Keith Jarrett Barber Bartok

Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett planned a major engagement with classical music in the early 1980s. His plans were cut short by a skiing accident and later by struggles with chronic fatigue syndrome, but this ECM release, marking Jarrett's 70th birthday and capturing a pair of performances from Saarbrücken, West Germany, and Tokyo in 1984 and 1985, respectively, suggests what might have been. Both performances were rapturously received in countries where audiences tend toward the undemonstrative, and it is not just Jarrett's rock-solid fan base that was responsible. The program itself represents Jarrett's most inspired choice.

Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett planned a major engagement with classical music in the early 1980s. His plans were cut short by a skiing accident and later by struggles with chronic fatigue syndrome, but this ECM release, marking Jarrett's 70th birthday and capturing a pair of performances from Saarbrücken, West Germany, and Tokyo in 1984 and 1985, respectively, suggests what might have been. Both performances were rapturously received in countries where audiences tend toward the undemonstrative, and it is not just Jarrett's rock-solid fan base that was responsible. The program itself represents Jarrett's most inspired choice.

ECM celebrates the occasion of pianist Keith Jarrett's 70th birthday with two simultaneous releases. One is a classical date for its New Series on which he performs piano concertos by Béla Bartók and Samuel Barber with two different orchestras. The other is Creation, a solo piano offering. While Jarrett has made dozens of solo records, this is unlike any in his catalog. Rather than document the unfolding of his in-the-moment ideas through a single performance, this set features nine sections compiled from half-a-dozen performances in four cities and five venues (all notated in the sleeve) during 2014. They have been sequenced and produced by Jarrett as a new, episodic, single work. The brief silences between the sections don't mar the flow; instead, they reveal, time and again, a vast dynamic range, where the moment of inspiration meets the precise moment of articulation in improvisation…

Keith Jarrett - Samuel Barber, Bela Bartok, Keith Jarrett (2015) {ECM New Series 2445}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 278 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 140 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 48 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2015 ECM Records | ECM New Series 2445
Classical / Piano

Never-heard music from the mighty Keith Jarrett – performances recorded in the mid 80s, and featuring Jarrett working in a mix of jazz and classical styles that's pretty darn great! The first piece is Samuel Barber's "Piano Concerto Op 38", performed with the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies – but Jarrett's performance brings an edge and sense of air that recalls some of his own compositions for larger groups from the 70s, especially with Davie at the helm.