Features Susanne Abbuhel on voice – with Wolfert Brederode on piano, Christof May on clarinet and bass clarinet, and Lucas Niggli on drums and percussion – plus guest clarinet from Michel Portal too. CD

A record full of rich tones and cascadingly lyrical lines – and a set that features the wonderful pairing of John Abercrombie's guitar and the piano of Richie Beirach! Beirach seems to ground Abercrombie even more than usual – still letting John have those atmospheric qualities in his notes, but with a sense of flow and focus that we really appreciate – energy that might also come from the work of George Mraz on bass, and Peter Donald on drums. Tunes are simple and elegant, but say a hell of a lot with a little – and the album's maybe as perfect a summation of the ECM approach to guitar at its best as some of the early Pat Metheny albums. Titles include "Arcade", "Nightlake", "Neptune", "Alchemy", and "Paramour". CD

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A nicely varied live set from this trio of key ECM players of the 80s – captured here with the same sense of sound as some of their studio recordings – which must have been something amazing to hear in person! Abercrombie's still very chromatic at this point in his career – playing fluid, colorful lines on guitar – but also using occasional guitar synthesizer passages too – more waves of sound than individual lines, which sounds especially nice next to more driving drums from Peter Erskine! Marc Johnson's ear for space is perfectly tuned for the proceedings – working at a level that's far beyond standard bassmanship – and titles include "Light Beam", "Drum Solo", "Four On One", "Samurai Hee Haw", "Furs On Ice", "Stella By Starlight", and "Innerplay". CD

Features Arild Andersen on bass, Lars Jansson on piano, Pal Thowsen on drums and percussion, and Juhani Aaltonen on tenor, soprano, and flute! LP, Vinyl record album

One of the few ECM sides recorded by the Art Ensemble Of Chicago – easily some of the hippest work the label issued at the time, and a key way for the avant collective to get a bit of large audience exposure! The sound is still very much in the best AEC style here – and if anything, ECM's sensitivity to sound has allowed the group to explore some of the farther reaches of their sonic sensibilities – those contemplative moments that could sometimes be lost in the hands of other producers, captured beautifully here in a range of instruments far too many to mention! Some of the bolder tracks have Lester Bowie's trumpet right out front – almost hinting at his own solo association with the label – and titles include "Care Free", "Magg Zelma", "Full Force", and "Old Time Southside Street Dance". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the best records we've heard by the Art Ensemble of Chicago in years – and a wonderful tribute to departed bandmate Lester Bowie! The work is performed by the trio of Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors, and Don Moye – and the music is much more in the spirit of some of their classic recordings from 20/25 years back – performed with a real sense of space, sound, and shared interplay between the members of the group. Titles include "Sangaredi", "Tutankhamun", "As Clear As The Sun", and "He Speaks To Me Often In Dreams". CD

A live set from 1980 – and one that shows the Art Ensemble still able to capture some of the warmth and imagination from their early years. Most tracks are fairly long, and the group move through their usual panopoly of instruments along the way. Titles include "Urban Magic", "Sunprecondition Two", "Theme For Sco", "New York Is Full Of Lonely People", and "Ancestral Meditation". LP, Vinyl record album

Carla Bley at the height of her powers – working in the late 70s to really reinvent the large ensemble after years of experience in the underground – with a style that easily slides between inside and out, searching and swinging – all delivered by just the right sort of lineup! The group here features Michael Mantler on trumpet, Elton Dean on alto, Gary Windo on tenor, John Clark on French Horn, Roswell Rudd on trombone, Hugh Hopper on bass, Andrew Cyrille on drums, and Carla herself on organ and tenor – all musicians graced with a sense of whimsy, yet never one that overwhelms their music at all – especially during this stretch of Carla's creative career. Tracks are long, and nice and complicated – but never get lost in themselves – and titles include "Rose & Sad Song", "Wrong Key Donkey", "Drinking Music", and "Star Spangled Banner Minor & Other Patriotic Songs". CD

Sublime trio recordings from Carla Bley on piano, Steve Swallow on bass, and Andy Sheppard on tenor and soprano sax – musicians who've been working together in different ways for many years, and who really come together here in a very special way! Although all three players were once known to enforce the more modern sides of their identities, that tendency seems left behind and replaced by a more confident maturity – one that still allows for knowledge of all the dark corners and sharp edges of sound, but worked out into a mode that's beautifully lyrical, poetic, and surprisingly rich in feeling. There's nothing cold or academic about the set at all – and although the presentation is definitely in an ECM mode, there's this sense of deeper heart that recalls some of the recordings that Swallow made with Jimmy Giuffre decades back – or even Giuffre's trio before Swallow joined in. Sheppard is wonderfully expressive – very vivid in his solos – and Bley's doing so much with so little, her sense of tone and texture are mindblowing. Titles include "Vashkar", "Utviklingssang", "The Girl Who Cried Champagne", and "Wildlife". CD

Beautiful sounds from pianist Carla Bley – a musician who just keeps on blowing us away as the decades move on – and that's saying a hell of a lot, given how many years she's been making music! There's a really special quality to this record – a warmth and maybe just a slight touch of humor, but not in the overdone way of some of Carla's records from the 80s – much more subtle, and mixed with occasional currents of darkness – all handled with this understated sense of personality that perfectly showcases all three members of the group – Bley on piano, Steve Swallow on bass, and Andy Sheppard on tenor and soprano saxes. Swallow maybe sounds more wonderful here than we've heard in years – the record is a great reminder of how many great contributions he can make to music – and titles include the longer cycles of songs "Life Goes On", "Copycat", and "Beautiful Telephones (parts 1 to 3)". LP, Vinyl record album

Beautiful solo piano work from Paul Bley – spare, stark, and almost lovely – and a real contrast to some of his more aggressive experiments of the late 60s. The Bley here has almost a hint of sadness and longing, especially on the numbers that have him revisiting tunes he'd done on earlier records with an approach that was a bit stronger. It's hard to define the gentle charm that he brings here to "Ida Lupino", "Closer", "Harlem", "Seven", "Open To Love", and "Nothing Ever Was Anyway" – but one listen to the record, and its gorgeous recording of Bley's piano, should be enough! LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic 70s album from Gary Burton – a set that definitely has the "new" promised in the title, as it takes off more from some of Gary's work in previous years! The record's got this explosive sense of color that really comes through in Gary's vibes – and in the way the group can leaop into the fray when needed – almost funky at points, but also able to shift into more sensitive modes too – balanced between the guitar of Michael Goodrick,bass of Abraham Laboriel, and drums of Harry Blazer. Burton's got a bit more bite at times than before – pushing even past his Atlantic Records sound and the tunes are a well-chosen array of songs by contemporaries who include Keith Jarrett, Mike Gibbs, Chick Corea, and Carla Bley. Titles include "Open Your Eyes You Can Fly", "Coral", "Tying Up Loose Ends", "Olhos De Gato", and "Mallet Man". CD

A fantastic 70s album from Gary Burton – a set that definitely has the "new" promised in the title, as it takes off more from some of Gary's work in previous years! The record's got this explosive sense of color that really comes through in Gary's vibes – and in the way the group can leaop into the fray when needed – almost funky at points, but also able to shift into more sensitive modes too – balanced between the guitar of Michael Goodrick,bass of Abraham Laboriel, and drums of Harry Blazer. Burton's got a bit more bite at times than before – pushing even past his Atlantic Records sound and the tunes are a well-chosen array of songs by contemporaries who include Keith Jarrett, Mike Gibbs, Chick Corea, and Carla Bley. Titles include "Open Your Eyes You Can Fly", "Coral", "Tying Up Loose Ends", "Olhos De Gato", and "Mallet Man". LP, Vinyl record album

Laidback and warmly chromatic work from Gary Burton – playing vibes in a group that also has Pat Metheny on guitar, Steve Swallow on bass, Eberhard Weber on acoustic bass, and Dan Gottlieb on drums. Titles include "Sea Journey", "Nacada", "The Whopper", and "Yellow Fields". CD

One of Gary Burton's more free-flowing albums of the 70s – a bit more fusion than some of his other work of the time, with key guitar contributions from Mick Goodrick and a young Pat Metheney! The album's still filled with plenty of Burton's great work on vibes, but the guitars also soar out strongly too – bringing in a sense of pulse that's matched by the basses of Steve Swallow and Eberhard Weber, and percussion by Bob Moses. The groove's still a bit softer-edged than traditional fusion sides of the time – thanks to a mellower ECM approach – but there's also a bit more dynamic energy on some of the tracks than you might be used to hearing from the label. Titles include "Silent Spring", "The Colours Of Chloe", "Intrude", "Unfinished Symphony", "Tunnel Of Love", and "Mevlevia". LP, Vinyl record album

Mellow vibes and spacious piano – a 70s classic from the team of Chick Corea and Gary Burton, serving up some of their finest work of the decade! The style is a bit mellower and more contemplative than some of Chick's harder-hitting fusion of the time – and he seems to nicely borrow a page from Burton's book on the record, letting space seep into the tracks as much as his own work on the acoustic piano – which is used here in a warmer, more contemplative mode than we normally expect from Corea. Titles include "Senor Mouse", "Desert Air", "I'm Your Pal", "What Game Shall We Play Today", "Crystal Silence", "Falling Grace", and "Children's Song". LP, Vinyl record album

Genius work from the team of Chick Corea on piano and Gary Burton on vibes – both players who were already making a lot of magic in the 70s, but who really seem to explode in the company of each other! Burton's tones are wonderfully bold and firm – these cascading colors that merge perfectly with Corea's piano lines – which themselves have a beautifully understated feel that's quite different than his fusion material – but which seems to pack an even more powerful punch! The album features no other instrumentation at all – yet the range of feeling and expression is much more powerful than most full group performances – on a sublime set of tracks that include "Duet Suite", "Never", "La Fiesta", "Radio", "Song To Gayle", and selections from Corea's "Children's Songs". LP, Vinyl record album

Trumpeter Avishai Cohen has given us many great records over the years, yet this time around, he seems to be cooking up something extra-special – an album that still echoes some of his older ideas, but which maybe has a bit more warmth, and a bit more unity – qualities that seem to come partly from the album's use of two different guitarists, whose electric elements provide a nice backdrop for the Cohen's trumpet! Uzi Ramirez plays one guitar, and Yonatan Albalak plays the other, and a bit of bass – but there's also maybe a more pointed drum sound too – not too funky or rhythmic, yet more than we're used to hearing from Avishai, and maybe ECM too. Aviv Cohen and Ziv Ravitz handle the drums – and the latter does some live sampling – and Avishai also adds some electric touches to the record, as well as uses a few effects on his horn. Titles include "The Cow & The Calf", "This Time It's Different", "Fractals", "Hidden CHamber", "Honey Fountain", "The Things You Tell Me", and "Teno Neno". CD

Dark-tinged sounds from trumpeter Avishai Cohen – a set that draws as much from his contributions as it does from the moody piano of Yonathan Avishai – whose sense of spacing and tone really seems to match the overall musical vision of Cohen! Most tracks unfold at a very contemplative pace – drawing from the careful bass of Barak Mori and drums of Nasheet Waits – with a somewhat poetic approach to the melody, but never in any sort of light, lyrical way. The song titles may well give a hint as to the vibe of the set – and tunes include "Will I Die Miss Will I Die", "Shoot Me In The Leg", "50 Years & Counting", and "340 Down". CD