A jazz saxophonist, with what? A vocal group specialising in early music? Surely that was an elaborate joke. No, not if you were Manfred Eicher – and that, at a stroke, explains why Eicher’s ECM Records has been the world’s ultimate art-music label for over 50 years. To call Eicher a producer is like calling […]

In founding Edition of Contemporary Music (ECM) in 1969, producer Manfred Eicher sought records with the ambience of ideal concert venues; with crystalline clarity and extraordinarily three‑dimensional spatial sense. His commitment to excellence, idiom-crossing collaborations and artistic freedom swiftly attracted the world’s finest musicians. We asked Manfred Eicher to reflect on the work of another […]

Don Was has spent a lifetime in music. Was’s production and bass-playing can be heard on recordings from artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Ziggy Marley, The Rolling Stones, and his own band Was (Not Was). In his current role as the the President of Blue Note Records, Was is charged with developing current roster of […]

“The most beautiful sound next to silence”, was ECM Records’ slogan in the 1970s – one ringing even truer now, when we’re blasted not just by the jangle of disposable music, but the shriek of mobile phones. The LP covers backed up the motto with misty landscapes and abstract paintings, and then, when you gently […]

It’s not often that a nation produces two great jazz exports with the same name. But there is no mistaking the signature sound of trumpeter and Big Vicious bandleader Avishai Cohen, whose creative flair and lyricism – evoking the spirit of Miles Davis – has been lauded by the likes of The New York Times […]

Trumpet player Avishai Cohen launched his exuberant, home-grown band Big Vicious six years ago, after relocating from the US to his native Israel, rounding up players to shape the music from the ground up, and co-writing much of its newest material together with them. Big Vicious incorporates textures from electronica, ambient music and psychedelia, with […]