Of ECM’s releases this year Billy Hart’s Just and the Julia Hülsmann quartet’s Under the Surface stand out most. Add one more, this.
But do these and The Surrounding Green besides sheltering under the rubric of jazz have much in common?
Not that much to be frank, a statement that’s meant as an indication of the power of the different individuals involved as well as the breadth of what ECM delivers year in year out.
If you were however to draw the threads of what all three albums aspire to as a general comment you could claim they are individual visions of art and freedom curated by a label that is totally at ease with each’s demands and strictures, rites and rituals.
And there are some other points of intersection that spring to mind. American pianist Fred Hersch, who turns 70 in the autumn, I think primarily of how his sound has influenced so many other notable players many of whom he has taught.
These include Ethan Iverson who is on Just mentioned earlier and Brad Mehldau, the Keith Jarrett of his generation, whose latest Elliott Smith themed album Ride into the Sun comes out at the end of August.
I also often think of Thelonious Monk of whom Hersch is such a great interpreter although there’s no Monk here on the album.
What is here judiciously explores some broad aesthetic choices and instead has wonderful Hersch originals, music by the Gershwins, Egberto Gismonti, Ornette Coleman and by Coleman’s classic Atlantic period bassist Charlie Haden.
Accompanied by Drew Gress on double bass – who has appeared on several Hersch albums including Passion Flower: the Music of Billy Strayhorn in the 1990s and Breath By Breath in 2022 – and by Joey Baron on drums, well known for his work with Bill Frisell and with Enrico Pieranunzi and who was on the wondrous Sarabande with Hersch and Charlie Haden, the cadences and panoply of rich harmonic resource found on the title track ‘The Surrounding Green’ are stunning.
I think the song I liked most is the version of Charlie Haden’s ‘First Song’ that Abbey Lincoln wrote words for. Certainly this album in its entirety sits well with last year’s beautiful solo album Silent, Listening and was recorded in the same studio in Lugano.
Manfred Eicher has produced many amazing albums in more than 55 years since ECM started – The Surrounding Green is one more of his most brilliant.
– Hersch’s treatments of Ornette’s Science Fiction (1972) piece ‘Law Years’ and his own song ‘Plainsong’ are streaming. Hersch plays Wigmore Hall, London on 23 September joined by guest singer Jo Lawry.
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