Manfred Eicher in Conversation With Gary Giddins: Nov. 19 at CUNY

By Evan Haga
On Thursday, Nov. 19, the Graduate Center at the City University of New York (CUNY) will present a rare conversation with Manfred Eicher, the ECM Records founder and producer whose label has released some of the most important jazz, experimental, world and contemporary classical recordings of the last 40 years. Interviewing Eicher will be the award-winning critic and author Gary Giddins (whose Jazz, a new, definitive history written in collaboration with Scott DeVeaux, is available now).

This is reportedly only the second time the label head has given a live interview with an audience in the U.S., and Giddins plans to lead a comprehensive chat covering Eicher's lengthy career. “We’re going to talk about the whole range, how he got started and how he continues when everybody else does not,” said Giddins, who also marveled at Eicher’s reputation for overseeing the entire record-making process: “Apparently he’s the most hands-on guy in the [business].”


The CUNY event, part of the Jazz Legends & Legacies series, promises to be an engaging dialogue with the architect of one of jazz’s most enduring brands. "It's a pretty big deal," said Giddins. "People are curious about him." Details are below:
Thursday, Nov. 19, 6:30 p.m.
Proshansky Auditorium
The Graduate Center, CUNY 365 Fifth Ave (at 34th St)
For an interview with Eicher by Steve Lake, excerpted from the 2007 Granta book Horizons Touched: The Music of ECM, click here. To read Gary Giddins’ JazzTimes Cadenza columns, go here; Giddins' official Web space is http://www.garygiddins.com/.
http://jazztimes.com/sections/news/articles/25322-manfred-eicher-in-conversation-with-gary-giddins-nov-19-at-cuny