"Weird European ECM recordings"

[Guy Berger]

I was fishing around in that Tower garage sale and there were 5 or 6 ECMs by artists that aren't well-known in the states. You know, the kind where the artists' names include lots of punctuation. I'd seen some of the names before (Penguin Guide?) but AMG usually didn't have good reviews. Any thoughts or descriptions would be useful. Not planning to pick up any of these soon but I am curious.

Some of the names:

Masqualero

Jon Balke

[king ubu]

Masqualero mainly is Arild Andersen (b) and Jon Christensen (d) - both big league guys (at least over here). Go to Andersen's homepage and check his sideman discography to get an idea of his credentials.

Chirstensen played in Garbarek's European quartet, so you should be familiar with him. His track record is as impressive as ANdersen's, I'd say, if not more impressive.

Balke played on one Masqualero album, trumpet player Nils-Petter Molvaer (you should be familiar at least with his name, I assume) on three, but I'm neither familiar with Balke nor with the group's sax player, Tore Brunborg.

[mikeweil]

Jon Balke is a Norwegian keyboarder/arranger - I have the first of his ECM CDs. Mini-big band, but without bass, added percussion used very interestingly, nice writing, but no ordinary swing rhythms - a style of his own. Sometimes it sounds a little like crime time music, but in a good way. Just listened to it a few weeks ago. Still like it.

[Guy Berger]

Yeah, Andersen and Christensen pop up on a few CDs in my collection (no disagreement about them being heavyweights), and I have one album by Molvaer. What does Masqualero sound like?

How is Andersen's album with Vasconcelos and Ralph Towner?

Guy

[Guest akanalog]

guy some of the masqualero stuff is pretty good. definitley has a miles in 1967 sort of vibe going, in my opinion (but more mood and less fire-which sounds like a sterotypical comment, but one i think is true). i like the first one with balke because like the addition of piano (and a little synth) to the mix.

i wish you could be more specific who you are asking about here.

the arild andersen with towner and nana-is that the one with the ugly magenta and blue cover? it is ok. nothing so great about it. i wouldn't recommend it highly. in a similar sort of but not really vein, i like the garbarek disc "eventyr", which is a trio with john abercrombie and nana. though i know you don't like garbarek's tone, and it is up front on a lot of this ( i definitley have a friend or two who refuses to listen to this disc due to garbarek's keening soprano).

there is a live arild andersen disc which is a bit cheesy but entertaining-molde concert. it has bill frisell, john taylor and alphonse mouzon and it is from 1979.

a lot of good andersen from the 70s is still not out on CD.

i just cant even think who else you are asking about that you might not know about-people like misha alperin or louis sclavis? i don't really listen to modern stuff so i don't buy newer ECMs. but when i have heard the sclavis stuff, it's ok.

the balke stuff i have heard is ok too, though sometimes his ensembles are larger than i like. didn't make such an impression on me.

i would say basically anything with christensen on drums is going to be good. i actually like that other guy mike dipasqua on drums too. he's an interesting player. he has a "low" drum sound-a lot of tom tom rhythms rather than cymbals.

if you don't know eberhard weber, some of his albums are nice, if a little stiff. i AOWed one of my favorite weber albums.

do you know terje rypdal? he also has some good older albums-though some people probably hate his tone. "waves" is pretty cool, as is "odsyssey", though the CD version is missing one of the best songs from the original LP.