cover art and terse liner notes to an airy, sharp sonic imprint, their 1,500-titles-strong catalog remains diverse. ECM’s latest documents include new work by The STONE septuagenarian drummer , Danish artistic director guitarist and Swiss pianist Nik Bärtsch. -at the corner of ave C and 2nd st- Cyrille first appeared as a sideman on ECM, via saxophonist Marion Brown’s Afternoon of a Georgia Faun 2017 in 1970. The Declaration of Musical Independence is THE STONE RESIDENCIES Cyrille’s first album as a leader for ECM and joins him

The Truth of What I Am > The Narcissist with synthesizer artist Richard Teitelbaum, guitarist JERRY GRANELLI George Burton (Inner Circle Music) Bill Frisell and bassist Ben Street on nine tunes, originals Mr Jerry Granelli celebrates 76 years on the planet except for the Coltrane-penned opener “Coltrane by David R. Adler and 60 years of performance of improvised music. Time”. Not to be confused with anything on the 1958 JANUARY 3–8, 2017 George Burton, in-demand pianist from Philadelphia, United Artists record assembled for pianist Cecil Taylor, teamed with producer Derrick Hodge for this strong this was a piece given to drummer Rashied Ali and and often surprising debut album. Piano and Rhodes passed on to Cyrille as a snare exercise, onto which ______are very present and the vivacious, hard-swinging Frisell grafts incisive peals, harmonic inquisitions and rapport between Burton, bassist Noah Jackson and grungy whirs, abetted by Teitelbaum’s wispy accents Jan 3 - Tuesday ($20) drummer Wayne Smith, Jr. gives the album its backbone. and Street’s muscular nods. On the bassist’s “Say”, 9 pm There’s more going on, however. Horn players Teitelbaum switches to piano and stakes out chordal Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the CD drop in and out of rotation: trumpeter Jason Palmer territory apposite a landscape of strummed progressions Sound Songs and saxophonist Tim Warfield are particularly well and backward twists. The music often volleys between Jerry Granelli (drums) Jay Clayton (voice) represented on a few cuts; trumpeter Terell Stafford suspended jitters and fleshier impulsions and Cyrille, appears just once, on the straight-eighth ballad whose crispness recalls Max Roach and fluidity echoes Briggan Krauss (saxophone) “In Places”; alto saxophonist Chris Hemingway joins Kenny Clarke, excels at giving weight and elegant J Anthony Granelli (piccolo bass) Les Paul-slinging guitarist Ilan Bar-Lavi on “Song 6” direction to rather sparse interplay. Jerry Granelli (drums, slide guitar, piano) and “From Grace to Grass”, lending a more amped-up, On Bro’s second ECM outing, he continues in the ø rock-tinged feel at the beginning and end (“Song 6”, trio format with bassist and drummer Jan 4 - Wednesday ($20) the first full-band track, comes back in a beautiful, Joey Baron across seven originals shifting effortlessly laid-back trio version without drums for the finale). between folkish lope and triangulated, open drift. 9 pm There is a prevailing hardbop intensity as well as Given Morgan’s robust, thick precision and Baron’s Double Trouble an inward lyricism in Burton’s writing and narrative churning detail, enough of a rhythmic environment is Jerry Granelli (drums) & (drums) cohesion: “First Opinion”, an electronically tweaked stoked for Bro to chase ideas with their germs in ø 90-second sketch for soprano sax, Rhodes and glitchy appealing melodies, spreading out through stippled Jan 5 - Thursday ($20) drums, segues to the somewhat McCoy Tyner-esque fields and thorny tessellations as on the neighboring quartet waltz feel of “Second Opinion”. Palmer and tunes “Heroines” and “PM Dream”. The delicate 9 pm Warfield pair up with devastating force on the difficult transmission of mood here is something quite What I Hear Now form of “Stuck in the Crack” and are similarly relentless remarkable in Bro’s playing—not always subtle, he Jerry Granelli (drums) on “Bernie’s Tune” (an old Gerry Mulligan-Chet Baker builds from diffuse areas into arresting tonal shifts and Jane Ira Bloom (soprano saxophone) vehicle given way more horsepower). On “Ecidnac” toys with explorations of metallic classicism and (trumpet) they stretch some more, on a relaxed 5/4 vamp with an smudged dissonance. But “Shell Pink” brings the three extra beat every eighth bar: just a blip in the tune’s together in a cohesive meld, romantic and cloudy Mark Dresser (bass) gravitational pull, turning a simple, open-ended cycle overlays in gentle, brief minor runs floating atop ø into something less common. brushy elbows and massive, resonant bass tugs. Jan 6 - Friday ($20) Burton has that Philadelphia drive, that tendency Sculpting and dissipating sonic values out of partly- 9 pm to prioritize swing momentum over perfect technical amplified ether is this trio’s primary focus and they do polish. He has a hurtling, carefree touch on acoustic, an it with taste and dramatic flair. Streams is a fine slice of TRIO - Songs From My Life imaginative and slinky feel on Rhodes. His album title contemporary guitar-fronted improvisation. Jerry Granelli (Drums) refers to a statement once made by Charles Mingus and Though Nik Bärtsch has been working as an ECM (keyboards/piano) so it’s Mingus’ solo piano work one may recall when artist for a decade, Continuum is his first record for the Brad Jones (bass) listening to Burton’s three solo-piano vignettes, each label featuring the ensemble Mobile, which blends ø one with its oddball twist: children’s voices in the strategies of continuous music (or “minimal” music) background of the three-minute opener “Brown”; with staged environments for an immersive experience. Jan 7 - Saturday ($20) broken-piano sonic manipulation on the minute-long An acoustic quartet with a range of expanded 9 pm “Bern…ies” (a prelude of sorts to “Bernie’s Tune”); and approaches, Mobile joins Bärtsch with drummers BADLANDS a raw, live-recorded cadenza imported in for “Ecidnac Kaspar Rast and Nicolas Stocker and one-named bass Jerry Granelli (drums) Intro”. It makes sense that The Truth of What I Am would clarinetist/contrabass clarinetist Sha. The third disc of Peter Epstein (soprano sax) include moments as pleasingly imperfect as these. Mobile music to be released since Bärtsch’s leader debut in 2001, Continuum finds the quartet engaging in Chris Speed (tenor sax, clarinet) For more information, visit innercirclemusic.net. This band is eight pieces, or “modules”, with the occasional added Jamie Saft (piano, fender rhodes) at Zinc Bar Jan. 7th as part of Winter Jazzfest. See Calendar. flesh of a string quintet (two violins, two cellos and J. Anthony Granelli (bass) viola). Though the pianist is known for imbuing his Briggan Krauss (alto sax, baritone sax) music with an infectious, charged funk and that current ø remains, there’s an obsessive attention to isolated elements, which frequently congeal with ensemble heft Jan 8 - Sunday ($20) into pointillist drama and pedal-pointed vistas. In 9 pm part, this work echoes the later compositions of SANDHILLS REUNION - TEXT By Rinde Eckert Michael Nyman or pianist Bernardo Sassetti’s filmic Rinde Eckert (voice) The Declaration Of Musical Independence encounters, as on “Modul 60”, and like those figures Andrew Cyrille (ECM) Jerry Granelli (drums) Bärtsch’s music holds its own, being nebulously Streams Ben Goldberg (clarinet) evocative without visual attachments. Jakob Bro (ECM) Ned Rothenberg (bass clarinet) Continuum Nik Bärtsch’s Mobile (ECM) For more information, visit ecmrecords.com. Cyrille is at Andy Laster (baritone saxophone) by Clifford Allen New School Tishman Auditorium Jan. 6th, New School Jeff Zeigler (cello) 12th Street Auditorium Jan. 7th, Littlefield Jan. 8th and Le Christian Kogel (guitar) The German label ECM has remained on one leading Poisson Rouge Jan. 9th, all as part of Winter Jazzfest. Bro J Anthony Granelli (bass) edge of new or another for the last 47 years. While and Bärtsch’s projects are at New School Tishman holding fast to an aesthetic, from their minimalist Auditorium Jan. 7th as part of Winter Jazzfest. See Calendar. ______THE JAZZ RECORD | JANUARY 2017 17