Germany has lengthy been a contented searching floor for Keith Jarrett. It was there the place he recorded his hottest album, The Köln Live performance, in 1975, which established the then 29-year-old Pennsylvanian pianist as one in every of up to date jazz’s main lights. And, in fact, Germany – extra particularly, Munich – is the house of the ECM document label, for whom Jarrett is a talismanic determine and has loved a fruitful 48-year affiliation. It’s becoming, then, that the piano maestro’s newest opus, a dwell double-album referred to as Munich 2016, captures him performing in ECM’s hometown – and much more apt that the efficiency’s launch coincides with the label’s Fiftieth-anniversary celebrations.
A cultural phenomenon
Earlier than Keith Jarrett got here alongside, solo piano albums – particularly dwell ones – within the jazz world had been few and much between. He recorded his first, a studio album referred to as Going through You, for ECM in November 1971, nevertheless it was three years later when the label launched a recording of Jarrett performing alone on stage (Solo Live shows: Bremen/Lausanne). The pianist’s distinctive capacity within the artwork of extemporization led ECM to additional seize him in live performance, ensuing within the sensational The Köln Live performance. Someway, that album struck a chord with the general public and have become a cultural phenomenon. It went on to promote over three million copies, thrusting each Jarrett and ECM’s names into the music mainstream.
Although, in industrial phrases, Jarrett hasn’t been capable of replicate The Köln Live performance’s success, lots of his subsequent dwell albums – specifically Solar Bear Live shows, Multitude Of Angels and La Fenice – have all proved to be musical triumphs which have enhanced the pianist’s fame as a grasp of spontaneous composition. Now, the magnificent Munich 2016 could be added to that listing.
Music flows in a stream of consciousness
The start line for each Jarrett solo recital is the musical equal of a clean canvas. There is no such thing as a preparation, no forethought, no planning. Creation begins the second he sits on the piano and begins shifting his fingers, permitting the music to circulate out of him in a stream of consciousness.
And so it’s with Munich 2016, a collection of 12 improvisations recorded on the night of Saturday, July 16, 2016. “Part I” is fiercely virtuosic. It begins with dissonant notes that are woven right into a frenetic tapestry brimming with power. Using a maelstrom of thundering polyrhythms, Jarrett maintains a fever-pitch depth for a full, breathtaking 16 minutes.
“Part II,” against this, is extra measured: a stark however stately meditation with shades of Twentieth-century European composers Shostakovich and Hindemith in its musical DNA. It’s characterised by an inherent rigidity and sense of suspense, which dissolves after we hear “Part III,” a mild pastoral ballad flecked with bittersweet gospel inflections (we additionally hear Jarrett, as is his behavior, singing out the melody as he performs).
On the peak of his powers
“Part IV” chugs alongside because of locomotive ostinato left-hand rhythms with a touch of the blues, whereas on “Part V” the temper softens. Jarrett has arrived at a sweeter place, the place his music is extra lyrical and flows with delicate right-hand pianissimos.
From the celestial sunshine of “Part V,” “Part VI” begins with lengthy, warbling right-hand tremolos. The piece, although barely subdued, is a shimmering reverie, rising tenser because it progresses. “Part VII” is febrile by comparability: a brief, abruptly-ending research in perpetual movement the place there’s a contrapuntal dialog between the pianist’s left and proper fingers.
The music is extra relaxed on “Part VIII,” a ruminative nocturne on which Jarrett shows a supremely delicate contact and exhibits his sensitivity as a musician.
“Part VIX,” with its rolling left-hand, quasi boogie-woogie accompaniment, is down-to-earth and steeped within the blues, although the longer “Part X,” is extra ethereal by comparability and has an explorative high quality.
“Part XI” is a slow-moving melodic meditation full of wealthy harmonic element. Its rhythmic gracefulness offers method to the extra playful and technically-demanding “Part XII,” a scherzo-like piece outlined by speedy patterns of notes and which ends as dramatically because it started.
A transcendent excessive
Jarrett’s encore sees him return to older, extra acquainted music and finds him freshening up, in his personal inimitable manner, a trio of well-worn jazz requirements. The wistful “Answer Me My Love” is superbly rendered; beautiful, too, is “It’s A Lonesome Old Town,” although the efficiency is darker and extra melancholic. A touching rendition of Harold Arlen’s immortal “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” concludes the Munich live performance on a transcendent excessive.
No single Keith Jarrett dwell album is identical, however they’re all particular. As Munich 2016 so clearly exhibits, each one of many pianist’s solo concert events is a novel, never-to-be-repeated efficiency. The viewers by no means is aware of what it’s going to listen to. There may be, nevertheless, all the time one certainty: they’ll get to witness a grasp musician on the peak of his powers. And that’s what Munich 2016 ensures. As immersive live performance experiences go, it’s proper up there with The Köln Live performance.
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