Keith+jarrett+tokyo

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.

The double album Sleeper contains a previously unreleased live concert by Keith Jarrett's European quartet from the '70s, recorded at Tokyo's Nakano Sun Plaza on April 16, 1979. Together with saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Palle Danielsson, and drummer Jon Christensen, Jarrett performs seven of his own compositions: "Personal Mountains," "Innocence," "So Tender," "Oasis," "Chant of the Soil," "Prism," and "New Dance" the latter song being the shortest here at seven minutes, while "Oasis" clocks in at over 28 minutes!

The double album Sleeper contains a previously unreleased live concert by Keith Jarrett's European quartet from the '70s, recorded at Tokyo's Nakano Sun Plaza on April 16, 1979. Together with saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Palle Danielsson, and drummer Jon Christensen, Jarrett performs seven of his own compositions: "Personal Mountains," "Innocence," "So Tender," "Oasis," "Chant of the Soil," "Prism," and "New Dance" the latter song being the shortest here at seven minutes, while "Oasis" clocks in at over 28 minutes!

Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American jazz and classical music pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has also been a group leader and a solo performer in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music. His improvisations draw from the traditions of jazz and other genres, especially Western classical music, gospel, blues, and ethnic folk music. In 2003, Jarrett received the Polar Music Prize, the first recipient of both the contemporary and classical musician prizes, and in 2004 he received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize. His album, The Köln Concert, released in 1975, became the best-selling piano recording in history. In 2008, he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in the magazine's 73rd Annual Readers' Poll.

This compilation is 3 plus hours of stuff (42 tracks), and all in good quality, chosen from his ECM career back to the mid-70s. I would call it the "highly accessible Jarrett" as it does not include any of the thorniest stuff from the solo concerts. It's mostly the Trio, the European quartet, and some encore "blues" excerpts from the solo concerts.

This compilation is 3 plus hours of stuff (42 tracks), and all in good quality, chosen from his ECM career back to the mid-70s. I would call it the "highly accessible Jarrett" as it does not include any of the thorniest stuff from the solo concerts. It's mostly the Trio, the European quartet, and some encore "blues" excerpts from the solo concerts.

Recorded live in Tokyo in April 2001, Always Let Me Go is Keith Jarrett's 149th concert in Japan. Joined by his long-standing partners Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette, these performances are playful, explosive, somber, and completely improvised. After 20 years of working together, they trust each other (and the audience) enough to deliver over two hours of unscripted music. DeJohnette prowls through his drums like a restless cougar: he chatters, scuffles, and pounces on the skins with agility. Likewise, Peacock spoons out a concrete foundation of bass; one that bubbles as it spreads through the cracks in Jarrett's 88 keys (which serve the pianist so very well).