ECM Perspectives

NCH, Dublin Sun 7pm 25/20/18 01-4170000 nch.ie

For more than four decades the great German label, ECM, under founder Manfred Eicher, has fostered a wide-ranging and innovative aesthetic in jazz in general and its European variants in particular. Some of that diversity will be on show when the NCH opens its Navigator Concert Series, a joint presentation with the Improvised Music Company, with a concert featuring three of the label’s headliners.

Although Jan Garbarek is the enduring example of the uniquely soulful sound and sense of adventure at the core of much of what ECM does, another Norwegian saxophonist and composer, Trygve Seim, has brought his own brand of distinction to it. With The Source (above), a quartet including trombonist Øyvind Brække, bassist Mats Eilertsen and drummer Per Oddvar Johansen, Seim leads a group whose combination of freedom and structure nourishes the brooding lyricism of the music.

For his solo concert, Italian pianist Stefano Bollani will bring a very different Mediterranean accent. Prodigiously gifted, he is a sophisticated and brilliant improviser and an exuberant and generous performer.

Another contrast will be provided by Ronin, a quintet led by Switzerland’s Nik Bärtsch, with the leader on piano and Fender Rhodes, Kaspar Rast (drums), Björn Meyer (bass), Andi Pupato (percussion) and Sha (bass clarinet). The music is built on simple, almost Steve Reich-like figures, to establish hypnotic grooves with subtly controlled rhythms and dynamics. Gerry Godley of the IMC will give a pre-concert talk.