Search - Keith Jarrett :: Standards Vol 2 (Shm)

One of his best

S. Coffman | Denver | 10/08/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I know that Jarrett himself has said all the standards albums are nothing compared to some of the trio's live performances around the same time. However this album is, in my opinion, one of his best (with this trio). It is very much like a fine wine and takes many listens to get it, but the renditions on several of the standards here are amazing once you do get it. My other personal favorite of this group is "Flying," and this is more contained than that, but the music on Standards, Vol. 2 is as classic as McCoy Expansions, or any VSOP or many of Mile's classics. It's phenomenal.



In addition, the retard reviewing this album above, who talks about "wheezemeister" and calculates in other (albeit great) pianists as though he's shopping at wallmart for "generic piano jazz on aisle 7" is laughable. His statements are like saying "why would you ever own a van Gogh... the guy cut off his ear. Just buy a Monet or Renoit or whatever." What a complete knob.



Anyway, this is definitely an album to own, if you are a Jarrett trio fan."

... PERFECTION ...

Blazing Arrow 74 | Chicago, IL | 09/04/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"... This album has completely changed the way I listen to music ... I have never in my life heard such beautiful INTERPLAY between people; it's as if each person is soloing at all times, just in varrying degrees ... This singular album represents what I love most about Jazz, and my life will never be the same for it ...



... I also have Vol. I, and for some reason, many people seem to take-to that album much more than this, as it's place in amazon's sales list makes obvious, however, I think this is a superior album -- Vol. I is just a warmup for this album: believe me !! ...



... This is the single, best trio recording I own, and the absolute best I've heard in my lifetime so-far ... Please do yourself a favor, and purchase a few for you & yours ..."

Just Perfect

Bjorn Jensen | California | 04/05/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I came to this CD a long time after my initial discovery of the Keith Jarrett "standards" trio. By the time I found this recording, I was accustomed to the usual live performance situations that the group was presented in on the majority of their CD releases. Anyone who has heard the wonderful "Tribute", or "Standards In Norway", or "The Cure" - or nearly any of their live CDs will know of the astonishing beauty and power (for lack of better terms) of these performances. This however, is a very different affair. Considering the fact that this is a studio recording (as opposed to a performance recorded in a concert hall or club), there is a considerably different atmosphere.



Personally, I truly love the intimacy of this recording - a quality that does exist in the live trio recordings, but not to the degree it exists here. It is almost as if you can have the trio's performance just for yourself - minus the sound of 2000+ other people, one of whom would undoubtedly be eagerly awaiting the end of the tune only to interrupt the beauty of the moment through being the first person to clap (this is sometimes infuriating - at least to my ears, hearing the audience almost cut-off, for example, a breathtakingly beautiful solo piano improvisation at the end of a tune with over-eager applause). After performances of such beauty as only this group can deliver, there is for me great joy in hearing the beauty of silence after these performances for a change. Somehow minus the thousands of people listening on with you at any given moment, there is a wonderfully intangible warmth emitted by just the three musicians together. It is a feeling that is communicated very strongly to me as I listen to this recording. The sole listener is allowed to be the entire audience, and to me, this a real joy.



Keith Jarrett himself has stated that the Standards Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 albums did not communicate the same intensity and energy of the live shows from this period in time. This is in fact a statement that I agree with, simply for the fact that there is a very different intensity that comes with this recorded edition of the trio that makes it incomparable to the many live recordings. What I have said here should not be interpreted as discrediting the live recordings of this group, I simply feel that this recording captures a side of the trio often overlooked. Not better, not worse, just different - a truly wonderful kind of different."