ECM Autumn Highlights

ECM Autumn Highlights is a sampler curated by Manfred Eicher and released in collaboration with the Italian magazine Musica Jazz. Drawing from ECM’s late-2017 catalogue, it covers a broad expressive range while retaining the sense of a single, carefully plotted journey. The Vijay Iyer Sextet opens with “Poles,” also the first track on Far From Over (ECM 2581). Saxophonist Steve Lehman enters with fierce momentum, pushing against a rhythm section that never settles into mere support. Stephan Crump and Tyshawn Sorey give the piece a restless foundation, flexible enough to absorb the saxophone’s heat without containing it. The music is charged by opposing forces, though those forces never divide cleanly. Every rhythmic turn seems to redraw the compass. David Virelles deepens that sense of uncertain passage on “Tierra,” from Gnosis (ECM 2526). Surrounded by percussion, winds, and strings, he treats dissonance as a threshold rather than an obstacle. The piece advances with purpose, but its…