ECM to Release Ten-Year-Old Recording Session

Jakob Bro playing his guitar (photograph by Hreinn Gudlaugsson, from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)

Ten years ago, guitarist Jakob Bro led a recording session for an album that will only be released this coming Friday. Taking Turns consists of seven tracks, all original compositions by Bro, who led a sextet whose other members were Lee Konitz, alternating between alto and soprano saxophones, Bill Frisell on guitar, pianist Jason Moran, Thomas Morgan on double bass, and drummer Andrew Cyrille. The tracks were recorded in Avatar Studios in New York, but they were not mixed for release as a recording until this past August. Mixing took place in Copenhagen with Bro working with engineer Thomas Vang at The Village Recording Studio. As of this writing, Amazon.com has created a Web page that supports only MP3 download, with the physical version scheduled for release at the beginning of next year.

Taking Turns is a new ECM release. Bro is no stranger to the label, having previously recorded Garden of Eden as a member of the Paul Motian Band and Dark Eyes as a member of the Dark Eyes Quintet led by trumpeter Tomasz Stańko. Those familiar with the label probably know that producer Manfred Eicher has a preference for meditative quietude, a disposition he has also cultivated in producing recordings of works by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. However, if there tends to be a “meditative mood” that one encounters through ECM releases, there is no question that different performers take different approaches to that mood.

I have been listening to ECM releases for over half a century. There have been critics that had accused it of minimalism at its most shallow. I am not one of them! My own approach to a successful rhetoric of quietude is one of still waters that run deep. To be fair, it may take several listenings to an ECM album to become aware of that depth, let alone plunge into it. Nevertheless, those that venture into this domain come to appreciate the richness of rhetoric that cuts across the tracks on any given ECM album.

Such listeners will probably come away from Taking Turns recognizing Bro as a new member in the “family” of ECM leaders.