Setting A Standard

The first time I saw Keith Jarrett was in 1994 with the trio you see above. Backing Keith Jarrett was Gary Peacock on Bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. If you listen closely you can hear me on one of those great nights he did at the Blue Note in New York City. By the time I saw then they already were a trio for eleven years. They knew each others musical idiosyncratic ways. It was Keith who introduced me to the "Standards." Keith and the band knew each other way before their first meeting in 1983. They played once on a Gary Peacock album in 1977. Keith and Jack played with Miles Davis in the fusion years and Gary is been around basically forever. He played with one of my favorite piano players Bill Evans for a short while.

When these three got together in 1983 something magic happened. I could see that in 1994 when I am watching with all seriousness. I could see that they needed no cues to tell them what to do, they already knew it and that was enough for me. I saw them four years later also in New York at the Panasonic Jazz Festival. This time with a little more understanding of Jazz and what they could do. It was amazing, and a even better treat to the ears. The last time I saw Keith Jarrett was solo at Carnegie Hall in September of 2005. It was a gift of a friend who got me the tickets. My other friend also got tickets and we sat in different areas to see what would both hear and see. We both walked out speechless for quite some time. I was hoping it got recorded and it did and we once in a while recreate that magic that night.



I think I started liking Keith Jarrett around the time he put out Standards Vol. 1. I might have not really know about it, but I remember taking that record home and listening to it and wondering what they hell is happening. It was rockin' without being a rock and roll album. It sounded so great and sounded like it was done live in the studio. It actually was come to find out. I became more aware of how a song was crafted and what sets a song apart from songs people will remake or redo. This is what was known as a standard. People who cover a song who's quality is so well done that other artist strive for that perfection of that song.

It's on these recordings that Jarrett reintroduced and reinforced the idea that standards are vehicles for limitless invention. Moreover, it can be done without emptying out the heart of the tune. If you know these songs, you can locate the themes of them in any interpretation made by this group. At the same time, you'll also find that these guys play them in such a way that transends these standards.

How Jarrett got the idea to do this in an era where everyone was writing and playing their own material is easier to understand when you look at his history of being a bit of a rebel. He rebelled against acoustic bop in the early seventies when he joined Miles Davis' electric fusion band and toured with it for about eighteen months. Not long afterwards, he rebelled against electric jazz itself and played unplugged exclusively from that point on. He rebelled against structured jazz and ensemble jazz by holding solo concerts where he made up extended pieces on the spot. And in early 1983, he decided to rebel against the growing notion that in order to be creative, you must play melodies that no one has heard before.



With that said the first album of Standards is amazing. With only five tracks each song is dissected and pulled apart so well that you hear the wonderful melody of the songs and you hear each person give their interpretation of each song very well. Every good jazz musician know this and use it as vehicle for their own musicianship. Keith knows this so well that he can play anything and he will make it sound so perfect that few people copy it.



So when it came to pick a Keith Jarrett album it was extremely tough. I own about 90% of his albums. I stuck with the Standard Vol. 1 because it was the first ever Keith Jarrett album I owned. It was one of two Keith Jarrett albums in the collection at my local library. It was that caught my attention with the simple cover art. The title and the artists playing on the album. It was an album that had a song I recognized with a song called "God Bless The Child" because
of a Blood Sweat and Tears album my dad owned at some point. I was impressed also by the length of the song. It was fifteen and half minutes long and it just seemed great to hear a song stretched out like that. Upon listening to the song I fell in love, the groove was wonderful and they dynamic between all three was wonderful. The whole album is a classic and deserves a worthy of a must listen. It's a good introduction to trio music or just Jazz in general. All three people are some of the best people in the business. I do suggest that you get this as the box set version its called Setting Standard: The New York Sessions. It really is an amazing 3CD set recorded all at the same time, but put on three albums. Listen and enjoy!! This is what music is all about.