19.12.2024 | Timeline

Year in a review (part IV)

The new year is getting very close now, as we continue to take a look back at the many albums released on ECM throughout 2024. The fourth instalment of the year’s roundup includes the year’s Luminessence vinyl re-issues.

Luminessence was expanded with three records in 2024: Jan Garbarek’s Afric Pepperbird, the album that gives the series its name, Luminessence, with Garbarek improvising to composition of Keith Jarrett, plus the debut record by Azimuth, the first coming together of Norma Winstone, John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler.

“ECM’s landmark series of audiophile vinyl releases from their huge back catalogue continues with three new discs, each of which combines historical importance with superb music. They are all, in their different ways, under appreciated or underexposed recordings deserving of further attention.” – London Jazz News

In May, Gateway, the trio debut of John Abercrombie, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, and Angel Song, the much revered quartet date with again Holland, Kenny Wheeler, Lee Konitz and Bill Frisell followed. The main German vinyl magazine Mint praised both: “Two further historical releases from the ECM label are captivating in their contrasts: Here a trio around John Abercrombie with fire in their fingers, there a quartet around Kenny Wheeler made up of jazz musicians in their prime.”

Pitchfork greeted the former with great appreciation: “Launched in 2023, the Luminescence series is ECM’s little plot of land in the vast acreage of audiophile remaster series, putting long out-of-print records from the progressively minimalist German jazz label back into rotation. This year’s hidden gem is the 1975 guitar trio set Gateway, a fiery psychedelic-jazz excursion that features some of the best interplay and sickest shredding you’ll hear this side of a Jimi Hendrix Experience record.”

Pat Metheny’s first leader-recording ever, 1975’s Bright Size Life, was reissued in August. On the album, the master guitarist is joined by bassist Jaco Pastorious and Bob Moses on drums, introducing the jazz guitar world to a completely new sound. In its review of the reissue, Analog Planet noted that, “Bright Size Life sounds as fantastic, fresh, and futuristic as ever on Its truly outstanding ECM Luminessence series vinyl reissue”.

Two further reissues followed in October, this time pulled from a different period of ECM’s catalogue, namely the very early 2000s: An Acrobat’s Heart by Annette Peacock with the Cikada String Quartet and Marilyn Crispell’s Amaryllis, with Gary Peacock on bass and Paul Motian on drums. Mint magazine reviewed both, remarking how “there is such an impeccable self-evidence in the trio’s playing that it takes your breath away. It’s incredible how free and unbothered such music can sound.” In the German Vinyl Fan magazine a rave review of the Peacock reissue reads: “This album is […] now available on vinyl for the first time in absolute top quality! […] Excellent pressing quality, especially important for this quiet music – a wonderful sound, the mastering is perfect – a very high-quality gatefold jacket in tip-on style.”