ECM Music & Words: Autumn 2012

This compilation from Musica Jazz accompanied the Italian jazz magazine’s November 2012 issue. Drawing mostly from ECM releases, with a couple of New Series selections thrown in for good measure, it testifies to the label’s faith in the overlap between composition and improvisation. “Carta De Amor,” from the Magico trio’s album of the same name (ECM 2280/81), opens with a love letter addressed to its own unfolding. The slow progression built by Jan Garbarek, Egberto Gismonti, and Charlie Haden draws a circle around each pause. Significance gathers molecule by molecule, establishing the compilation’s deeper logic: continuity need not depend on resemblance. “Speechless,” from Enrico Rava’s On the Dance Floor (ECM 2293), offers the first radical displacement. An almost funereal piano introduction prepares the way for the trumpeter’s encounter with Michael Jackson’s canon. Somber horns construct a floating pyre, and from it Rava sounds his dedication. Harp lends an aqueous translucence…