ECM - still among the most vibrant and relevant labels:

 ECM after 3 decades still manages to keep itself relevant and interesting, even exciting. Many ECM titles end up being my most anticipated, and while I tend to veer away from some of the more 'atmospheric' titles (as in, slow, new age-y, moody as a genre type shit), there are some very cutting edge titles being released. You can find out about Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek ECM's on Amazon, I'm interested in some you probably haven't heard about - and should.

Andy Sheppard's Trio Libero is not surprisingly a trio record. Unlike the previous ECM 'Movements In Colour', which is a masterpiece where the case for tablas replacing drums is most persuasive, Trio Libero is more vague and less grounded, hampered ECM giving Sheppard a sound-space like Garbarek records - big, lots of echo, hollow - that doesn't suit the music.

Sheppard is a great player and Movements In Colour is essential in any collection. Trio Libero is a miss.

On the other hand, Tord Gustavsen's "The Well" is a fine European record that, well, doesn't swing in the New York sense, but swings hard in it's European Classical way. Tore Brunborg is here on tenor, and he's no Garbarek, thankfully. He's a full throated jazz player, without any pretensions. Gustavsen plays chamber jazz, yet shows blues and even gospel harmonies and runs within that framework. The music is a classic quartet, inspired, on the ground (albeit Norwegian ground, not American) and is among the best working groups on the current scene. Highly recommended.

Billy Hart keeps on working, and here comes a quartet with the tenor of Mark Turner (who does another ECM band called Fly which is truly awful), the piano of Ethan Iverson, and the fine bass of Ben Street. This working band has recorded previously for High Note (the ultrafine "Quartet") and this new CD, "All Our Reasons", is very fine also. Hart is one of the great drummers, or perhaps more accurately up with Elvin as one of the great 'cymbals' players, and he is the driving presence here, along with Street. Turner plays his best in front of Hart. A good, recommendable CD.

At the other spectrum, Masabumi Kikuchi is little known outside Japan, where his 1980's "Susto" was a minor fusion hit. He did a fair bit of respected acoustic work for Three Blind Mice, and after being under the radar for far too long, arrives with "Sunrise', a trio record featuring the great Paul Motian in one of his last sessions. And a great one it is - Motian comes full circle here from his Bill Evans era, with the great abstract player Kikuchi drawing bold tone poems and once both abstract and familiar, this will no doubt be acclaimed as one of the best jazz records of the year.

And what's great about ECM - their new release schedule shows even more highly anticipate-able recordings due in May. Stay tuned.