It doesn’t hamper every track or every moment of the afflicted tracks, but it requires fair warning. Maybe because of the studio miking setup, it’s more distracting than usual when it occurs. Praise dispatched, I now must issue a warning: Jarrett’s nasally vocal accompaniment is on display. Jarrett’s slick original “So Tender” matches the feel of the standards and the playing is again excellent. Jarrett’s long-lined solo in “In Love In Vain” betrays a need to play standards, not just a desire, and joy bursts out of the midtempo “If I Should Lose You” where even Gary lets out a whoop. Volume 2 is an even stronger selection, including wonderful versions of “Moon and Sand” and “Never Let Me Go”. The extended “God Bless the Child” rides a slow backbeat that connects to Jarrett’s gospel-funk of the preceding decade. Volume 1 boasts a moody “Meaning of the Blues” and a quiet look at “It Never Entered My Mind”. Apart from some walking bass lines, pulse is mostly implied instead of explicitly marked, and the level of rhythmic trust is high.īecause it’s a studio session, it has a more insular feel than the many live albums to follow, basically an eloquent discussion amongst the players. Gary Peacock updates the Scott LaFaro style of contrapuntal bass, and Jack DeJohnette drums exquisitely, especially when using brushes. Jarrett is melodically effusive as always and he incorporates a lot of bop twists into his vocabulary. Their pent-up traditional feeling is so sophisticated that one could imagine them secretly having been playing standards together for five years. These two volumes emerged from the same session, and it’s amazing that the trio could sound so advanced right off the bat. They’ve never made a bad album, but some are more desirable and/or unique than others. However, as their catalog has continued to swell, I’ve grown more discerning about what’s a great title and what isn’t. I still think of them as the “Standards” trio, though, as they’ve never abandoned the old songbooks.Ī few years ago, I used to be so gung-ho about this group that every album seemed essential. More and more free playing creeps into their albums over the years, sometimes in tune-related vamps, sometimes in stand-alone spontaneous creations. Following on from that, the setlists are also constructed in real time. Arrangements can be possessive of course - “This is how we play this tune, this is what we do with that one” - so they let each song begin, develop, and end as it may. Apart from a couple of studio visits, the trio has mostly worked live, and significantly, they don’t use arrangements. Jarrett’s aim was to reconnect with the “tribal language” of jazz and to investigate the “non-possessive” side of music making. They first played together on Peacock’s 1977 album Tales of Another, and a few years later, Jarrett recruited the other two for a standards session, a surprising move given the propensity of all three for playing new music. Keith Jarrett on piano, Gary Peacock on bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums have been one of the longest running jazz groups ever.
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