Jazz & Improvisation / Free Improvisation

Live piano duets by Chick Corea and Stefano Bollani: improvisations, Jobim, Caymmi, Waller, Davis, standards and originals, recorded at the Umbria Jazz Winter festival, Teatro Mancinelli, Orvieto, at New Year 2010-2011. Produced by Manfred Eicher.

Solo piano album by Craig Taborn, his first as leader for ECM: thirteen pieces of his own, played on a Steinway D. Recorded in summer 2010 at Auditorio RSI, Lugano, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Eighteen short duets by Michael Mantler, partly notated and partly improvised, for classical pianist Per Salo and jazz guitarist Bjarne Roupé. Piano recorded June 2010 at Studios La Buissonne, guitar August 2010 in Copenhagen; released 2011.

An improvising quartet featuring four of the finest and most innovative musicians, who have extended the ranges of their respective instruments - piano, saxophones, harp and double bass - into new, uncharted territories. As well as having exceptional techniques, they are all virtuoso listeners, so that these first two performances as a quartet sound as if they have being working together for years. 68 minutes.

Eberhard Weber reworks twelve solo bass sequences recorded live with the Jan Garbarek Group between 1990 and 2007, adding keyboards, saxophone and selje flute by Garbarek and percussion by Michael DiPasqua. Mixed in 2011 at Studios La Buissonne.

First ECM solo piano album by Marilyn Crispell: seven improvised Vignettes and other pieces of her own, plus Jayna Nelson's Cuida Tu Espiritu and Arve Henriksen's Stilleweg. Recorded April 2007 at Auditorio Radio Svizzera, Lugano, produced by Manfred Eicher.

First ECM album by the Polish trio of Marcin Wasilewski (piano), Sławomir Kurkiewicz (double bass) and Michał Miśkiewicz (drums): originals, free improvisations and pieces by Björk, Wayne Shorter, Szymanowski and Stańko. Recorded March 2004, Rainbow Studio, Oslo.

Eight-part suite composed and conducted by Evan Parker for the 14-piece Transatlantic Art Ensemble, co-founded with Roscoe Mitchell, with Craig Taborn, Barry Guy, Paul Lytton and others. Recorded live September 2004 at the Muffathalle, Munich.

Second album by Thomas Strønen's quartet Parish, with Bobo Stenson (piano), Fredrik Ljungkvist (clarinet, tenor saxophone) and Mats Eilertsen (double bass). Recorded April 2004 at Rainbow Studio, Oslo, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Sacred song cycle by bassist Anders Jormin, commissioned for Västerås cathedral, with Lena Willemark (voice), Marilyn Crispell (piano), Karin Nelson (church organ) and Raymond Strid (percussion). Recorded May 2003 in the Organ Hall, Musikhögskolan, Gothenburg.

Paul Giger (violin, violino d'amore, viola d'amore, foot bells) with Robert Dick (flutes) and Satoshi Takeishi (percussion): solo pieces, duos and trios recorded 1995-2000 and edited at Big Ear Studio, Dübendorf, released by ECM in 2003.

Trio album by Yves Robert (trombone), Vincent Courtois (cello) and Cyril Atef (drums), Robert's first ECM album as leader, seven of eight pieces by him. Recorded March 2001 at Piccolo Studio, Paris, produced by Manfred Eicher. ECM 1787, 2002.

Live recording by Keith Jarrett (piano), Gary Peacock (double bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums): four free improvisations and When I Fall in Love. Recorded 26 and 28 July 2000 at the Royal Festival Hall, London; produced by Manfred Eicher, released by ECM in 2001. CD edition.

Solo album by Mat Maneri on acoustic violin and viola: his own compositions and pieces by Matthew Shipp, Joe Morris, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy and Joe Maneri, recorded July 1999 at Gateway Studio, Kingston, produced by Steve Lake. CD, 2001.

Astrakan Café is a 2000 ECM album by Tunisian oud player Anouar Brahem with Turkish clarinettist Barbaros Erköse and percussionist Lassad Hosni, recorded in June 1999 at the Propstei St. Gerold, Austria, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Recorded live at Théâtre Monnot, Beirut on 10 July 2005 at the 5th Irtijal Festival of Improvised Music. Mixed and mastered at The Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago. Limited edition of 1000 numbered copies

First duo album by Joe Maneri (alto and tenor saxophones, clarinet, piano) and his son Mat Maneri (acoustic and electric violins, electric viola), recorded October 1997 at Hardstudios, Winterthur, produced by Steve Lake.

Duo album by violinist Dominique Pifarély and pianist François Couturier: nine pieces, mostly their own plus Mal Waldron's Warm Canto, recorded April 1997 at the Festeburgkirche, Frankfurt, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Solo piano concert by Keith Jarrett, recorded live at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 13 February 1995: two improvised sets and Over The Rainbow. Remixed at Rainbow Studio, released by ECM in 1997.

Trio album by pianist Michael Cain, trumpeter Ralph Alessi and saxophonist Peter Epstein, without bass or drums. Recorded in August 1996 at Rainbow Studio, Oslo, produced by Manfred Eicher, released by ECM in 1997.

Free improvisations by Paul Bley (piano), Evan Parker (tenor and soprano saxophones) and Barre Phillips (double bass), the first recorded Bley/Parker meeting. Recorded January 1994 at Rainbow Studio, Oslo, produced by Steve Lake. ECM 1537, 1995.

Expanded reissue of the debut Borbetomagus album from 1980 with the trio of Sauter, Dietrich and Miller further bolstered by Brian Doherty on electronics. These early recordings have a beautifully corrosive classical avant garde/Industrial edge that is as bluntly beguiling as low-grade splatter. Also features a winning shot of Donald Miller's legendary mullet on the back as well as the previously unreleased "Last Concordat" - bonus! The trio of Jim Sauter (reeds), Don Dietrich (reeds) and Donald…

Free improvisation session by Paul Bley (piano), Gary Peacock (bass), Tony Oxley (drums) and John Surman (baritone saxophone, bass clarinet), recorded September 1991 at Rainbow Studio, Oslo, produced by Manfred Eicher. ECM 1488, released 1993.

Solo piano improvisations by Keith Jarrett, recorded live at the Vienna State Opera on 13 July 1991 in two parts of about 42 and 26 minutes. Produced by Manfred Eicher and Jarrett. ECM 1481, 1992.

Solo piano concert by Keith Jarrett, recorded on 17 October 1988 at the Salle Pleyel, Paris, and released by ECM in 1990: a 38-minute improvisation, Russ Freeman's The Wind and Jarrett's Blues.

Live trio album by Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette: four long improvised pieces recorded at concerts in Lexington, Dallas, Houston and Denver in October 1987, released by ECM in 1989.

Recorded, mixed and mastered at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago on 5 June, 2004.

Chick Corea, Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes reunited in 1981: trio and duo improvisations plus seven Thelonious Monk pieces, recorded November 1981 at Mad Hatter Studios, Los Angeles, produced by Manfred Eicher. Originally a double album (ECM 1232/33, 1982), here on one CD.

Keith Jarrett's improvised solo piano concert recorded live at the Cologne Opera House on 24 January 1975, produced by Manfred Eicher and first released by ECM in November 1975. CD edition with the complete concert.

Keith Jarrett's solo piano concert recorded live on 16 July 2016 at the Philharmonie im Gasteig, Munich, the last night of his European tour: twelve improvised parts and three encores. 2LP, ECM 2667/68, released 2019.

Recorded at Axel's house. Berlin. July 2004. December 2005. Limited edition of 200

Miroslav Vitous's first ECM album as leader in ten years: duets with Michel Portal, pieces with Jack DeJohnette and two suites with Esperanza Spalding, Bob Mintzer and orchestra, recorded 2003-2010 at his Universal Syncopations studio and produced with Manfred Eicher. LP edition.

Chick Corea's first solo piano album, improvised at the Arne Bendiksen Studio in Oslo on 21 and 22 April 1971, produced by Manfred Eicher and first released by ECM in 1971. Luminessence LP reissue in gatefold sleeve.

A testament to the interaction between the experimental avant-garde and the countercultural underground, the album was originally released on Elektra, recorded by Jac Holzman (the label's founder, responsible for signing The Doors, Love, and The Stooges) and produced by DNA, a group that included Pink Floyd's first manager, Peter Jenner (the title of Pink Floyd's 'Flaming' is a tribute to AMM's 'Later During a Flaming Riviera Sunset'). Formed in 1965 by three players from the emerging British ja…

By 1958, Albert Ayler and his horn had made some rounds: from boy prodigy to teenage member of Little Walter's Blues Band, from "Little Bird" of Cleveland to featured US Army Band soloist. Then he resolutely set out to forget everything he'd ever learned about how to properly play the sax so that he could really PLAY it -- unhinged, free from strictures of pitch and form, drawing on spirituals, folksong, marches, and other big whopping chunks of collective musical memory -- to channel symphonies…