* Audiophile edition, tip-on gatefold sleeve * From their debut release of Mal Waldron's “Free at Last” in 1969, the German imprint, ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music), has occupied a seminal place in the landscape of adventurous music, not only issuing some of the most forward-thinking and beautifully produced recordings in jazz and improvised music across the decades, but also seminal releases by composers like John Cage, Elliott Carter, Steve Reich, John Adams, and Arvo Pärt. With nearly the entirety of their back catalogue out of print on vinyl, last year ECM launched their new Luminessence audiophile vinyl-reissue series, intent upon shining light on visionary, historic recordings that changed perceptions of creative music-making, and are now heralded as classics, via brand new high-quality editions. So far they’ve delivered absolute stunners like Nana Vasconcelos’ 1979 masterstroke “Saudades”, Gary Burton’s “The New Quartet”, and Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, and Charlie Haden’s “Old and New Dreams”. Now they return with the latest in the Luminessence series with a serious deep dive, the first vinyl pressing in decades of John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette’s mind-melting 1975 LP “Gateway”. A thrilling, tightly honed excursion of musical hybridity, internalising elements of driving headlong electric jazz, free improvisation, and prog, realised by three of the most distinct players of their moment, it’s one of those rare records that endlessly takes you by surprise and reminds you of what a remarkably rich and creatively diverse moment in music the 1970s was. Issued in a stunning audiophile edition, housed in a tip-on gatefold sleeve, complete with previously unseen archival photos and new liner notes by Wilco’s Nels Cline, this one will inevitably be a complete revelation for those discovering it for the first time, and an absolute must for any fan of ECM and 1970s progressive jazz.

The meeting of John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette - often termed the “Gateway” band - is one of those fascinating moments in the history of jazz. Until their cohesion during the mid-1970s, all three members had been well know as sought-after sidemen, and this three person collective allowed them to step into the light and let their respective talents and visions take centre stage. The drummer Jack DeJohnette began his career in Chicago playing with Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell, and Sun Ra, before moving to New York during the mid-1960s where he worked with Charles Lloyd, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, Alice Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, and a near countless number of others. Perhaps most notably in this context, DeJohnette became a member of Miles Davis’ group in 1969 and helped pioneer the a new movement of electric jazz fusion. It was in this band that the drummer began working with the legendary English bassist Dave Holland, who had emerged working within the thriving UK free jazz scene as a member of Spontaneous Music Ensemble, and working with artists like Evan Parker, Chris McGregor, and John McLaughlin.

Following their departure from Miles Davis’ band during the early '70s, both Holland and DeJohnette continued to work prolifically, but it wasn’t until they invited the virtuosic American guitarist, John Abercrombie, who had been working steadily with Gato Barbieri, Barry Miles, and Gil Evans during that period, to form a new trio that the stars fully aligned. Over the coming years, the three would record a series of stunning, groundbreaking LPs for ECM. While the majority were jointly billed, the band would be often referred to as Gateway, nodding to their debut, rightly described in a Downbeat review upon its release in 1975 as possessing a “daring and visionary spirit”.

While playing songs written by all three members via an approach that drew upon free jazz, “Gateway” encounters Abercrombie on guitar, Holland on double-bass, and DeJohnette on drums, moving into fairly uncharted waters when regarded through the lens of that idiom, unquestionably pushing on from the groundwork laid by Miles Davis during the period that the drummer and bassist worked within his band. Comprising six pieces over its two sides, the LP presents a three-way conversation, in multiple parts, that offers what, at the time, was a new and visionary idea of what jazz could be. As The Observer remarked in an article of the time, “the telepathic ensemble playing and perfect execution make it difficult to believe that this music is almost completely improvised”.

While “Gateway”'s first track, “Back - Woods Song”, traces into a slightly similar territory as Gabor Szabo plumed on albums like “Dreams” and “Bacchanal” - tapping a psyche pop infused jams, with Abercrombie’s sprawling lines backed by the throb of Holland and DeJohnette’s locked in interplay - as the album progresses the trio increasingly pushes into more ambitious realms, sculpting a series of real-time compositions that feel almost like abstract prog, as each player intervenes with strikingly unexpected combinations of time signature, structure, and tonal combination. Tightly wound and often moving at a breakneck speed, led by the flurry of Abercrombie’s cascading notes, Holland’s perfect responses and compositional brilliance, and DeJohnette’s unparalleled energy and sensibility for texture and counterpoint, it’s an astounding journey and an album like almost nothing else of its moment, laying the groundwork for countless albums that followed in its wake. As Nels Cline states of ECM and “Gateway” in the newly commissioned liner notes: “One thing most recordings on the label share in common is the capturing of special moments in real time. That is what “Gateway” is, what it feels like so many years later, for as long as we have ears to listen.”

A true marvel culled from the shadows of time that’s captivated deep diggers for years while never fully getting the attention it deserved, ECM’s brand new reissue of “Gateway”, the latest instalment of their Luminessence series, is a stunning thing to behold, offering a much needed reappraisal of an astounding record that broke uncharted ground. Issued a stunning audiophile edition, housed in a tip-on gatefold sleeve, complete with previously unseen archival photos and new liner notes by Wilco’s Nels Cline, this is as highly recommended as they come.