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Rarum is ECM's inspired anthology series for which the musicians are given complete editorial freedom to choose their own favourite performances for everyone from the novice to informed and passionate fans of the label. By involving the artists in devising the project, each of these anthologies reflects the character of its maker. This is the music they want the listener to hear, and they explain why in their liner notes.
"The music speaks for itself... It was recorded 20-30 years ago and, listening to it recently, the passage of time seemed non-existent." The immensely subtle American-Armenian drummer Paul Motian became a bandleader and a composer with the encouragement of ECM. Here he revisits collaborations with Keith Jarrett and Paul Bley, and showcases his exceptional early trios with Charles Brackeen and the late great bassists David Izenzon and Jean-François Jenny-Clark, as well as his still ongoing group with Joe Lovano and Bill Frisell.
Since 1969, ECM albums have been acclaimed for outstanding music, creative production and exceptional sound quality. Many of the musicians embraced by the :rarum series are amongst the most important improvisers of our era. The richness and diversity of their work on ECM continues to resonate and has changed the way jazz is heard today.
The :rarum series builds into a superlative "library" of jazz on ECM. The first eight :rarum anthologies were released, to international acclaim, in 2002: "It's over 30 years since the first ECM recording was made and under the stewardship of Manfred Eicher's astute musical sensibilities a catalogue of some 800 recordings has accumulated some of the finest jazz recorded during the second half of the 20th century... Selected by the artists themselves, the :rarum series is of enormous importance in revealing the breadth of each artist's work, as much for the converted as the unconverted looking for a window into the remarkable ECM catalogue." - Stuart Nicholson, BBC Music Magazine