Keith Jarrett Bordeaux Concert (2022)

Pianist Keith Jarrett suffered a massive stroke in February 2018, leaving him unable to play the piano. This date, recorded at Auditorium de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux on July 6, 2016, is his final French concert. It is the second release from his last European tour, following Munich 2016 (released in 2019) and The Budapest Concert (2020). All three showcase the improvising musician at a creative peak. The performance has been divided into 13 sections with natural breaks. "I" commences with an abrupt phrase that fades behind pedaled low notes. Jarrett is assertive, playing percussively distinct yet rapid single notes and shapes, while establishing a circular rhythm.

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.

El Juicio (The Judgement) is an album by pianist Keith Jarrett recorded in 1971 and released in 1975. On four days in July and one in August 1971, Jarrett went into the Atlantic Recording Studios with his trio (Charlie Haden and Paul Motian), plus Dewey Redman on tenor saxophone, and produced enough music for three albums: The Mourning of a Star (released in 1971), El Juicio (The Judgement) and Birth (released in 1972). Accordingly, the 1971 sessions mark the emergence of what would be later called Jarrett's "American quartet."

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.

El Juicio (The Judgement) is an album by pianist Keith Jarrett recorded in 1971 and released in 1975. On four days in July and one in August 1971, Jarrett went into the Atlantic Recording Studios with his trio (Charlie Haden and Paul Motian), plus Dewey Redman on tenor saxophone, and produced enough music for three albums: The Mourning of a Star (released in 1971), El Juicio (The Judgement) and Birth (released in 1972). Accordingly, the 1971 sessions mark the emergence of what would be later called Jarrett's "American quartet."