Search - Keith Jarrett, Charlie Haden :: Jasmine

Essential.

a tois | New York | 05/26/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jarrett and Haden were reunited in 2007 during recording of a documentary about the bassist. After they played together informally, Jarrett invited Haden home, where they spent four days recording in Jarrett's studio. Given their recent histories of recording standards - Jarrett with his Standards Trio, Haden with his Quartet West - they unsurprisingly opted for songs from the Great American Songbook.

It's more than 30 years since the last recorded meeting of these two great names in contemporary jazz, and Jarrett has not made a studio album since 1998, preferring live solo or trio recordings.

Therefore, the recording is quite an event. As a concept, these piano-and-bass explorations of eight classic American songs could not be simpler, but the poise and subtlety of both thought and execution make it a spellbinding experience.

Jarrett has a remarkable talent for creating an aura of stillness around him, so that every note he plays stands out clear and bright and the slightest harmonic nuance carries meaning. Haden's bass, with its intimate, woody tone, lays the perfect groundwork, as always.

The two instruments - piano and bass - are beautifully recorded in a very simple and natural fashion. The repertoire is made up of carefully chosen standards, and their approach is deliberately shorn of over-elaboration, but the music itself is full of nuances and the kind of masterly touches and inflections we have come to expect.

Their interaction on the slow and mid-tempo tunes they favour is sublime.

"Every note carries full weight and every silence - Haden is a master in using space - has significance". - K. Mathieson

"It's an intimate, home-studio recording of love songs - deep, almost painfully heartfelt - and so good it will be sure to top most best-of lists. There's no tricksiness, just the woody thump of Haden's bass adding authority to Jarrett's tender, faithful chording. "For All We Know" is a Desert Island Discs cert; "Body & Soul" is done almost jauntily; the closing "Don't Ever Leave Me" a bitter sweet miracle. If you buy only one album this year, etc...".-Phil Johnson

Brilliant.

Essential."

Oh my goodness...

SF Musician | San Francisco, CA United States | 05/31/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I will keep this short. This is sublime, mature playing by two great artists at the top of their game. Hal Galper, the jazz pianist, said that a musician spends the first part of his/her career learning how to play and hear everything, and the second part learning how to play less than what they can hear and can play. This is an example of that. The playing is gorgeous and restrained, with profound, perfect musical choices that younger musicians simply are not capable of. I am not one of those people who thinks that everything Jarrett does is great. But this is. Magnificent."

SUPERB JAZZ BALLADS FROM KEITH JARRETT AND CHARLIE HADEN

RBSProds | Deep in the heart of Texas | 05/25/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Five ENGAGING Stars!! Playing together for the first time in 30 years, jazz legends Keith Jarrett (playing his unique "practice Steinway" piano) and Charlie Haden on his upright bass give jazz fans a spontaneous, unrehearsed jazz duo recording of great improvisational beauty and introspection, recorded in Jarrett's home recording studio. Playing mostly major and minor standards, this recording underwent an extensive song selection and order of presentation process that works beautifully. Messrs Jarrett and Haden are in superb form using musical extra-sensory perception to reach a point that is "deeper than a conversation", with a bouncing, elastic internal pulse that needs no drummer as they solo and 'comp' with intimacy and inventiveness.



The 'best of the best' on this CD include a wonderful interpretation of the rarely heard Cy Coleman gem "I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life" (12 minutes), a jumping and imaginative version of "No Moon At All", an awesome 11 minute version of "Body and Soul", and a charming "One Day I'll Fly Away" which was composed by Crusader pianist Joe Sample for singer Randy Crawford. In all, this is one great CD of ballads recorded with the trademark ECM soundscape (Haden is particularly impressed with how his sound is captured) and propelled along by two of the giants of jazz. "Jasmine"-like, indeed! Highly Recommended. Five BEAUTIFUL Stars (This review is based on an Amazon.com MP3 download of 8 tracks, 62:32 total time; and the outstanding National Public Radio interview "Charlie Haden and Keith Jarrett Channel The Standards": see second note below.)"