Keith Jarrett - Excerpt from Vienna Concert, Part I.

Taking an excerpt from the Vienna concert is like showing a two-minute clip of one’s most cherished movie, or reading three pages from one’s favorite book, or perhaps like having a long-distance relationship.

But Part I, which is available in its entirety here, is 41 minutes long; in its astonishing perfection, too, it can require more attention than is reasonable to request. I hope, perhaps absurdly, that this excerpt appeals; I think Jarrett is one of the finest musicians of our time.

(And here are some previous videos and comments about him).

Keith Jarrett - Opening

This live performance is one of the darkest and most overwhelming pieces of Jarrett’s catalog, and is best appreciated at extraordinary volume in pitch blackness; if it can be arranged, rain is appropriate as well; and if one is truly committed, one could do no better than listening to it during a storm at sea. I offer it as partial repayment to S. Stratodrive for his many contributions to my library.

(See here for other Jarrett posts).

Keith Jarrett - Part II A, The Koln Concert (Excerpt)

If you like, you may think of this as brilliant variations on the Peanuts theme -“Linus and Lucy,” by Vince Guaraldi- although it is in fact totally unrelated. It reminds me of this, too: the most amazing Charlie-Brown-jazz-joy-party ever.

If you’re interested in more music by one of the greatest living musicians, from somber to the ecstatic, see here.

Keith Jarrett - Part 8, from Radiance

This will be the last Jarrett for a while; I’ve been listening to him so much that I cannot gain sufficient critical distance from the music any longer. At moments, this piece seems almost saccharine, but is rescued, for me, by its simple delight, its harmonic complexity, and tones within it which I associate with Scott Joplin and ragtime. It is another demonstration of Jarrett’s integration of vastly different parts of the American musical cannon.

Keith Jarrett - Encore at Sapporo, from the Sun Bear Concerts

The other night, my mood at its highest while various medications ebbed to their lowest levels of the day and I video-chatted with Abby, this song provoked in me a giddiness I can’t describe. There brevity of its rhythmics, its quantized beat bouncing quickly between poles of darkness and light, animated my limbs in parodic but felicitous form, and Abby laughed for a few minutes while I danced, pointed to the forms and shapes appearing and vanishing in the sound stream, and barked idiotically: “Right? Right?”

After a slow start, this has a tempo and emphasis which seems to work for me, but that’s not of general interest; what might be is that Jarrett suffers the sort of catastrophic improvisational collapse approximately halfway through that musicians know well: the mind, spinning elaborations and ideas from a central structure, loses its place suddenly and overruns. In this case, just after introducing a compelling, brightly engaging new idea, he begins a run that grows shaky, and initiating a second run he essentially adds too many beats, comes apart, attempts to recover, cannot, and then seems despairingly unable to escape a single note.

There’s not really anywhere to hide.