Recorded in the southern Swiss city of Lugano in the springtime Trios is to be the pianist/composer’s first ECM release, moving over for this album from her own label WATT a label ECM distributes and her recording home for many years. Confirmed for a 9 September release in the UK and Ireland Bley, joined on the album by her partner bassist Steve Swallow and British saxophonist Andy Sheppard, this five-track album of Bley compositions includes ‘Vashkar’, covered by Tony Williams’ Lifetime and more recently Cindy Blackman among others. Trios opens with the beautiful ‘Utviklingssang’ (‘Development Song’ in Norwegian), featuring Andy Sheppard at his very best, a tune that dates back to the 1980s. Bley fans may regard the album, wryly, as a “greatest hits” in miniature. Trios leads a strong fertile autumn by the distinguished jazz label, and the trio follow up the album's release, live, with a London Jazz Festival appearance in November (www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/productions/carla-bley-piano-steve-swallow-bass-andy-sheppard-saxophones-33416).
In addition to the above release in September ECM will also issue an album by the duo of Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan titled Kula Kulluk Yakışır Mı as well as Marc Sinan’s Hasretim – Journey to Anatolia. There's also a new quartet album by John Abercrombie called 39 Steps. The guitar trio of Ralph Towner, Wolfgang Muthspiel and classical guitarist Slava Grigoryan (the latter pair recording for ECM for the first time) will release Travel Guide also in September. Then in October there is the highly anticipated Tim Berne Snakeoil album Shadow Man; Ralph Alessi’s label debut, Baida; and Aaron Parks’ Arborescence. Parks appears on the September 'lullaby album' Lua Ya by South Korean singer Yeahwon Shin in a trio also featuring Rob Curto on accordion. There is detail on other ECM releases set for the early autumn including more on Yeahwon Shin here: http://www.marlbank.net/news/896-stefano-bollani-new-signing-yeahwon-shin-and-carla-bley-among-ecm-s-late-summer-and-early-autumn-releases
Carla Bley, above