Bill Connors: Of Mist And Melting (LP Luminessence Series)

"A subtle masterpiece" - with these words Billboard praised the album "Of Mist And Melting" by guitarist Bill Connors on its release in 1978; and listening to this music again decades later only confirms that something special was indeed going on when the Manfred Eicher-produced session with Jan Garbarek, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette and Connors took place at Talent Studio in Oslo in December 1977. After a period of electric guitar fireworks in various fusion contexts in the 70s, Connors returned to his acoustic roots with ECM, revealing a chamber music dynamic carried by subtle acrobatic interludes on the nylon string guitar. In a thoughtful and captivating interplay with a group that in retrospect can be regarded as an improvising "supergroup", the guitarist presents six original compositions that combine the lyrically concrete with far-reaching, open explorations - or as Jazz Journal put it a few years later: "Rarely have elements of 'hot' and 'cool' jazz combined so impressively." Listening to the album in 2025, Connors himself seemed amazed at how much he had devoted himself to classical guitar during his five-year collaboration with Manfred Eicher for ECM. "It made me nostalgic for that time. I had forgotten how much time I had devoted to playing that kind of guitar," Bill recalled, almost surprised by what he heard on his own recording. "Sometimes it seemed like, even though it wasn't what Manfred had expected, it was exactly the album we both wanted."