GUILFORD — The Wendy Redlinger Jazz Soiree will host the Bob Stabach 4tet on Monday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m., with Eugene Uman on piano, George Kaye on bass, Jon Fisher on drums, and Bob Stabach on sax. The evening will feature music from the European record label ECM (Editions of Contemporary Music).
The ECM style is an outgrowth of the American cool jazz of the 1950s and fusion styles of the 1960s - with their restrained and subdued aesthetics - that incorporates compositional elements from the European classical and folk tradition.
The ECM style is sometimes characterized as ascetic, restrained or meditative, and solos can feature long, slow gestures, as opposed to displays of virtuosity. The style is tonal, although it doesn't include instantly recognizable melodies, and often verges on impressionism in its treatment of textures and atmospheres. Rhythmically, the music is “straight” (often in straight eighth notes) with limited use of the “swing feel.”
Adjectives associated with the ECM style are dreamy, ethereal, contemplative, meditative, inner directed, spacious. There is a sparing use of “blues notes” and climaxes are developed with restraint and patience over longer time spans, Triads are often used as a refreshing color contrast to dense harmonies.
Light refreshments will be served at intermission.