What is the best ECM piano album of all time?

The piano is jazz's most versatile instrument, and ECM Records has documented some of its greatest solo and small-group performances. Which ECM piano album is the most essential?

1. 1
   The Köln Concert

   Keith Jarrett's 1975 solo improvisation is the best-selling solo piano album in history — 66 minutes of spontaneous genius, spanning lyricism, gospel, and Romantic classical emotion.
2. 2
   Facing You

   Keith Jarrett's 1971 ECM debut as a solo pianist established the intimate, conversational style that would define his career — spontaneous compositions of delicate structural beauty.
3. 3
   Piano Improvisations Vol. 1

   Chick Corea's 1971 ECM solo piano recording captures him at his most exploratory and searching — freely improvised music of extraordinary harmonic intelligence.
4. 4
   Open, to Love

   Paul Bley's 1972 ECM solo piano album is a hushed, introspective masterpiece — lyrical free improvisation of great emotional depth and ECM's most compelling solo piano recording outside Jarrett.
5. 5
   The Melody at Night, with You

   Keith Jarrett's 1999 ECM album is an intimate collection of standards played with simple, unadorned beauty — recorded during his recovery from chronic fatigue syndrome.
6. 6
   Bremen/Lausanne

   Keith Jarrett's 1973 double live ECM recording captures two European solo concerts of sprawling, rhapsodic beauty that preceded the famous Köln recording.
7. 7
   The Vienna Concert

   Keith Jarrett's 1992 ECM solo concert is among his finest recorded performances — deeply lyrical, structurally ambitious, and featuring some of his most beautiful melodic invention.
8. 8
   Trance

   Steve Kuhn's 1974 ECM quartet album features his crystalline, impressionistic piano style in a format that bridges post-bop and the ECM aesthetic with quiet authority.
9. 9
   The Ground

   Tord Gustavsen Trio's 2004 ECM debut is a hushed, meditative gem — the Norwegian pianist's intimate touch and spacious trio sound made it one of the label's best-selling modern records.
10. 10
    Amaryllis

    Marilyn Crispell's 2001 ECM solo piano album is a quietly intense free improvisation recording — lyrical and searching, from one of the instrument's finest contemporary voices.
11. 11
    Standards Vol. 1

    The Keith Jarrett Trio's 1983 ECM debut introduced their definitive trio sound — reverent yet adventurous treatment of jazz standards with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette.
12. 12
    Accelerando

    Vijay Iyer Trio's 2012 ECM debut is a kinetic, polyrhythmic statement — dense, intellectually rigorous piano jazz that brought a fresh compositional voice to the ECM aesthetic.