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Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette - up for
it 2003, ECM 1860
Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette - Always Let Me Go
2002, ECM 1800/01 (2 discs)
by Craig Nixon
I've never had much use for multidisc CD changers. The way I figure, I can only listen to one disc at a time, and if I can't get up to change the disc, I may as well give it up. Listening to the nearly four hours of music contained in these three discs changed all that. After delighting to the optimistic and swinging standards of up for it , and following the questing ups and downs of the largely freely improvised Always Let Me Go , I began to yearn for a concert that shows both sides of this trio, now Jarrett's longest standing vehicle, with over twenty years under its collective belt.
The following evening I granted my own wish - I loaded up the changer with these three discs and added the two CDs of the trio's earlier Whisper Not, perhaps the group's pinnacle recording of Powellian bebop. For good measure I added Inside Out, their previous freely improvised disc. Armed with the remote control, a pot of coffee, a pack of smokes and three discs each of the trio's M.O., standards and free, I settled in. Using the remote I alternated among the discs, switching up the tracks one for one, some standards and some free music. Eureka! This, I quickly became convinced, is the only way to listen to this particular trio. It was a looong night.
Over the course of this group's twenty years much ink has been spilled, to varying degrees of effect. Jarrett's legion listeners, from the casual to the rabid fans, eagerly await each new release, discuss the discs and concerts to no end, debate the merits or meaning of the pianist's onstage mannerisms, transcribe and study his solos. It is rare, however, that we hear from anyone, journalist or casual listener, on both sides of the trio's repertoire; the crystallization of standards and bebop that has been quietly reaching a new peak in the past five years, and which actively feeds the group's alternate side, that of a freely improvising unit.
On the two disc Always Let Me Go, recorded at two Tokyo concert hall dates, one of the first delights to strike the listener is perhaps the most ironic - that the freely improvised music here is as swinging as it is, downright boppish in places. "Paradox", from the first disc, is a short swinging head that could easily have been cribbed from Sonny Rollins or Bud Powell and "Hearts In Space", the 32 minute piece that opens the disc contains, among other things, passages of strong 4/4 swinging.
As an improvisor, Jarrett has always been motif based and one of the pleasures of listening to the trio stretch out on these pieces is how the pianist will take a small kernel of an idea and run with it, creating something of almost nothing, and how well Peacock and DeJohnette listen and rise to the challenge. In lesser hands this might make for more than it's share of dead spots over the course of two and a half hours, but the trio's track record here is incredibly strong. Indeed, the entirety of these two discs seems to be over in a flash.
The energy level was running high for most of these two concerts, and it shows here. The 34 minute "Waves" opens with slow, evenly measured phrases that give way to one of the pianist's trademark gospel/blues tinged hymns, but before the piece is even half over the trio are engaged in an uptempo and furiously swiniging improvisation, the pianist even giving a wry nod to Cecil Taylor with some of the faster passages here, as well as in the slower three way dialogue which follows. The closing ten minutes of the piece are given over to a Monkian on the spot composition, much like the ones Jarrett frequently fashions from the tag of standard, as he does with "Autumn Leaves", creating the title tune on up for it. DeJohnette virtually creates a tune of his own in the beginning of his spirited solo, the pianist tries to answer with one more statement of the Monkish head, but is quickly swept away from this by the drummer's short maelstrom. The ending section of this long piece swings like mad, and the pianist recalls, if anything, Sonny Rollins more than another keyboardist.
DeJohnette creates another tune of his own during his solo intro to "Facing East", one of the two pieces credited collectively to the trio, the others are credited to Jarrett himself. Can one hum a drum solo? If DeJohnette is behind the kit, you can count on it. Jarrett makes something a bit different of the drummer's tune, but it still grooves. For all of their far reaching improvisation, groove has become one of this group's stocks in trade, witness this piece or the title tracks of up for it or the earlier The Cure.
The high points on these two discs are many, and as long as it is, the concerts never seem meandering or self-indulgent, barbs which used to be flung at Jarrett's solo work in years past. Even when working with the most simple ideas, as in "Tributaries", where the pianist worries a single bluesy phrase as if he were Mal Waldron, the results are most rewarding. Always Let Me Go is a frequently fascinating concert document, and should be especially essential to those who have enjoyed the trio's standards recordings.
In an unusually personal liner note to up for it, the trio's latest recording
of standards, Jarrett describes the adverse conditions the group faced at
the 2002 Antibes festival in Juan-les-Pins, France, the site of this concert
recording. Facing unrelenting rain at the outdoor festival, and various health
problems on the part of each of the trio members, as well as no opportunity
for a soundcheck and leaky plastic tarps covering the stage, it was uncertain
until the last minute whether the gig would even happen. Hardly ideal conditions
for a concert, let alone one to be recorded for release.
Luckily, the group decided to persevere, play the concert and let the outcome be what it may. The opener, a midtempo "If I Were A Bell", is likely as tentative as you'll ever hear this trio on record, a literal testing of the waters as if they were still unsure that the gig would really happen. No one remained hesitant for long and by the second piece, Oliver Nelson's modified blues "Butch and Butch", they quickly hit their stride, Jarrett getting off a ferociously swinging solo prodded by the rhythm section. It's palpable how happy the trio quickly became with overcoming the obstacles and continuing to play this concert.
Jarrett is downright playful in many places, spinning off double time lines with glee; on "Scrapple From The Apple" DeJohnette engages the pianist in an incredibly willful rhythmic push an pull during the first chorus - you can almost feel him testing Jarrett to see what the pianist's reaction will be to DeJohnette's chattering away in a totally different tempo. With anyone else at the drums this would be a different trio, DeJohnette's elastic sense of time - he's frequently given to taking off in a rhythmic direction independent of the others - allows more breathing space within these tunes than any other trapsman might afford.
Looking back, Jarrett spoke of this set as the triumph of desire over circumstance and this is indeed one of the happiest and most upbeat of the trio's many concert recordings, perhaps best evidenced by the rocking vamp that serves as the closing title track. It's not really a tune at all, rather a groove spontaneously struck up as part of the closing tag of a sprightly "Autumn Leaves". One can almost hear smiles all around from the trio and audience both.
up for it differs from the other concert discs the trio has issued, both in feel and sound. While many of the others sound about as close to ECM's studio sound as one can get from a live recording, this one is a little rougher around the edges, perhaps an even better picture of what the trio sounds like in action. Released rather quickly on the heels of Always Let Me Go, up for it is the perfect companion to the longer, freer set and stands as unique among the Jarrett trio's many standards discs. Two gems with which to celebrate twenty years of the triumph of desire - one can only hope for twenty more.
Tracks: up for it - If I Were A Bell/Butch &
Butch/My Funny Valentine/Scrapple From The Apple/Someday My Prince Will Come/Two
Degrees East, Three Degrees West/Autumn Leaves-Up For It
Time: 73:06
July, 2002 Juan-les-Pins, France
Tracks: Always Let Me Go - Hearts
In Space/The River/Tributaries/Paradox/Waves/Facing East/Tsunami/Relay
Time: 61:08/76:24
April, 2001 Tokyo, Japan
Personnel: Keith Jarrett (p), Gary Peacock (b), Jack DeJohnette (d)
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