KEITH JARRETT - La Fenice
ECM 676 5853
Keith Jarrett (piano)
Recorded July 19th, 2006
La Fenice the follow up to last year’s four disc A Multitude of Angels represents an interesting trajectory in the chronology of Keith Jarrett. The two disc solo recording captured live at the Gran Teatro, La Fenice in Venice, Italy also follows After The Fall the 1998 performance that marked the return of the Standards Trio marking the second Jarrett recording to be released this year. 2018 is also the year that the pianist received the 62nd annual International Festival of Contemporary Music of the Biannale di Venezia Golden Lion award of which he is the very first jazz musician to receive it.
A Multitude of Angels, (also captured in Italy) were the last concerts the pianist did of long form marathon improvisation before succumbing to SEID or Sudden Exertion Intolerance Disease, so it is fascinating to hear La Fenice, recorded in 2006 next to that recording. The new album captures Jarrett in the midst of fresh approach to free improvisation by breaking things into smaller chunks, first heard on Radiance (ECM, 2005) and heard to full effect on the following year’s Carnegie Hall Concert (ECM, 2006).By the time of the present recording, Jarrett’s approach worked itself into perfection exploring avant garde, signature grooving vamps, more romantic notions, hard swinging bebop, boogie woogie and tender ballads. It is remarkable despite some familiar devices here and there how fresh his conception of pure improvisation from the ether continues to be. The spiky, cubist brightly colored shapes of “Part I” with darting streams from left and right hands evolve into a jabbing upper register two note motif is something that almost recalls the type of free playing he would engage in as a member of Charles Lloyd’s quartet in the mid 1960’s. The tense colony of abstraction gradually subsides into something more brooding yet simultaneously quite calm and sublime. “Part II” once more investigates the avant garde with agitated, driving thrilling counterpoint between his right hand and spiraling torrents with his left. He finds a grand theme and works it over in various permutations before a sudden yet skillful resolution. Jarrett works a churning, funky gospel spiced vamp in the third section, almost hinting at a quote of “Hi Heel Sneakers”. What makes La Fenice stand out however is the pianist’s skillful insertion of songs in the midst of the real time improvised structures he creates. Following “Part VII” he directly moves into “The Sun Whose Rays” from The Mikado demonstrating his wonderful ability of selecting off the beaten path song choices.
La Fenice is another compelling entry charting the one of a kind solo concerts of Keith Jarrett. Unlike 2015’s Creation which presents excerpts of key moments, the presentation of a full concert on La Fenice shows how creative the pianist’s approach to improvisation really is and how his real time compositions really could be treated as new pieces, blurring the lines between the improvised and the composed.
Reviewed by C J Shearn
ECM 676 5853
Keith Jarrett (piano)
Recorded July 19th, 2006
La Fenice the follow up to last year’s four disc A Multitude of Angels represents an interesting trajectory in the chronology of Keith Jarrett. The two disc solo recording captured live at the Gran Teatro, La Fenice in Venice, Italy also follows After The Fall the 1998 performance that marked the return of the Standards Trio marking the second Jarrett recording to be released this year. 2018 is also the year that the pianist received the 62nd annual International Festival of Contemporary Music of the Biannale di Venezia Golden Lion award of which he is the very first jazz musician to receive it.
A Multitude of Angels, (also captured in Italy) were the last concerts the pianist did of long form marathon improvisation before succumbing to SEID or Sudden Exertion Intolerance Disease, so it is fascinating to hear La Fenice, recorded in 2006 next to that recording. The new album captures Jarrett in the midst of fresh approach to free improvisation by breaking things into smaller chunks, first heard on Radiance (ECM, 2005) and heard to full effect on the following year’s Carnegie Hall Concert (ECM, 2006).By the time of the present recording, Jarrett’s approach worked itself into perfection exploring avant garde, signature grooving vamps, more romantic notions, hard swinging bebop, boogie woogie and tender ballads. It is remarkable despite some familiar devices here and there how fresh his conception of pure improvisation from the ether continues to be. The spiky, cubist brightly colored shapes of “Part I” with darting streams from left and right hands evolve into a jabbing upper register two note motif is something that almost recalls the type of free playing he would engage in as a member of Charles Lloyd’s quartet in the mid 1960’s. The tense colony of abstraction gradually subsides into something more brooding yet simultaneously quite calm and sublime. “Part II” once more investigates the avant garde with agitated, driving thrilling counterpoint between his right hand and spiraling torrents with his left. He finds a grand theme and works it over in various permutations before a sudden yet skillful resolution. Jarrett works a churning, funky gospel spiced vamp in the third section, almost hinting at a quote of “Hi Heel Sneakers”. What makes La Fenice stand out however is the pianist’s skillful insertion of songs in the midst of the real time improvised structures he creates. Following “Part VII” he directly moves into “The Sun Whose Rays” from The Mikado demonstrating his wonderful ability of selecting off the beaten path song choices.
La Fenice is another compelling entry charting the one of a kind solo concerts of Keith Jarrett. Unlike 2015’s Creation which presents excerpts of key moments, the presentation of a full concert on La Fenice shows how creative the pianist’s approach to improvisation really is and how his real time compositions really could be treated as new pieces, blurring the lines between the improvised and the composed.
Reviewed by C J Shearn
