Search - Keith Jarrett :: Concerts (Shm)

The best music ever made. Now it has a name.

06/20/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's hard to know how to describe this recording and what it has meant to me. Superlatives aren't enough. My favorite music in a lifetime of playing and listening to and loving music. Number One. My desert island tape, the one I would bring if I could bring only one. The music that has been the soundtrack to the most important moments of my life, the music I play when I am touched to the heart. So maybe I'll just tell you the story. Twenty some years ago, I heard this music on a cassette tape (remember those?) at someone's apartment. I loved it so much on first hearing it that this person, who I had only just met and never saw again, gave it to me. (Bill from East 72nd Street in Manhattan, wherever you are now, thank you.) I didn't know who it was; he didn't tell me and I didn't ask. The cassette tape had no label on it. Since then I have lived with and loved this precious tape. My life has changed in the most profound ways lives can change, the best and the absolute worst. This music has been the constant. I don't know how I would have survived without it. All the strong emotions I've had in this life found expression in the music. It's more than identifying with what Keith put into it; I've poured myself into it. You can do that, for a lifetime, with this music. To give you just one example: When I bought my long-desired first home in the country after decades of living in an apartment in the city, and for the first time ever could see more stars than I had known existed right from my own back yard, what did I listen to on that first summer night of star-gazing? When, after that night, I thought I had lost the tape, I was distraught; after all, I didn't know what it was, and couldn't replace it. But I hadn't lost it. I never even heard of Keith Jarrett until a few years ago. I listened to another of his concerts, without being particularly moved by it---it wasn't anywhere as good---and it occurred to me that of course, my tape must be Keith. But it was just a thought. I didn't know for sure. Not until today, June 19th, 2003, 22 or 23 years after I first heard the music: today, through the magic of the Internet, I have, more or less accidentally, found its name. I didn't think I'd ever know its name, but now I do. I can never lose this music, this love,now. Others can tell you what a genius Jarrett is, how innovative the music is, how technically brilliant it is. You don't need to know this; you don't even need to know that it's Keith Jarrett. This is music to live by, to lose by, to love by, to have your children by...there isn't anything better in this world."

MY FAVORITE KEITH JARRETT SOLO PIANO CONCERT

earthvolunteer | Atlanta, Ga. USA | 09/18/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I visited this little opera house in Bregenz, Austria a few years after Keith Jarrett's 1981 performance and wished I had been present that evening a few years earlier to hear what I believe is his most soulful and heartfelt solo piano improvisational concert to date. It is hard for me to adequately express my feelings about this music, as I am certainly not an expert on jazz improvisation nor the piano as a jazz instrument. I only know the emotions and images which well up inside of me whenever I hear these beautiful chords and soulful improvisations. Jarrett is at his greatest here, squeals and foot stomping and all! This is a tour-de-force and a monumental moment in live music history. Don't give up after Part One if this is not your cup of tea, before hearing the inspirational "Heartland", his encore that evening. Very evocative work."

Mixed: mostly outstanding, but some pieces aren't for me

harrold | los angeles | 08/25/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Some of this is too jazzy for me; too abstract. Other parts are unbelievably awesome. This album also goes by the name of "Bregenz Concerts""