ECM: First and Other Tracks – Autumn ’99

Across this Autumn ’99 sampler, ECM offers a varied excavation. The label’s familiar spaciousness becomes an instrument of light caught under glass. These tracks are drawn from different points in time and space. Some are lit by candles, some by exit signs, and some by their own bioluminescence. What unites them is a kind of human candor that refuses to be costumed even when it dreams. “Blame It On My Youth / Meditation,” from The Melody At Night, With You, opens from within. Few entries in the Keith Jarrett treasure trove feel so heart-forward. The music moves with devastating simplicity, cutting through the emotional static of any age and granting the listener a brief respite. Jarrett turns backward with the gravity of someone entering a room where every object still knows his name. His right-hand doublings carry a strange catharsis, burying doubt as a seed before watering it with hope. The Dave Holland Quintet enters by setting the floor on fire from beneath. On “Prime Directive,”…