Jarrett's more recent approach to improvisation takes a fairly strong departure from his past, making the listening an adventure of a different sort. Instead of attempting to "connect the dots" between segments, shorter forms are developed by allowing "the idea" to take its course. When it's done, Jarrett stops. He describes this as "...the freedom to stop when stopping seems correct." It might be a cliche, but "less is more" is certainly an apt description here. A delicious new tension is added to each piece as the listener begins to wonder, "Is that it? No wait... "
Following the suite of 10 improvised pieces (varying in length from a little over three minutes to as much as the opening track's 9:18), Jarrett comes back for five passionately received encores: the impressionistic "The Good America," the sincere "Paint My Heart Red," the bluesy "True Blues," the reworked "My Song," and the closing standard "Time On My Hands" are all followed by insanely enthusiastic audience explosions that wouldn't be out of place on a live rock album.
So do Keith Jarrett and the late Jim Morrison share some common ground. Yes. Both men took music and, more basically, expression and pushed their accepted boundaries. Listen to what happens when Jarrett follows the creative impulse with abandon. The spirit of the music is a powerful thing.
Article comments
1 - Mary K. Williams
Moaning? Is that a bad thing? ; )~
2 - Mark Saleski
tsk, tsk.
3 - Pico
Honestly, when was the last time KJ put out a bad album? I can't remember.
And no, I don't mind the la-la-la's. Just one listen to the full fledged singing on Restoration Ruin can make one more tolerant of it. OK, that was a bad album.
-P
4 - Mark Saleski
woa.....i've never heard that record....so i went to listen to some samples (****shudder****).
sounds like a bad 70's soundtrack.
5 - Pico
It was his 1968 stab at folk-rock (he wrote the songs played all the instruments, too). Thankfully, he afterwards went back to jazz and never looked back!
-P
6 - Stephen V Funk
I must confess I'm a bit mystified by all the pre- and post-release hype surrounding this CD. I mean, it's certainly good. Just about everything Keith does is worth hearing (though I haven't had the pleasure of listening to "Restoration Ruin" yet...)
But The Carnegie Hall Concert isn't that different from his solo piano Radiance CD (and the Tokyo Concert DVD.) And frankly, his new approach to dividing up his improvisations into "sections" isn't nearly as impressive or exciting as his "Koln Concert"-style epics. And -- to be honest -- I always end up hitting the Fast Forward button during those "Cecil Taylor-lite" dissonant jams that Keith seems to enjoy flexing his fingers with these days.
Maybe the audience sounds so riotous because it's so rare to be able to see Jarrett play solo these days and they're really glad to just be there in the same room with him (incidentally -- have you ever heard audience applause on a CD as gratuitously loud and extended as it is on this one?)
So anyway... yeah, it's good. But not "another Koln Concert," as ECM has been more-or-less advertising.
7 - Hugo
Soy un periodista venezolano, y un amante del jazz. Para mi las interpretaciones de Keith Jarrett fueron un hermoso descubrimiento. The Koln Concert,fue mi ticket de entrada y a partir de ahí me di cuenta de que este pianista era uno en un millon. Su capacidad de improvisar respaldada por una solida formación musical y un dominio pleno del piano, colocan a Jarret como algo excepcional. Jazzistas que improvisan en el jazz, los hay y los ha habido - algunos muy buenos-, pero Jarret esta fuera de lote. Es el mejor.
8 - Peter
Those 'Cecil Taylor' bits are the parts WORTH waiting for...listen carefully, the beauty within them trancends Jarrett's often easier resolutions.
9 - Eugene
I'd recommend just listening to Cecil Taylor. Try "Air Above Mountains".