Celebration weekend for a record label
In 1969, jazz double bass player Manfred Eicher set down his instrument and wanted to transfer the vastness of the sonic landscape and the tonal color of a Debussy and a Ravel from classical music to jazz. It became a success, with European and American musicians, with jazz, classical and world music.
Meanwhile, he is 76 and was the celebrated guest at this extended ECM 50 Anniversary weekend in Flagey. We selected a lecture, a film and a concert from an overflowing program.
It was in the car on the way from Stuttgart to Munich, the home base of ECM, that Manfred Eicher heard the music of Arvo Pärt on an Armenian radio station. He absolutely wanted to bring that almost surreal music into his ECM records, the label that stands for "Edition of Contemporary Music". The sonic world of Pärt, discovered by Eicher you might say, fitted perfectly with the contemplative atmosphere that Eicher loves so much. Since then Pärt has become a hit, although his Spiegel im Spiegel (released on ECM in 1999) had to be content with second place in Klara's Top Hundred last weekend. The 'holy minimalist' sits perfectly in his place at ECM. Another monster hit ECM scored with Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble. Their "Officium" with the polyphonic music of 16th-century Spanish Cristobal de Morales conquered the world and is still available.
Yet it all started with a jazz record. In November 1969, "Free at last" by American pianist Mal Waldron appeared. Discouraged by the contempt in his own country for black musicians, Waldron landed in Europe and eventually settled in Munich. His free, modal style and his "economical" note-playing fitted perfectly with the aesthetics that Eicher also pursued. A style that should sound like the ECM motto: "the most beautiful sound next to silence". That and much more was told by Klara staff member Joris Preckler during his lecture in Studio 3 of Flagey. He also played abundant fragments from his favorite selection of ECM albums. At the back of the room, Manfred Eicher listened with interest and amusement.
In the documentary "Sounds and Silence: Travels with Manfred Eicher" from 2009, you could experience the ever-attentive producer. Always pleasant but extremely concentrated in recording studios, bringing his artists closer to "his" sonic idiom, and thereby actually becoming a "tone poet" himself. Once I made an item for the TV-Journaal about the Bach suites played by Pieter Wispelwey on baroque cello. In the Mechelen "Evil Penguin" recording studio I was truly amazed to see how important the role of the woman at the mixing desk was: "No, Peter, a little slower please, can you try it again, yes, that's better....". In the film Sounds and Silence, I saw it again, how a pleasant perfectionist guarded his so recognizable tonal color. Beautiful to see too how producer and especially listener Manfred Eicher accompanied Arvo Pärt in the recording of his "Für Lennart. In Memoriam" and how they danced a little dance of satisfaction afterwards.
The same intense attention and utmost concentration could be seen in the recordings of oud player Anouar Brahem and those of Dino Saluzzi on bandoneon, with cellist Anja Lechner… One remark by Eicher during a rehearsal says it all: "...I want more waves in the movement...". It must have more "waves" and actually he is saying: nothing must be in time, let it go, anything goes. Quite revealing if you listen to the ECM catalog and want to understand. More than a thousand recordings, cherished in sound and silence.
And then the Avishai's: trumpeter Avishai Cohen and pianist Yonathan Avishai. One of the many guests at ECM and Flagey. They came to present a selection from their new album on the label: Playing the Room. Standards and own compositions. Two men of stature, this time as a duo. Here too, quietness and virtuosity. For the trumpeter, the principle applies: "How can I improvise it now ?" It is a statement of his. He does it simply, sometimes muted, sometimes not. And yes, his great example was Miles Davis, but it has long since become Avishai Cohen himself. The same can be said of the pianist. Very free, like Mal Waldron once at ECM, but also sparing like John Lewis. With simple motifs, engaging the trumpeter or vice versa. Both in their forties, Israeli-born and grown up together in Tel Aviv, but Cohen now in New York and Avishai in France. A concert full of refinement and surrender with pieces full of idiosyncratic and gentle harmonies. Completely ECM and completely Flagey to organize such a birthday celebration.
- WHAT: ECM 50 Anniversary Weekend
- WHO: Lecture 50 years ECM by Joris Preckler
- FILM: Sounds and Silence. Travels with Manfred Eicher, by Peter Guyer and Norbert Wiener, 2009
- CONCERT: Avishai Cohen, trumpet and Yonathan Avishai, piano.
- WHERE: Flagey, Studio 1, 3 and 5.
- WHEN: 23 November 2019
- PHOTOS: © Olivier Lestoquoit
