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"The Melody At Night, With
You"
This solo recording is a fitting coda
for Keith Jarrett's more restrained, less prolific output in
the 1990s. The fitful vamps and long, ruminative improvisations
that made Jarrett a solo piano star in the '70s are here either
stillborn or tightly tethered to classic melodies from the likes
of Gershwin and Ellington, yet there is not the slightest hint
of repression. Instead, Keith Jarrett sprinkles notes and brings
the familiar strains of "I Loves You, Porgy" and "Someone
to Watch Over Me" to bloom with a dynamic but resonantly
earth-toned vibrancy. Rarely has the pianist kept his music so
simple and free of pageantry. Audible moans and shenanigans with
the piano's sustain pedal are held to a minimum, and even brawny,
sing-along stuff like "Shenandoah" and "My Wild
Irish Rose" never lapse into sloppy sentimentality--indeed,
Jarrett's two-handed caress of the latter song is so delicately
self assured, the tune seems to play itself. --Britt Robson |
Reviewer: Samuel Chell from Kenosha, Wisconsin
USA
One of the most imaginative and daring pianists of the last 30
years shares the sum of his maturity in this delicate yet intense,
economic yet lyric, set of interpretations of classic American
songs. The characteristic Jarrett assurance is replaced here
by a more searching quality along with greater deference to the
song, as though the interpreter is more willing to see where
its melody will lead him, rather than vice versa. My only regret
is that he chose to lead with "I Loves You Porgy,"
the same song Bill Evans recorded for the ages as the opening
number on Vol. I of "The Paris Concert." Re-listening
to that transcendent performance, I couldn't help but be struck
by the "body" of the tone, the density of the melodic
and harmonic structures, and the absolute purposefulness of every
note of each chorus. Keith Jarrett's version is nowhere near
that level. But it sets a standard among living pianists--and
a high one at that. |
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