Keith Jarrett (pno/perc.); Jan Garbarek (ten/sop/fl/perc.); Palle Danielsson (bs); Jon Christensen (dms/perc.).
(Review by Lance)
(Review by Lance)
A previously unreleased double CD recorded in Tokyo during Jarrett's 1979 tour Sleeper is a welcome addition to the Jarrett discography by what was referred to at the time as his "European Quartet". In many ways it's a typical Jarrett excursion with lots of wildly exciting charges displaying the man's phenomenal technique as well as showing the range of beautiful moods he could create in between . No less animated is Garbarek. He puts the boot in forcefully and imaginatively a far cry from some of his later more ethereal meanderings - in 1979 he did the business. Not that this is all crash, bang, wallop! There are many tender and lyrical moments not least the evocative interchanges between Jarrett and Garbarek.
Christenson and Danielsson are no lose formidable driving or cajoling, kicking or caressing going with the mood swings.
The numbers are all Jarrett originals but Innocence, So Tender and Prism could easily be songbook material and in fact the latter two pieces were featured by Jarrett's Standards Trio.
In his biography of Jarrett, Ian Carr wrote "The influence of this quartet is out of all proportion to its brief life." I can't help but feel he is right. Sleepers has a compulsion about it that is, frankly, quite irresistible. I can hear shades of this album in a dozen - no maybe a hundred bands worldwide.
Call it heresy but I think Ornette and Coltrane got it wrong and Jarrett got it right!
Lance.
Sleepers by Keith Jarrett is released on July 16, 2012 on ECM 370 5570.
No comments :
Post a Comment