Originally posted by cloughie
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Thanks cloughie! -
Sounds like a bit of a mouldy fig to me - got what he deserved, I guess!Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
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Maybe it's something to do with the mellow weather, or the huge sense of relief I am feeling today (probably in common with many others), but I am deriving enormous enjoyment from today's JRR. I feel sure Rita Payes can not possibly be the meter maid!
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I am finding great amusement in Trump Twitter quoting a "leading British pollster" to the effect that the vote was obviously fixed and that Donald is being robbed! The poll was in the Daily Express aka "The Daily Farage" so we are totally"a long way from Kansas".
JRR was fine except for the last two tracks - I thought my tuner had skipped to some weird MoR station (Not Basel), and the final Keith Jarrett "Answer Me" is such a God awful maudlin song, no-one sober can keep a straight face. It was once banned by the BBC in the '50s (a God reference) and should be again. In a lead box. Filled with garlic.Comment
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I like this one:Originally posted by BLUESNIK'S REVOX View Post
...but if you don’t like Joni.
This one however is dreadful!Comment
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THIS is how it should be done, after eighteen pints at 2am in a working man's club, near Barnsley...but with a bit more drunk Elvis...."Answer Me", Ernie Tune & the Partners", Swedish 45 1962. Not sure if Keith knows this arrangement...Originally posted by cloughie View PostI like this one:
...but if you don’t like Joni.
This one however is dreadful!
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...and he probably prefers a mini grand to a WMC organ!Originally posted by BLUESNIK'S REVOX View PostComment
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I think this may be the second track we're heard off of that Jarrett CD? Thus far I would be stretched to call it jazz, more the kind of music that appealed to my dear mum (1905-85), who found anything more recent than Mendelssohn "too modern".Originally posted by BLUESNIK'S REVOX View PostComment
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Funny how The Beguine was so popular for ballad settings in the first shadows of Elvis - thanks to it I kissed pop music goodbye very quickly in the early 1960s.Originally posted by BLUESNIK'S REVOX View PostComment
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Isn't that the C Am F G7 progression that launched a thousand pop "ships"? The "fifties" changes. "Teenager in Love" and all those. I remember Marty Wilde saying "I'm a bit old to sing that now" In his sixties.Comment
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This week's COTW unquestionably deserves listening to. Click each day on the respective sub-links:Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
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The reviews for the new Jarrett CD have been really good and Jarrett himself is on record as saying that he believes it is his best solo album. From what I have read, the name that is cropping up in the reviews as an influence is Bartok and not Mendelssohn. I have not listened to the record but I think to pigeon hole him is really pointless because he doesn't really fit any categories. For more, Keith Jarrett is a fascinating enigma who can be totally compelling or wholly off-putting. He is probably the ultimate risk taker in jazz.Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
Sometimes I feel that Jarrett's harmonies are pretty straight forward to the extent that he might appear as an adjunct to how Bill Evans approached harmony. On the other hand, there are other moments where he seems informed by mid-20th century composers on prickly records like "Dark Intervals." His lengthy improvisations on the face of it might pitch him into the avant garde yet the tools he uses when doing so are more rooted in tradition than anything that might be supposed to have challenged them. Even when improvising, there are moments when he is totally in the zone and other times when you wonder where the inspiration can come from. At worst, he is capable of producing something which may be unwittingly corny. Furthermore, he is one of the rare musicians in jazz whose interaction with other musicians has been restricted to a small number of intimates and always on his own terms. Keith Jarrett is not a musician that Eicher thinks about combining with someone totally different and seeing what results. there is no musical mix and match, It is almost as if Jarrett has little interest in the kind of interaction or different contexts which many other musicians thrive on. The records he has made with the trio are perhaps the only instance where Manfred Eicher has recorded pure, unadulterated Be-bop. (Even of the "Art Blakey blues bullsh/t" version referred to in the Beirach interview.) He is traditional but not in the tradition. There is a mass of contradictions in his playing (even within individual records) and the fact that he wears his heart on his sleeve and had been recorded so prolifically means that his is there to be shot down by critics. Conversely, there is also plenty within his discography to purr over.
I have been playing the "Bye, bye Blackbird" album he made as a tribute to Miles Davis and the title track is so in the pocket and swinging that it is exactly the kind of thing that even Bluesnik would like. It is just straight ahead modern jazz. When I listen to Jarrett's trio rip through standards I think he has a touch and sense of timing on ballads which is at least as good as Bill Evans and without the propensity to focus too internally to the detriment of the momentum of the music. Some of Evans' later work can come across as a bit deflating whereas I never think this is the case with Jarrett. It also helps as it is easier to "get" Keith Jarrett than Bill Evans whose appeal has to be harder won. On up tempo tunes the one pianist I am constantly put in mind of is Hampton Hawes and his is simply because of the clarity of his lines and the way his playing swings. By this I mean "swing" as in the pre-1960's sense of the word. Anyone who gets near swinging as hard as the great Hampton Hawes has got to be good by my book. Hearing Jarrett's trio swinging in full flow is one of jazz's great pleasures.
I concur that Keith Jarrett has probably made a lot of records which the unassuming listener would not find threatening (even to a fan of Mendelssohn) but I would guarantee that his touch, timing and sense of phrasing would be head and shoulders above his contemporaries. It is interesting how jazz piano has responded to the gauntlet thrown down by Bill Evans and it is fair to say that the likes of Herbie Hancock, John Taylor, Bobo Stenson, Paul Bley or even Brad Mehldau who have taken up the challenge have done so in a unique fashion that makes them easy to recognise. I feel that the same applies to Keith Jarrett. He is immediately distinctive.
Mendelssohn's reputation now rests on a relatively small body of very popular work and his rescuing of JS Bach from obscurity. A lot of the Victorian parlour music he produced is largely forgotten but perhaps his prominence in Victorian England is intuitive insofar that sometimes you need to look backwards to recognise what is worthwhile in music. It is not difficult to appreciate why Bach also appealed to this jazz musician as the composer's work is such a part of musical DNA. Keith Jarrett has been lucky that he has had Manfred Eicher to chronicle the large part of his musical journey and I think that Jarrett's musical personality has proved that Eicher's faith in his music has been well-founded regardless of vanity projects and inconsistencies in the discographies. I don't buy the causal dismissal of Jarrett's music although I feel that Jarrett's honest approach regarding what is published means that deciding what is meaningful depends on personal tastes.Comment
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I am largely in agreement, Ian.Comment
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