ECM Story

Released in 1994 by Musica Jazz for ECM’s 25th anniversary, ECM Story surveys the label through a deep sense of affinity. Produced in close collaboration, it gathers European innovators such as Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdal, Louis Sclavis, and Dominique Pifarély alongside American masters including Paul Bley, Chick Corea, Gary Burton, and John Abercrombie. Keith Jarrett receives the sustained attention due a central figure, while Kenny Wheeler and Paul Motian represent its commitment to singular voices. The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Jack DeJohnette widen the field of vision. Codona embodies Manfred Eicher’s appetite for unexpected encounters, Dave Holland reflects ECM’s openness to new forms, and John Surman closes the sequence by foregrounding the label’s celebrated technical precision. Paul Bley’s “Started,” from Open, to love (ECM 1023), is an ideal initiation in both name and spirit. Gnarled and incandescent, it finds Bley examining the piano from both sides of its visible anatomy.…