15 Jahre ECM Works

Released by ECM in 1984, 15 Jahre ECM Works has become a largely forgotten branch of the “Works” series, whose better-known volumes offered compact portraits of individual artists. This compilation widens the aperture across the label’s first 15 years, arranging nine recordings into an oblique self-portrait. Keith Jarrett opens with “Country,” housed on My Song (ECM 1115). His piano and Jan Garbarek’s tenor saxophone establish the theme with lucid conviction, while bassist Palle Danielsson and drummer Jon Christensen circulate beside the melody instead of supporting it from below. Jarrett grounds the performance without fastening it to the earth. The harmony folds inward as the melody opens its arms, and Garbarek carries the pale brilliance of something remembered before it has happened. Joy already understands loss here, though sadness gains no authority over it. Egberto Gismonti’s “Raga” shifts this suspension toward personal ritual. On Sol Do Meio Dia (ECM 1116), his custom…