00:20 I Wish I Knew 08:50 If I Should Lose You / Late Lament 28:25 Rider 42:20 It’s Easy To Remember 50:10 So Tender 1:02:40 Prism 1:17:18 Stella By Starlight 1:27:50 God Bless The Child 1:44:50 Delaunay’s Dilemma – Koseinenkin Hall, Tokyo, 1985.
Prompted by the previous post, I was reminded of Keith Jarrett (there’s a live recording of him playing Still Life, Still Life, a lovely free-form ballad from 1973 at The Village Vanguard in New York with Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian) so I went searching for concert videos. I couldn’t find Still Life, Still Life but I found two beautiful recordings of the Standards trio. Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette first recorded together in 1977 for an album of compositions by Gary Peacock called Tales Of Another. Six years later they came together again to record a set of “standards”, which proved so successful that the trio went on to make another 21 albums, most of them recorded live in concert at venues all around the world.
00:50 You Don’t Know What Love Is 10:04 With A Song In My Heart 19:30 When You Wish Upon A Star 27:34 All Of You 35:52 Blame It On My Youth 44:37 Love Letters 52:46 Georgia On My Mind 1:00:52 You And The Night And The Music 1:10:47 When I Fall In Love 1:16:32 On Green Dolphin Street 1:24:22 Woody ‘n’ You 1:29:13 Young And Foolish – Hitomi Memorial Hall, Tokyo, 1986.
A live performance by Keith Jarrett can be a wonderful thing. It’s as if he is possessed by the music, he embodies it and needs to be turned inside out to release it. The spectacle is not pretty but totally engaging as he twists and turns to wring out the music, striving to achieve occasional moments of sublime transcendence. In 1996 he developed chronic fatigue syndrome and for two years was unable to play the piano in public. In 1998 he attempted a come-back and set up a concert in Newark, New Jersey, not far from his home. It was an experiment, and 20 years on the result has just been released on CD, and given the circumstances it’s pretty magnificent – After The Fall. There’s a review here.
