinetist / saxophonist Klaus Gesing. Alongside new pieces by Winstone/Gesing and by Venier, the trio covers tunes by singer-songwriters Nick Drake, Fred Neil and Tom Waits. They take a fresh approach to Madonna’s “Live To Tell”, and to Dave Grusin’s “It Might Be You”, as well as Ralph Towner’s “A Breath Away” (now with lyrics by Norma) and “Bein’ Green”, a children’s song elevated to jazz standard status by Sinatra, Stan Kenton, Ray Charles and many more. “As Winstone moves ever farther from the Great American Songbook,” All About Jazz observed, “it's certain that, with band mates as sympathetic as Gesing and Venier, there's precious little she can't do.”


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