We've come to the end of another year at LTA headquarters. Normally, I'd be doing a wrap up with friends in the music community as to their favourite discoveries of the year.......I wasn't feeling like doing that this year. If there's one thing that's consistent with this podcast, it's inconsistency.

Welcome to episode 181 of Love That Album.

For ages, I'd been wanting to put together a show to discuss a selection of records from the ECM label. ECM was started in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. The label started out dedicated to jazz exclusively, but it has branched out into classical recordings as well – no surprise seeing as Eicher was trained as a classical musician. ECM has been home to so many wonderful musicians....too many to include in what is effectively a sampler episode of its work.

I have been glad to have made friends with a lovely fellow in the LTA Facebook group, Ed Ross. I've known two important things about him – he loves his puns (the more you groan, the more he feels his work is done), and he loves his music, particularly power pop and jazz. I approached him to see if he'd be interested in chatting with me on the show about four important ECM records, and was very happy when he agreed.

As is LTA's way, there are many digressions and references to other artists and albums, but the intended focus is on these records:

Keith Jarrett – The Koln Concert

Pat Metheny Group – Offramp

John Abercrombie – Timeless

Gary Burton and Chick Corea – Crystal Silence

If you're a longtime fan of ECM, don't ask why wasn't some other artist or album focused on....unless you're volunteering to join me for volume 2 of this series.....if you know nothing about the label, download, grab a beverage, and let Ed and myself tell you stories about broken pianos, guitars that sound like battle horns, and the greatest drummer in jazz (I won't hear any arguments about this).

Huge thanks to Ed for making himself and his knowledge available for the show. First time guest – it won't be his last.

BUT WAIT.....there's more. I'd asked the LTA FB group to send me their thoughts about their favourite ECM recordings. I received two emails from my long time friend Rani Gerszonovicz (who introduced ECM to me when we were in our early 20s) and last month's guest, author / musician Lisa Torem. I read their correspondences during the show, and Ed and I muse over their opinions. Thanks so much, Rani and Lisa.

Download this episode of LTA from your podcast app of choice (not Spotify). The wider back catalogue of episodes can also be found at https://lovethatalbumpodcast.blogspot.com

Love That Album is proudly part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Go to https://pantheonpodcasts.com to check out all their great shows.

You can send me feedback at [email protected] (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum

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