JAPO Records | |
---|---|
Parent company | ECM Records |
Founded | 1970 |
Defunct | 1985 |
Genre | Jazz |
Country of origin | Germany |
Location | Munich |
JAPO Records was a German record label founded in 1970 that specialized in jazz. It was a division of ECM Records. JAPO stands for Jazz by Post. [1] The label existed from 1970 until 1985 and produced over 40 jazz fusion and free jazz records from musicians all over the world, the majority of them European. It was based in Munich, Germany.
JAPO's catalogue includes Dollar Brand, Mal Waldron, Elton Dean, George Gruntz, Barry Guy, Alfred Harth, Ken Hyder, Herbert Joos, Bobby Naughton, Manfred Schoof, Barre Phillips, Jiří Stivín & Rudolf Dašek, Stephan Micus, Enrico Rava, Lennart Åberg, Edward Vesala, and the Globe Unity Orchestra. [2]
Production for the label was overseen by musicians and established producers, and included work by Jack DeJohnette, Manfred Eicher, and Håken Elmquist. Many of the records were produced by Thomas Stöwsand. [1]
The engineering for the recording sessions was carried out by established recording engineers from Germany and Norway. Some of them, like Martin Wieland and Jan Erik Kongshaug had already worked with Manfred Eicher at ECM Records, which was one of Germany's most progressive jazz record labels at the time and had musicians like Jan Garbarek, Dave Holland, Chick Corea, and Keith Jarrett on its roster.
Most of the JAPO catalogue was originally released on LP and many of the titles have yet to be re-issued on CD or any other format, although reissues have been seen as recently as 2006.
Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey and later moved on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has also been a group leader and solo performer in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music. His improvisations draw from the traditions of jazz and other genres, including Western classical music, gospel, blues, and ethnic folk music.
Jan Garbarek is a Norwegian jazz saxophonist, who is also active in classical music and world music.
Stephan Micus is a German musician and composer, whose musical style is heavily influenced by his study of traditional instruments and musical techniques from Japan, India, South America, and other countries. With the exception of his album The Music of Stones (1989), he plays all the instruments on his recordings, combining styles from different countries and using the instruments in unprecedented ways in each of his pieces. He often uses layers of a single instrument to create unusual combinations of sounds. He is one of the few ECM Records artists whose records are not produced by Manfred Eicher. He has mixed instruments from around the world, or used whatever was at hand: stones, ordinary flowerpots tuned with water, and his voice—singing improvised syllables over ten years before others made this approach fashionable.
ECM is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM's artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres. ECM's motto is "the most beautiful sound next to silence", taken from a 1971 review of ECM releases in Coda, a Canadian jazz magazine.
Eberhard Weber is a German double bassist and composer. As a bass player, he is known for his highly distinctive tone and phrasing. Weber's compositions blend chamber jazz, European classical music, minimalism and ambient music, and are regarded as characteristic examples of the ECM Records sound.
Evan Shaw Parker is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation.
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards.
Manfred Eicher is a German record producer and the founder of ECM Records.
John Laird Abercrombie was an American jazz guitarist. His work explored jazz fusion, free jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Abercrombie studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He was known for his understated style and his work with organ trios.
80/81 is a double album by jazz guitarist Pat Metheny recorded over four days in May 1980 and released on ECM later that year. Metheny leads a quartet consisting of the rhythm section of Charlie Haden and Jack DeJohnette, with saxophone duties alternating between Dewey Redman and Michael Brecker.
Challenge Records is a record company and label in the Netherlands founded by Hein van de Geyn, Anne de Jong, and Joost Leijen in 1994. Its catalogue includes music by Nat Adderley, Paul Bollenback, Bob Brookmeyer, Keith Ingham, Rick Margitza, Enrico Pieranunzi, Yitzhak Yedid, Clark Terry, Jasper van 't Hof, Eric Ineke and Eric Vloeimans.
Music for Large & Small Ensembles is a double album by Canadian jazz trumpeter Kenny Wheeler recorded over two sessions in January and February 1990 and released on ECM later that year. The Sweet Time Suite' is Wheeler's most ambitious extended work for big band since 1969's Windmill Tilter.
Changes is an album by American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett recorded over two days in January 1983 and released on ECM September the following year. The trio features rhythm section Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette, the second release by the long-standing "Standards Trio", the first three of which—Standards, Vol. 1 (1983), Changes and Standards, Vol. 2 (1985)—were all recorded concurrently.
Facing You is a solo album by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett recorded on November 10, 1971, and released on ECM March the following year as Jarrett's first with the label. The album is praised as "a hallmark recording of solo piano" that "altered the course of jazz".
Belonging is a studio album by American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, recorded over two days in April 1974 and released on ECM later that year—the debut of Jarrett's "European Quartet", featuring saxophonist Jan Garbarek and rhythm section Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen. Because Jarrett's contract with ABC/Impulse! prevented him from performing with the quartet under his own name, the group became known as the "Belonging" quartet.
The Chronological Classics series consists of 965 jazz compact discs compiled by Gilles Pétard in France. Classics Records is a record company and label founded by Pétard in Paris in c. 1989. The company also reissued recording by Rhythm & blues artists in a series which ran to 190 CDs.
Afric Pepperbird is an album by the Jan Garbarek Quartet, recorded over two days in September 1970 and released on ECM the following year—Garberek's second album overall, and his first released for the label. The quartet features rhythm section Terje Rypdal, Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen.
Sound and Shadows is an album by American jazz guitarist Ralph Towner, recorded in February 1977 and released on ECM later that year, Towner's second album with his Solstice quartet, featuring saxophonist Jan Garbarek and rhythm section Eberhard Weber and Jon Christensen.
Over the years, Keith Jarrett has recorded in many different settings: jazz piano trio, classical and baroque music, improvised contemporary music, solo piano, etc. Well known for his tremendous impact on the piano and jazz scene, as a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and first class improviser, Keith Jarrett's original output embraces many different musical styles and spans a period of almost 50 years, comprising a generous production of more than 100 albums.
Different Rivers is an album by Norwegian jazz saxophonist Trygve Seim, released on ECM Records. Released in 2000, Different Rivers was Seim's solo debut for ECM Records and began his long association with the label, as both a leader and sideman.