Is Keith Jarrett in your collection?

A lot of Keith is... solo, trio, quartets, you name it. My favourite jazz pianist.

 

Yes, I have quite a good amount of Keith Jarrett albums. His Standards trio is excellent.

 

I've got to profoundly disagree with this. His solo piano outings are genre-bending masterpieces of improvisation. In fact, I'll stake my money on him being the greatest improviser alive and arguablly of all time.

As for his "standards"... he injected life and creativity into the whole song-book. N0t everything has to be 'modernist', or 'abstract' to leave a mark. You listen to "On Green Dolphin Street", "How Deep the Ocean", or "Days of Wine and Roses" from the Blue Note 94 Box Set and tell me he's derivative. Nope. More like lyrical genius.

As for his own compositions... no slouch at all. Just listen to "The Survivor Suite", or "My Song" etc.... incredible stuff. Sure I'm a big fan, but you are selling Keith WAY short.

 

I have everything he did with Miles, but the only Jarrett album I own is Koln, which I picked up used a year or two ago, played a couple of times, then filed. This thread has piqued my interest. I should play Koln again and perhaps get a few of the albums recommended here.

 

Kold was among the first "jazz" recordings I got (though I don't really consider it jazz. Also saw him do solo shows live twice. These days I prefer a lot of his stuff with Miles Davis.

 

Never ever heard of him and I probably wouldn't had I not read the thread

 

I have a few albums, but need to be in the mood as I find his vocalizations a bit off putting at times.

 

I don't disagree, but Bach was also a great improviser by all accounts and that doesn't make him a Jazz artist.

Well, you say that, but it is derivative ... derivative of Bill Evans. And the whole song-book didn't need life & creativity breathed into it because it never died or became sterile.

Okay, but The Survivor Suite and My Song go back to the 1970s, which is when I said he last contributed to the advance of Jazz. The European Quartet was the last thing he did in the Jazz idiom that was anything other than deeply conservative. The Melody At Night, With You is a great album but astonishingly retro.

I think that maybe you're hearing me say that Keith Jarrett isn't a leading Jazz artist and thinking that I'm being condescending to him but he's a broad cross-genre artist like another of my personal pantheon, John Zorn (who I actually think has probably contributed more to Jazz than Jarrett but who is certainly not a pure 'Jazz' figure).

 

When you look at releases like his ALL improv trio releases from the past decade (e.g., Always Let Me Go)... I think he is still trying 'new things'. We can debate the success, but I'm not willing to accept he's just settled in.

As for "The Melody At Night With You"... a stripped down album... but that's what recovering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome will do to you. It's somewhat a miracle anything was released at all at that point.

Anyway, no point really debating this. All I know is when I put on a Keith album... even without out the vocalization... he has an instantly recognizable voice/style. While it is indebted to Evans (and others), I have no difficulty picking out his lyrical runs as being his and his alone. It's also a voice I happen to love. As a musician in an idiom like jazz, to speak in one's own voice... while still respecting and building upon what came before... that's all one can ask for (IMHO).

But in the long run, as long as we all enjoy what's coming out of our speakers, that's what is most important.

 

If he is, he's going to be sorry when I get home and let the dog in.

 

I got the Koln Concert by accident. I was a young kid with a Columbia Record Club membership & it was one of the Selections of the Month. And, as was pretty typical for me, I had neglected to send in the refusal card on time & Koln was shipped to me. And I took to it.

For about thirty years it was the only Jarrett I owned. Then, on a lark, I got the Sun Bear Box. Koln, to me, sounds like a pop album with only one instrument. The melodies are so catchy & they repeat often enough to sink in. The Sun Bear stuff is a bit overwhelming. There is some material that is similar to Koln and much of it that is extended dissonant noodling to my ears. Clearly, your mileage may vary. I haven't given up on Sun Bear and, occasionally, will pull it off the shelf, but none of the various shows have grabbed me in the way that Koln has.

 

Just an observation from looking at his discography but when was the last time he worked with anything other than bass and drums?

 

But of course. He's my God when it comes to piano. I have all of his works... even those I will never listen to. Solo concerts get rotated on a costant basis. Cologne, Bremen, Lausanne, Sunbear Concerts, Bregenz, Munich, Paris, Rio, and, the most amazing of 'em all - Vienna.

 

try Bremen Lausanne concerts. Lots of great hooks and jams there as well.

 

I've got that multi-disc Impulse set that comes in a regular fatboy jewel case.
I love 'Death of a Flower,' and 'Treasure Island.'
That's some really wild stuff to listen to-----especially with the lights out.

 

In terms of working with other jazz musicians in something other than a piano trio, or piano/bass duo, it's been a very long time. 36 years I think.

Why the Trio and standards?

http://downbeat.com/microsites/ecm-jarrett/post_12-why-play-standards.html

But his trio with Peacock and Dejohnette is now disbanded, so there may be the possibility of some new configurations. It's probably a long shot though.

 

No

 

I bought the Koln Concert album when it was released in 1975 and I have been buying
Keith Jarrett albums ever since. Last year I attended my first Keith Jarrett
concert, a solo performance at Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto. The first track
from his newest CD, Creation, was recorded at that concert, which I think is
kind of cool.

 

I have over 100 albums by him, including his Charles Lloyd, Art Blakey and Miles Davis sideman dates, his pre-Impulse quartet music, his Impulse quartet music, his Norwegian quartet music, a lot of solo piano, a lot of Standards Trio, and some other settings. He is an important and beautiful artist, I think.

I have had only one chance to see him live, in 1977 at the Milwaukee Performing Arts Center, with his Norwegian quartet. It was a memorable concert.

 

Huh. Hadn't heard about that somehow, but looking at this site I guess it's true.

 

I had some of the solo work, but sold it off over the years and never replaced it. Deliberately. Do have the Miles recordings and a Charles Lloyd.

 

Lots of albums of his "standards" trio, and a few solo, mostly in vinyl

 

Interesting comment from him:

“I don’t have a trio now so… all I know is that I’m not going to look for other guys who I would need 30 years to get as good as we got, that’s the biggest problem of all. How much rapport and understanding we had, it’s unmatched anywhere I think.”

But whoever you wanted to play with (and you would have thought that a musician's natural curiosity would have been to think "what would me and x,y, or z sound like") might never have been as "good" but it would be different.

That's kinda what I was driving at with my question - he seems to have settled into a groove a long while back which stopped him being curious about other formations.

I know at that age you don't have to prove anything but if you compare him to someone like Roscoe Mitchell - or even Marshall Allen now a sprightly 91 and leading a new quartet - Jarrett comes across as playing it a bit safe.

Maybe that fussiness that he has about acoustics is also behind not wanting to appear anything other than perfect.

 

I've a few CDs.

Here's a combination of one of my favourite jazz pianists and a song written by a couple of my favourite song writers Fran Landesman & Tommy Wolf.

I uploaded this off one of my CDs I've had for a long time, to YouTube, but if you're in the UK it won't play for you. He gets the emotion across well. I never get tired of playing it.

 

Yep in fact I have too many of his discs.