Year: 2008
Record Label: ECM
Style: Straight-Ahead / Classic
Musicians: Keith Jarrett (piano), Gary Peacock (bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums)
Review: This new box set reissuing the first three recordings of pianist Keith Jarrett’s “Standards” trio, in commemoration of the ensemble’s 25th year anniversary, is remarkable for many reasons. Heading the list is reiterating proof of the consistently high level of musicianship they displayed from their first meetings. While subsequent recordings of the ensemble have yielded a treasure-trove of remarkable accomplishments, these early recordings show they were highly intuitive and sympatheticly like-minded musicians from the beginning.
Recording enough material for three records over a short period in January of 1983, this collection includes material originally released as Standards Vol. 1, Standards Vol. 2 and Changes.
The two collections of jazz standards, including one Jarrett original, were recorded first. These two discs feature the ensemble in what has now become their trademark open-ended style. They seamlessly move as one as they glide from style to style. Taking their cues from subtle interplay, they find musical areas of reflection, excitement and intense tenacity.
Highlights from these discs include a deeply bluesy and funky version of the Billie Holiday “God Bless The Child.” DeJohnette’s backbeat is so strong and tight, Peacock’s soaring flights of upper register soloistic fills so enveloping, and Jarrett’s hipness so totally on display one can’t help wonder why the ensemble has so rarely done subsequent explorations of this style.
The off-kilter-yet-totally-locked-in-the-moment treatment of “All The Things You Are” demonstrates better than any Ph. D. dissertation how much Brad Mehldau’s trio work has been excavated from the work of Jarrett’s group. Jarrett’s solo is a joy, Peacock’s rambunctious counter-lines prove just how underrated he has always been, and a strong argument can be made that DeJohnette’s playing is really a terrific solo escapade actually being accompanied by his band mates – the drum set work is that good.
The third disc contains two Jarrett originals; an elongated multi-sectional “Changes” and a precise short work entitled “Prisms.” This disc shows off the avant-garde tendencies the ensemble has occasionally navigated. Demands on the listener are more severe, but the result is well worth the effort.
If there is a difference between the music on these three discs and the music they make today, it resides in the amount of solo space Peacock takes. Always a remarkable soloist, he seems to have allowed his ensemble work to speak more and more for him as the years have progressed as he now takes fewer solos. All-in-all, a truly fine collection worthy of more than purely historical importance.
Tracks: Meaning Of The Blues, All The Things You Are, It Never Entered My Mind, This Masquerade Is Over, God Bless The Child, So Tender, Moon And Sand, In Love In Vain, Never Let Me Go, If I Should Lose You, I Fall In Love Too Easily, Flying Part 1, Flying Part 2 and Prism
Record Label Website: http://www.ecmrecords.com/Startseite/startseite.php
Reviewed by:
Thomas R. Erdmann
Click here for printer-friendly version of review.
Send this page to a friend.
JazzReview.com
