For a lot of his working life, Keith Jarrett discovered himself alone on stage at a piano, spontaneously composing lush, lyrical symphonies that mesmerized listeners and yielded landmark albums like 1975’s million-selling The Köln Concert; a recording that remodeled the virtuosic pianist from Allentown, Pennsylvania, into certainly one of jazz’s largest and brightest new stars in an period in any other case dominated by jazz-rock and fusion.
Although Jarrett was famed for his improvised solo piano recitals, he had demonstrated at a number of different key factors in his profession that he thrived enjoying in teams alongside different musicians who had been capable of assist unlock totally different aspects of his creativity. Indeed, the pianist started his recording profession in 1967 main a trio, after which within the Seventies, whereas reaping popularity of his solo piano exploits, led two contrasting teams, his so-called American and European Quartets. Then in 1983, at age 38, he did one thing altogether totally different.
Listen to Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, and Jack DeJohnette’s Standards Vol. 1 now.
Early within the yr, Keith Jarrett advised Manfred Eicher, his producer at ECM Records, that he desired to report a trio album dedicated to jazz requirements. He was well-acquainted with the usual repertoire from his years as a jobbing bar pianist in Boston. Once he acquired a report deal, nonetheless, he largely set them apart to focus on self-composed materials. The purpose behind Jarrett’s choice to revisit The Great American Songbook at a later stage in his life was a easy one. “This material was so damn good,” he enthused to San Francisco Chronicle in 2008, including: “Why was everyone ignoring it and playing clever stuff that sounds all the same? We know how musical these songs are… Jazz musicians don’t have to always break down doors, there’s music inside the rooms too.”
For his first album devoted to requirements, Jarrett already had in thoughts the musicians he needed to work with; bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette. Jarrett was good mates with DeJohnette, and each had labored as sidemen for Peacock on the 1977 album Tales of Another.
Preparing for the recording session
Once Peacock and DeJohnette had been on board, ECM scheduled a recording session in January 1983 at New York’s Power Station studio. Peacock confessed that he was a little bit non-plussed when the pianist first proposed an album solely dedicated to well-worn widespread songs. “The idea of doing a standards album was a little bizarre to me,” he advised Jarrett’s biographer Ian Carr. “I wanted to think about it for a day or so…I thought, ‘What is he doing?’ It was confusing.” But the extra he thought of it, Peacock realized that recording a requirements album with Keith Jarrett could be something however secure and predictable. “If Keith wants to do standards, it ain’t going to be a standard date,” he mused. “It’s going to be something else.”
The trio didn’t meet as much as talk about the album in additional element till the day earlier than the session. “We had a very serious dinner the night before we recorded,” recalled Jarrett to Downbeat in 1984. “I prepared in advance of this dinner to talk about how I didn’t have any arrangements, how there was not going to be any idea of how to do these things.” Jarrett insisted that every little thing could be spontaneous; there could be no rehearsal or detailed advance preparation for the album. The pianist simply introduced with him a listing of track titles and chosen some at random, seeing how Peacock and DeJohnette responded. If they confirmed a scintilla of enthusiasm, they’d go for a take.
He trusted of their intimate data of the usual repertoire or what he referred to as their shared “tribal language,” telling David Breskin: “I knew Gary and Jack had gone through standards as I had.” Crucially, he introduced alongside all of the lyrics to the tunes on his listing, which he confirmed his cohorts. Like the good saxophone gamers Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, and Lester Young earlier than him, Jarrett believed that musicians ought to know the phrases of the requirements with a view to totally perceive their that means and the feelings they evoked.
Recording the album
The two-day session in New York was rewardingly productive. “We went in to do just one album but we came out with enough material for three albums,” an excited Peacock advised Ian Carr. “They just let the tapes roll. It was incredible.” Besides the album that they had gone in to report, the trio recorded a further choice of requirements (six songs that will be launched as Standards, Vol. 2 in 1985) and a set of freely improvised authentic items which was issued below the title Changes in 1984.
Standards, Vol.1 contained 5 warhorses from the usual repertoire, principally first takes; it opened with a dreamy, free-flowing interpretation of Bobby Troup’s “Meaning Of The Blues” (a tune that Miles Davis made well-known on his 1957 LP Miles Ahead) and closed with a prolonged gospel-tinged adaptation of Billie Holiday’s immortal ballad “God Bless The Child,” which was reworked with a hymnic taste. Sandwiched in between had been distinctive remedies of “All The Things You Are,” “It Never Entered My Mind” and “The Masquerade Is Over.”
For some listeners, the impact of listening to Standards, Vol. 1 was like eavesdropping on a number of musical conversations by three of the most effective storytellers in jazz. In their performances of the 5 tunes, Jarrett, Peacock, and DeJohnette revealed a sophisticated musical understanding that allowed them to work together with one another as if by telepathy. It was as if the three musicians functioned as a single organism, working instinctively and intuitively as one. Though their interpretations stayed respectfully true to the spirit of the unique materials, every track additionally grew to become a framework for collective and particular person improvisation. Crucially, Peacock and DeJohnette weren’t subordinate to Jarrett however had an equal function in shaping the musical trialogue; this was trio jazz at its most democratic and liberating.
“It was a whole other level of playing,” mentioned Peacock, explaining to Ian Carr the trio’s distinctive sonic alchemy. Jarrett concurred. “What we ended up with is incredible,” he enthused to Musician journal in 1983. “I think some of the songs’ melodies have never been phrased as well as on this record.”
The “Standards Trio” (as they grew to become recognized) would report and tour collectively for the subsequent 31 years, performing for the final time in 2014. During that point, they made 21 albums however none, maybe, had been as vital as their first launch, Standards, Vol.1, which supplied a recent and deeply explorative method to The Great American Songbook. Coming at a time when up to date jazz was turning away from its basis repertoire of Tin Pan Alley songs, the album each redefined and revived the artwork of normal enjoying within the post-bop period.
Listen to Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, and Jack DeJohnette’s Standards Vol. 1 now.