Favorite Keith Jarrett solo album?

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A.S.

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Which is your favorite Keith Jarrett solo album?


Or do you all think that the Köln concert is the one that he will never better?
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The concert was organized by 17-year-old Vera Brandes, then Germany’s youngest concert promoter.[5] At Jarrett's request, Brandes had selected a Bösendorfer 290 Imperial concert grand piano for the performance. However, there was some confusion by the opera house staff and instead they found another Bösendorfer piano backstage – a much smaller baby grand – and, assuming it was the one requested, placed it on the stage. Unfortunately, the error was discovered too late for the correct Bösendorfer to be delivered to the venue in time for the evening's concert. The piano they had was intended for rehearsals only and was in poor condition and required several hours of tuning and adjusting to make it playable.[6] The instrument was tinny and thin in the upper registers and weak in the bass register, and the pedals did not work properly. Consequently, Jarrett often used ostinatos and rolling left-hand rhythmic figures during his Köln performance to give the effect of stronger bass notes, and concentrated his playing in the middle portion of the keyboard. ECM Records producer Manfred Eicher later said: "Probably [Jarrett] played it the way he did because it was not a good piano. Because he could not fall in love with the sound of it, he found another way to get the most out of it."[citation needed]


Jarrett arrived at the opera house late in the afternoon and tired after an exhausting long drive from Zurich, Switzerland, where he had performed a few days earlier. He had not slept well in several nights and was in pain from back problems and had to wear a brace. After trying out the substandard piano and learning a replacement instrument was not available, Jarrett nearly refused to play and Brandes had to convince him to perform as the concert was scheduled to begin in just a few hours.[4] The concert took place at the unusually late hour of 11:30, following an earlier opera performance. This late-night time slot was the only one the administration would make available to Brandes for a jazz concert – the first ever at the Köln Opera House. The show was completely sold out and the venue was filled to capacity with over 1,400 people at a ticket price of 4 DM ($1.72). Despite the obstacles, Jarrett's performance was enthusiastically received by the audience and the subsequent recording was acclaimed by critics. It remains his most popular recording and continues to sell well more than 35 years after its initial release.


The performance was recorded by ECM Records engineer Martin Wieland, using a pair of Neumann U-67 vacuum-tube powered condenser microphones and a Telefunken M-5 portable tape machine. The recording is in three parts: lasting about 26 minutes, 34 minutes and 7 minutes respectively. As it was originally programmed for vinyl LP, the second part was split into sections labelled "IIa" and "IIb". The third part, labelled "IIc", was actually the final piece, a separate encore.


A notable aspect of the concert was Jarrett's ability to produce very extensive improvised material over a vamp of one or two chords for prolonged periods of time. For instance, in Part I, he spends almost 12 minutes vamping over the chords Am7 (A minor 7) to G major, sometimes in a slow, rubato feel, and other times in a bluesy, gospel rock feel. For about the last 6 minutes of Part I, he vamps over an A major theme. Roughly the first 8 minutes of Part II A is a vamp over a D major groove with a repeated bass vamp in the left hand, and in Part IIb, Jarrett improvises over an F# minor vamp for about the first 6 minutes.


Subsequent to the release of The Köln Concert, Jarrett was asked by pianists, musicologists and others, to publish the music. For years he resisted such requests since, as he said, the music played was improvised "on a certain night and should go as quickly as it comes."[7] In 1990, Jarrett finally agreed on publishing an authorized transcription but with the recommendation that every pianist intending to play the piece should use the recording itself as the final word. A new interpretation of The Köln Concert was published in 2006 by Polish pianist Tomasz Trzcinski on his album Blue Mountains.[8] A transcription for classical guitar has also been published by Manuel Barrueco.
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I used to listen to Keith a lot but it got to the point where all I could hear was his whiny, nasally, noises. It drove me nuts and I just basically stopped listening to his music. I'll have to go back and start again since I do love some of his music.

This is my favorite:

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A.S.: that is my favorite.

Doug: too funny and I agree. In fact, I told a buddy of mine, after first listening to the Koln concert, that there was a really annoying guy in the audience that took away from the piano playing. He laughed at me and told me, of course, that that was what Jarrett did on a regular basis. Lol! I felt like a total noob.
 
mdkim said:
A.S.: that is my favorite.

Doug: too funny and I agree. In fact, I told a buddy of mine, after first listening to the Koln concert, that there was a really annoying guy in the audience that took away from the piano playing. He laughed at me and told me, of course, that that was what Jarrett did on a regular basis. Lol! I felt like a total noob.
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A really annoying guy in the audience. That's funny! Great story Michael. :)
 
I have actually never watched or attended one of the solo concerts, but have listened to most of them. Having watched this one last night. I must confess that I prefer just listening and not seeing Keith, I think that had I been at the concert I would probably have closed my eyes. Sounds better to me that way.
 
I think at some time the Internet hosted a Photoshop-generated picture of a "Jarrett Noise Remover", with special tunable filters for moans, yelps and gushes. OK he's a genius, but next time just use tape or a gaggle!
 
Oh you mean the Glenn Gould De-Vocalizer 2000 with the new Keith Jarrett Module. :lol:
The Glenn Gould De-Vocalizer 2000

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Coming in 2005! The often-requested, long-awaited Keith Jarrett module. Tuned to only remove Keith Jarrett's grunts, yelps, and squeaks, the Keith Jarrett module is a must for any serious audiophile. Now taking pre-orders for only $999.99!
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BTW my favorite would be Dark Intervals (ECM).

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I don't have any Keith Jarrett albums but I might be buying 22 used lp's of his soon. Quite the coincidence!
 
Why surprised? That I don't have any of his albums or that I am interested in getting some? ;)

I am a noob to jazz but from what I have heard of the Keith Jarrett trio I like. Actually I closed the deal on 22 of his albums along with 52 other assorted jazz albums that I bought through CAM. It should be a nice introduction to me of more artists, though I do have some CD's by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and so on. I also like the Jazziz sampler CD's that came with the magazine.
 
...That you have none yet.

And most Keith Jarrett's albums are on the ECM record label; very good quality hi-fi sound from top studio recording engineers.
And the music of course; the other musicians with who he's playing, the peace, the relaxation, the ease, the unison, ...everything.

The guy himself? Who cares. ...The music, ahhhhhhhhh. :)

* Do you like Van Morrison? ...Not the guy, but his poetry, his melodies, his art of expression, his voice. ...His ♪♪
 
Howdy Bob! :hi:

As a J.S. Bach fan I really enjoy the Paris concert for its depth and dark richness.



And IMO the Sun Bear concerts are absolutely stunning and a direct time window to the 70's when art was young and lost, more of a concept instead of a tradition.

 
A must watch interview with the boss of ECM, the amazing Manfred Eicher. You can learn some inside info about how Keith's music is produced and recorded.



A radio documentary about Keith by a fellow pianist Dan Poynton for Radio New Zealand.

 
The Köln Concert is recorded using a flagship 9' 6" Bösendorfer Model 290 - Imperial piano. Bösendorfer is one of the oldest piano manufacturers and it was established in 1828 by Ignaz Bösendorfer. The Imperial 290 costs $157,000 and there is a waiting period of 7 years to get it built today in Wien, Austria. It is the ne plus ultra of grand concert pianos.

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Until 1990 the 290 was the only piano made with 97 keys against the 88 usual. It is the piano that goes the lowest on our audiophile systems, deep down to C0 or 16.35Hz, which certainly is a factor why the Köln Concert is sonically distinctive.

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Good stuff above Vlad. ...The two videos; I just watched them in their entirety.

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I won't be posting anymore, in any audio and music forum; what I'm going to do instead is to make a live recording, 24/7, of all the music playing in my day-to-day surroundings. ...Two microphones attached to my body, 24/7, on the move too, even when showering, making love and sleeping at night. And it will be my last post forever; when you'll click on it it will never stop playing.
...A perpetual post, in music.

Wait for it, for that click, it's comin'.

• Click! ...On that red dot.

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