Bobo Stenson

This is the Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson's own selection from almost thirty years on ECM, issued in 2002 as volume VIII of the label's :rarum series. Each volume asked a musician to choose their own recordings for the label and write the notes. Stenson's thirteen choices run from 1971 to 1999. They follow him as a trio leader and as the pianist in groups led by Jan Garbarek, Don Cherry, Charles Lloyd and Tomasz Stanko.

The thread through the disc is Stenson's trio. The earliest track, Ornette Coleman's Untitled, comes from Underwear, recorded in Oslo in May 1971 with Arild Andersen on bass and Jon Christensen on drums. Christensen stays for most of the record. From the 1990s the bassist is Anders Jormin, heard on Reflections, War Orphans and Serenity, the last recorded in April 1999 in Brunskog, Sweden. The other 1990s sessions were cut at the Rainbow Studio in Oslo, and Manfred Eicher produced the original sessions. For this edition the tracks were remastered in 24-bit/96 kHz.

The trio pieces show the range of Stenson's repertoire. Silvio Rodríguez's Oleo de mujer con sombrero, over eight minutes, is the longest trio track here, and Duke Ellington's Reflections in D is taken slowly and sombrely. Christensen's own East Print, under three minutes, opens the disc with the drums leading the trio. The group work is just as varied. Two pieces come from the Garbarek quartet of the 1970s, Witchi-Tai-To and Svevende, two from Lloyd's quartet with Billy Hart, including the twelve-minute Song, and two from Cherry's Dona Nostra. Stanko's Morning Heavy Song comes from Leosia, recorded in January 1996 with Jormin and Tony Oxley on drums.

The :rarum series gave ECM's musicians a voice in how their history was told. Keith Jarrett's volume opened it, and Stenson's closed the first group of eight. Reviewing the disc for ECM Reviews in 2020, Tyran Grillo wrote that in Oleo de mujer con sombrero Stenson "achieves what he does best: describing a vast scene". He counted the set "among the label's essential compilations".

Single CD in a two-fold digipak on ECM Records, :rarum VIII (440 014 214-2), first released on 29 April 2002, with liner notes by Stenson.