Given Keith Jarrett’s current disability, this new ECM recording is an unexpected gift to his fans.
ECM
Jazz Album Review: Enrico Rava and Fred Hersch’s Winning “The Song Is You” — Suffused With Tact and Grace
The sound of both musicians is indelible: trumpeter Enrico Rava is warm and rounded; pianist Fred Hersch, often icy, is fetching and detailed.
Jazz Album Review: Barre Phillips and György Kurtág Jr. Go “Face à Face”
To my ears, these beautifully recorded improvisations — with their unique sequences of tones and subtle interactions — are never less than intriguing.
Jazz Album Review: Avishai Cohen’s “Naked Truth” — Meditating on the Last Things
To this listener, the quartet generates a drama of gradual enlightenment, as if extroversion signified some sort of illumination.
Jazz Album Reviews: Andrew Cyrille and Amir ElSaffar — Two Restless Spirits
It might seem a stretch to pair drummer Andrew Cyrille’s disc with composer/trumpeter Amir ElSaffar’s. But both spent time under the tutelage of the redoubtable Cecil Taylor, and it shows.
Jazz Album Reviews: James Brandon Lewis and Vijay Iyer — Discoveries and Searches
New discs from James Brandon Lewis and Vijay Iyer merit serious attention from admirers of improvised music.
Arts Remembrance: At 40, Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays’s “As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls” Still Enthralls
Nothing that guitarist Pat Metheny had done previously hinted at this sprawling 1981 masterpiece.
Jazz Album Review: Nik Bärtsch’s “Entendre” — Zen Funk
To my ears, the pieces in Entendre are fascinating, if not particularly funky.
Jazz Album Review: “Garden of Expression” — Virtuosic Meditations
It’s easy to single out each of these musicians, but listeners will hear the three as nearly one, which is surely what this trinity intended.
Jazz Album Review: Keith Jarrett’s “Budapest Concert” — Crystalline Endgame
My guess is that Keith Jarrett probably wasn’t satisfied with this performance. I wouldn’t change a note, a gesture, or a shading.