did we ever have a Keith Jarrett thread?

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i remember stevo recommending me the koln concert, which i downloaded of AG and liked, although i wasn't too keen on the weird mumbling he was doing that sounded like when someone is on the train and they have their walkman on and they forget they're in a public space and they are start half-singing half-humming something thats, like, not even in key and probably only has the slightest resemblence to whatevers is on the actual walkman and then, actually, if you start to think of it like that, is keith jarrett sort of like linda mccartney in wings and some joker will separate the music out from the vox and put the vox over some big beat meets plunderphonics (oh no, sorry, wait!) - bootleg thing and we'll all laugh and stuff

so, is the other stuff like the koln concert, and when is the koln concert from, and does he alwyas mumble?

― gareth, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

< ILM cliche > i prefer the mumbling to the piano stuff < /ILM cliche >

― mark s, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, there's a Jarrett thread knocking abt somewhere or other...

He pretty much always mumbles - I like yr idea of a 'Having Fun With Keith on stage' type alb, collecting the best of his moans and groans. Personally I enjoy this kind of 'estatic' murmuring - it sorta undermines Jarrett's anal perfectionist reputation, makes him seem more human (even if KJ probably does it partly as a tribute to Glenn Gould)...

'The Koln Concert' is from 75 - KJ was famously stuck with a dodgy piano on the night, but that's partly what gives the rec some of the tension that's missing from a lot of his other solo improvised albs (there are loads of them btw, Gareth - inc. the 10 alb set 'The Sun Bear Concerts'!)

― Andrew L, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

The ten records of the Sun Bear Concerts recorded in Japan (in 1976 I guess) have always been my holy Jarrett grail. His mumbling gets very orgiastic and animal-like there whenever he comes close to one of the ecstatic melodic interludes. Sapporo used to be my favourite, probably the easiest of the five concerts. Jarrett is improvising solo piano like in the Köln concert but the music is much less listener friendly. Quite difficult to digest in places. There are long cacophonic free-jazz like parts which usually meld into a tuneful climax, a sort of heaven after the hell leading to it. In my late teens I listened to this music when writing philosophical letters. It always inspired my writing a lot.

― alex in mainhattan, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

we've had 2 or 3 kj threads i think. try vienna, which is dark and beautiful; also the sun bear stuff is grate, although i've not given it as much of a listen as i'd like to.

― toby, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Someone posted to the ECM mailing list a while ago imagining the audience at a Jarrett concert stopping him in mid-flow and telling him off for making a noise and interrupting the Music (this is the sort of thing he's prone to doing to audience members who cough or scratch their noses while he's in flight).

I like "Solo Concerts" which is a double CD recorded in Bremen and Lausanne a year or two before the Koln one. You can't really escape the grunting, though on the recent "Inside Out" it's less obtrusive than before.

― Andrew Norman, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I second the Solo Concerts rec, that's the equal of Koln Concert.

Lots of cheap vinyl copies of Jarrett floating around, too (I suppose because he was such a top-selling jazz artist, and most of the people who bought his stuff embraced CDs completely). I got a pristine Solo concerts vinyl, 3 discs in a box, for $3.

I mentioned this on at least one other Jarrett thread, but if you enjoy Koln you really should check out the "version" of the record done by Adam Butler, a/k/a Vert, called Koln Konzert, on Sonig. He electronically manipulates the original record, to (I think) sublime result.

― Mark, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

By the way I think that the recordings of the Jarrett quartet with Haden on bass, Motian on drums and Redman on sax in the 70s were very good. I much prefer them to the jazz classics interpretations of the trio with Peacock and deJohnette of the last 15 years which I always found a tad boring. Fort Yawuh, Shades, Byablue and Eyes of the Heart are the albums I remember being nice. Very organic with some world music touch and quite dynamic. Less world and less chamber jazz than Oregon though. My favourite record with Garbarek's tenor sax is Personal Mountains, a live album from 1974 which was released only in the 80s. Though Nude Ants is ace as well.

― alex in mainhattan, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

He has never recorded a duet with Sophie Ellix-Bextor and is thus rendered worthless.

― Sophie #1 Phan, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

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