ECM celebration

ECM is the Munich-based record label which puts out many of the jazz artists I like best — Gab­arek for a start, and Try­gve Seim and Arild Ander­son.  Ser­i­ous Music had arranged a little fest­ival at Kings Place to cel­eb­rate the 40^th birth­day of the label.  A con­cert fea­tur­ing Try­gve Seim (sax), Frode Haltli (accordeon), Garth Knox (Viola d’amore) and Agnes Vestermann(cello) was a delight — nice impro­visa­tions seem­ing to start from a selec­tion of dis­par­ate notes and phrases and build­ing to a tune.  As a duo, I prefer the 2 Nor­we­gi­ans, but as a quar­tet they were won­der­ful. A priv­ilege to catch a one-off like this.  Garth Knox is an enga­ging gangly Irishman.

The second con­cert, the Julia Huls­mann Trio’s debut in the UK, was a bit dis­ap­point­ing.  There wasn’t really any­thing which made them stand out from the gen­eral run of piano drums bass trios — and I had hope for some­thing a bit more inspir­ing.  Though her CD of pieces around poems by Emily Dickin­son is really nice.

Both con­certs in Hall 2 at Kings Place — excel­lent acoustic.