Sidebar: Fred Kaplan's 10 Favorite ECM Jazz Albums
I don't pretend to have heard more than a fraction of ECM's vast catalog, but these are the 10 ECM jazz albums that I like best—on musical criteria, though the sound on these is never worse than quite good. I'm including only albums produced by Eicher, not the few he reissued (for instance, Jimmy Giuffre's 1961) or discovered in some tape vault (such as Paul Bley's When Will the Blues Leave). In alphabetical order:
Art Ensemble of Chicago: Nice Guys
Paul Bley: Solo in Mondsee
Chick Corea & Gary Burton: Crystal Silence
Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition: Album Album
Charlie Haden/Carla Bley: The Ballad of the Fallen
Dave Holland: Conference of the Birds
Keith Jarrett: Paris/London: Testament
Keith Jarrett Standards Trio: The Out-of-Towners
Paul Motian/Joe Lovano/ Bill Frisell: Time and Time Again
Dewey Redman/Don Cherry/Charlie Haden/Ed Blackwell: Old and New Dreams
Art Ensemble of Chicago: Nice Guys
Paul Bley: Solo in Mondsee
Chick Corea & Gary Burton: Crystal Silence
Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition: Album Album
Charlie Haden/Carla Bley: The Ballad of the Fallen
Dave Holland: Conference of the Birds
Keith Jarrett: Paris/London: Testament
Keith Jarrett Standards Trio: The Out-of-Towners
Paul Motian/Joe Lovano/ Bill Frisell: Time and Time Again
Dewey Redman/Don Cherry/Charlie Haden/Ed Blackwell: Old and New Dreams
