Search - Keith Jarrett :: Paris Concert

Sublime

JC ESQ | Baltimore MD | 12/31/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been a Keith Jarrett fan since 1977, when, as a college student, I attended one of his solo improvisation concerts in Boston. Some 30 years later, I own over 40 of Jarrett's discs, part of an extensive collection of classical and jazz piano recordings numbering almost 2000. I like to think that I know good piano music when I hear it. The Paris Concert is one of my top-10 "desert island" discs, and when I read the one-star "review" by Mr. Feldman, I felt I had to offer a counter-perspective.



The first track, "October 17, 1988", is, in my opinion, Jarrett's finest improvisational effort. A little over 37 minutes in duration, its beauty sweeps the listener away from the first note to the last. Yes, the composition reflects Jarrett's early classical training, but can't be strictly classified as a "classical" piece. Neither is it jazz, in the formal sense. Jarrett's music is, simply and truly, raw human emotion distilled into melody. I've listened to this disc many times, most recently tonite, at the very beginning of the new year, and I'm always stunned at Jarrett's ability to stir feelings in me that I rarely experience in day-to-day living. To me, this is the essence of music: to remind human beings of our humanity, to directly touch our emotions without any intervention by the conscious mind. One would have to be very cold indeed to listen to "October 17", especially its last two minutes, and not be stirred, or stilled. A man who can conclude only that this is a "navel-gazing narcissistic atrocity" is a man who's lost his heart somewhere along life's way.



The late tenor Luciano Pavarotti was criticized for expanding his song catalogue to include pop music from the likes of Bono, Elton John, and the Spice Girls. He said, in somewhat broken English, "There is only good music and bad music. Why should be elite, music? Music must be for everybody?" The Paris Concert is good music, exceptionally good. There is very little of Jarrett's humming, and the audience is exceptionally quiet; I like to think they were experiencing the same kind of rapture that I experience every time this disc is in my CD player. If you don't have this disc, get it. That simple."

MINDBENDINGLY CHALLENGING AND BEAUTIFUL

B. Lafave | lakeland , fl | 07/06/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"there are few people on earth who can do something like this and keith is one of them . what a brilliant monster . i won't even grope for the adjectives to describe how magnificent this is (those around me already have) . they're right . BUY THIS CONCERT and leave the chrysalis behind ."