Search - Keith Jarrett :: Spirits 1 & 2

Absolutely Sublime!

11/15/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is definitively not a conventional Keith Jarret work ( I guess he has no conventional works at all). It's simply the most wonderful and mystic musical journey of self discovery. As Jarrett himself states it: " I cannot say what I think is right about this music; I only know the ¨rightness¨ of it...I do not feel that I ¨created¨¨ this music as much as I allowed it to `` emerge''. I really hope you experience this blessing for yourself. Felipe M. Bogotá,Colombia"

Where Jarrett Goes, I Will Follow - -Not for Everyone

Mark D Burgh | Fort Smith, AR United States | 01/31/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Keith Jarrett's world is one of icy precision, hot lyricism, spiraling disonances intermingled with hymn-like triumphs. All on piano, church organ, or clavicord. His ensemble work from his time with Charles Lloyd, Miles Davis, and as a leader of his own quartets and trios began as hard-bop and free jazz. Although Jarrett never ventured into Fusion, by the mid to late 1970's Jarrett's ensemble albums were shot through with rythmic chaos and harsh textures.Spirits, recorded in the early 1980's consolidates and eliminates the experimental, Coltrane-like strains of Jarrett's music. The music is distilled to its logical essence - primitive instruments, heavy rythyms and a search for meaning through every melodic idea he knew. This is not easy music by any means - the lush glories of his solo work are absent -- this is the work of an artist reassessing his direction by stripping away all the layers of beauty he has laquered onto his vision and exposing the core of his meaning. Spirits is the most personal music Jarrett has ever made - the most disturbing too. I don't sit down to listen to the album day after day, nor do I put it while I'm work like I do Koln or Staircase, but I do listen to Spirits when I'm searching myself, when I'm looking for new way to do my own work. My favorite Jarrett piece of all time is on this obscure album. Spirit Number 15 is a pentatonic burst of coherent joy amidst the storm and unsureness of the rest of the Spirits. A more commericially-minded Jarrett would have put this Spirit first to lure listeners in, or last, to bring the event to a joyous close, but as it stands, this short song on whistles and piano pops up somewhere in the middle of the Spirits, like a happy memory in an introspective nightmare. Spirits is a distintive, troubled work, but one I've treasured since it came out. I would like ECM to back off it's ridiculous 24.00 price for this music. Perhaps more would be inclined to listen to it."

Virtual Peyote Trip Anyone?

Michael Indgin | Westchester, CA United States | 05/22/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In which Mr. Jarrett eschews his forte for a New Age vision quest. He plays the flutes, the recorders, the sax, the tablas, the shakers, the guitars and yes, even the piano. Totally unlike anything else he's put out, but I find it quite lovely. The Western landscapes that these earthy tone poems evoke are all the more amazing considering he recorded this in a studio in Jersey. Enjoy the trip."