Touchstones

...I have a love/hate relationship with the ECM label (which is now owned by Universal/Decca/Polywhatever). This mysterious European outfit always intrigued me when I was a kid -- our library had a bunch of their titles, and I was mystified by the spacious, almost negative-spacious artwork. I remember staring at one record, probably a Keith Jarrett album, and asking myself "What IS this?" You can't really tell anything from the covers, which usually feature a landscape shot, or sometimes just a block of solid color. I've come to dig the artwork, as it forms a part of the label's brand. In these bland post-digital days, so few labels have an aesthetic. It's nice to see ECM continuing to carry it through.

But what makes it a love/hate situation? Let's break it out into two lists.

Love:

1. At its best, the music is a dramatic extension of traditional jazz, incorporating modal and free elements while still remaining strangely accessible.
2. The cover art is continuous and cool -- you know upon seeing one of their projects that it is an ECM release. What other label can you say that about these days?
3. They support new classical composition via their ECM New imprint, which is fantastic.
4. They supported (eventually incorporating) Carla Bley and Michael Mantler's JCOA and Watt labels.
5. They release Michael Mantler's brilliantly uncategorizable albums.

Hate:

1. At its worst, the music has a droney, new-agey feel. Very easy to make fun of!
2. The cover art is pretentious and often conveys little helpful information to the uninformed consumer.
3. They seem to indulge Keith Jarrett's every fart. They guy is great, but maybe we should rein it in a little.
4. It's hard to find a lot of their classic titles in stores (probably more stores' fault than ECM's).
5. Their list price is always high -- $18.98 per CD. Consequently, most of the ECM titles in my collection are used LPs or used CDs or promos.

It's great to see ECM address the last two factors with their new "Touchstones" series, which takes classic ECM catalog titles and reissues them in simple four-panel digipaks (no great loss, as the original albums rarely had any liner notes or photos, so they don't take anything out!) at a budget price ($11.99). I was surprised to walk into my local record store and find the "Touchstones" reissue of Marc Johnson's Bass Desires album, which I'd been looking for for a while. Other quality titles in the first batch are Bill Frisell's Lookout for Hope and Paul Bley's Open, To Love. Kenny Wheelers Gnu High is also in the first batch, but I've yet to find a copy.

...a worthwhile initiative.