Keith Jarrett Yesterday 2009

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.

Mysteries: The Impulse Years 1975-1976 is a four CD collection of the Keith Jarrett albums Mysteries, Shades, Byablue and Bop-Be. The set was released in 1996 by Impulse! Records and in 1997 by Aris / MCA. Previously unreleased alternate takes are present on each disc. The music was performed by Jarrett and his affectionately-titled 'American Quartet', composed of Charlie Haden, Paul Motian, and Dewey Redman. Guilherme Franco contributed additional percussion to Mysteries and Shades.

Mysteries: The Impulse Years 1975-1976 is a four CD collection of the Keith Jarrett albums Mysteries, Shades, Byablue and Bop-Be. The set was released in 1996 by Impulse! Records and in 1997 by Aris / MCA. Previously unreleased alternate takes are present on each disc. The music was performed by Jarrett and his affectionately-titled 'American Quartet', composed of Charlie Haden, Paul Motian, and Dewey Redman. Guilherme Franco contributed additional percussion to Mysteries and Shades.

Mysteries: The Impulse Years 1975-1976 is a four CD collection of the Keith Jarrett albums Mysteries, Shades, Byablue and Bop-Be. The set was released in 1996 by Impulse! Records and in 1997 by Aris / MCA. Previously unreleased alternate takes are present on each disc. The music was performed by Jarrett and his affectionately-titled 'American Quartet', composed of Charlie Haden, Paul Motian, and Dewey Redman. Guilherme Franco contributed additional percussion to Mysteries and Shades.

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).

One of only a handful of Keith Jarrett "Standards" Trio records without a standard within earshot, this is a triumph, for Jarrett has successfully brought the organically evolving patterns of his solo concerts into the group format. Each of the first three selections is built upon a constant revolving ostinato, and each evolves from one stage to the next like a Jarrett solo piano improvisation.

This is the Keith Jarrett Trio's – featuring bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette – elegy for their former employer Miles Davis, recorded only 13 days after the maestro's death. The lonely figure in shadow with a horn on the cover contrasts with the joyous spirit of many of the tracks on this CD, yet there is still a ghostly presence to deal with – and in keeping with Miles' credo, Jarrett's choice of notes is often more purposefully spare than usual. There is symmetry in the organization of the album, with "Bye Bye Blackbird" opening and the trio's equally jaunty "Blackbird, Bye Bye" closing the album, and the interior tracks immediately following the former and preceding the latter are "You Won't Forget Me" and "I Thought About You." The centerpiece of the CD is an 18-and-a-half-minute group improvisation, "For Miles," which after some DeJohnette tumbling around becomes a dirge sometimes reminiscent of Miles' own elegy for Duke Ellington, "He Loved Him Madly." As an immediate response to a traumatic event, Jarrett and his colleagues strike the right emotional balance to create one of their more meaningful albums.