snobb Those jazz fans who, as me, are car lovers for decades, most probably will agree that German ECM label is very much a Mercedes-Benz in the jazz recording industry. Half a century ago, "Silver Star" was an innovative (remember Gullwing?), ambitious, brave and at the same time synonymous with 'highest quality'. Then ECM label, which started with the young Jan Garbarek, Kenny Wheeler and Keith Jarrett's European quartet, introduced a new sound quality, technological excellence and innovative take on jazz opening the door for North European folks, European chamber classical tradition and groove-less, partially emotionless, atmosphere as their new jazz standard. Years later, Mercedes experienced a lot of ups and downs, even some years of quality problems, and now it is a sort of safe, expensive and quite old-fashioned product from yesterday's world. I was only a little bit surprised, when I read in car magazine that the average buyer of a new Mercedes in Germany is an upper middle class man, 64 years old. Never heard such statistics about ECM clients, but somehow I expect that the correlation is quite right here.

The Joe Lovano led Trio Tapestry's third release is a good illustration to the longish intro from above. Excellent musicians (pianist Marilyn Crispell is a star on her own right) plays balladry of sort, in the ECM manner. Lovano's sax is signature-soulful, without significant improvisations, with touch of controlled melancholy. Crispell's piano sounds elegant, and Carmen Castaldi, the drummer, adds a lot of percussive sounds in support. The music is groove-less, chamber, slightly emotional, well controlled and safe. Nothing is unexpected or disturbing. It's a quality sound within the comfort zone, soundtrack of yesterday's world for those who want to believe that it's a today, and that it will last forever. Most probably would sound great in a new MB S-class...