Over the last few months, ECM released the 10-LP facsimile edition of Keith Jarrett's Sun Bear Concerts - recorded in 1976 - as well as his 2016 performance in Budapest, spanning 40 years of solo piano improvisation. Tomorrow on May 8th, the master pianist celebrates his 76 birthday.
| 'Budapest Concerts was lauded by 'Le Monde' as "a fantastic physical experience of total improvisation." while The New York Times connected the musical dots of that night's performance: "The embrace of folkloric music by Bartók and other Hungarian composers further nudged Mr. Jarrett toward a dark quality – (‘a kind of existential sadness, let´s say, a deepness’) – powerfully present in the concert´s first half. The second half features a few of Mr. Jarrett´s most ravishing on-the-spot compositions. Those ballads, like ‘Part V’ and ‘Part VII’, spark against briskly atonal or boppish pieces, gradually building the case for a mature expression that might not have been possible earlier in his career. A magnificent achievement." |  |
 | Wolfgang Sandner's biography of Keith Jarrett is full of detailed musical analysis and cross-references to other artistic genres. Sandner has collected new information about Jarrett’s family background, much of which is thanks to the translator, Keith Jarrett’s youngest brother Chris. The book explores Jarrett’s work with his American and European Quartets and the Standards Trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette. It charts the development of his solo concerts, investigates his work in the classical sphere, and covers his unparalleled relationship with ECM and Manfred Eicher. This new English edition is an extended and updated version of the German original. |
A new photo book titled "Keith Jarrett - A portrait" by Italian photographer Roberto Masotti has just come out.
The large format hardcover edition features numerous pictures of Jarrett - alone and with Miles Davis, with his own ensembles, and more. The book includes introductory observations by Geoff Dyer and Franco Fabbri and a note by Masotti, who witnessed Keith in action over a period of 50 years.
The large format hardcover edition features numerous pictures of Jarrett - alone and with Miles Davis, with his own ensembles, and more. The book includes introductory observations by Geoff Dyer and Franco Fabbri and a note by Masotti, who witnessed Keith in action over a period of 50 years.
"The photos are the result of my intimate and objective attention to an artist who I have followed and admired for a long time, but these pictures represent also his response that is conscious acceptance, and above all, participation. His sound, the only one, is made of peculiar music that this series of photographs aims to evoke and make resound." - Roberto Masotti |  |
