Always Let Me Go

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Always Let Me Go
Live album by Keith Jarrett , Gary Peacock & Jack DeJohnette

Publication
(s)

2002

Label (s) ECM records

Format (s)

CD

Genre (s)

jazz

occupation 8th

production

Manfred Eicher

Studio (s)

Orchard Hall , Tokyo

chronology
Inside Out
(2001) 		Always Let Me Go Up for It
(2003)

Always Let Me Go (Live in Tokyo) is a jazz album by Keith Jarrett , Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette , which was recorded on July 26th and 28th, 2000 at concerts of the trio at the Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Tokyo and on 2002 on ECM Records appeared.

background

After overcoming his chronic fatigue syndrome , which lasted more than two years , the pianist Keith Jarrett toured with his standards trio in 2001/2002; During this period, recordings of concerts were made that were ultimately released as albums: Inside Out (2001), Up for It (2003), The Out-of-Towners (2004), My Foolish Heart (2007) and Yesterdays (2009).

At the concert in Tokyo, Jarrett, Peacock and DeJohnette played pieces that developed from improvisation . Keith Jarrett said of the recordings in an interview with The Down Beat :

“ Inside Out was just a kind of prelude to what we're playing now. This time we have advanced into much higher spheres of free play. What we are doing now is much more free ... "

Track list

Bunkamura Orchard Hall, Tokyo
  • Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette: Always Let Me Go (ECM 18000/1801)
CD 1
  1. Hearts in Space (Jarrett) - 32:12
  2. The River (Jarrett) - 3:34
  3. Tributaries (Jack DeJohnette, Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock) - 16:18
  4. Paradox (Jarrett) - 9:01

Disc Two

  1. Waves (Jarrett) - 34:25
  2. Facing East (DeJohnette, Jarrett, Peacock) - 14:04
  3. Tsunami (Jarrett) - 14:51
  4. Relay (Jarrett) - 13:00

reception

For the JazzEcho critic, the album title Always Let Me Go is program; it is an “ironic allusion to the past of the trio, which recorded the standard 'Never Let Me Go' by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans twice, and an imperative of teamwork. Because Jarrett, Peacock, DeJohnette let go of each other, hold the reins loosely, change roles with dreamlike certainty and are always together. Of the partly half-hour, partly quarter-hour, partly shorter pieces of the double album, which was recorded at concerts in Tokyo, only two are identified as collective improvisations, but - apart from a small, silent solo for piano ('The River') - always prevails the spirit of interplay, exchange, giving and taking of impulses. As if out of nowhere, such small melodies, rich grooves, casual style quotations from jazz history and eruptive, noisy condensation arise. Such a permanent fluctuation between density and openness cannot be achieved by a band simply by playing and reacting freely. This not only requires 'big ears', but joint experience. Our trio worked them out on the basis of the standards. ”“ Never before has the trio played together so perfectly as with these recordings, ”is the author's conclusion.

Jack DeJohnette performing at the German Jazz Festival 2015. Photo: Oliver Abels

In his contribution to the BBC, Peter Marsh praised the development of Keith Jarrett's Standards Trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette; for, despite the fact that much of the music they “produced was brilliant, it became increasingly difficult to escape the feeling that Jarrett had a lot of historical baggage around the trio and almost emerged as a kind of platonic ideal of the piano trio, at the Smithsonian Institutes preserved in aspic, ”as he ironically noted. According to Marsh, this changed with the previous album Inside Out (which already contained largely completely improvised material).

“Many of the pieces are long; The opening of 'Hearts in Space' lasts almost 40 minutes. Jarrett has always shown an affinity with structuring long form improvisation, as his solo concerts testify, but while he can settle into comfortable, almost predictable routines, the trio does anything but that. This is classic give and take, with everyone Musician who allows a lot of space while moving from strict abstraction to warm groove play to subdued introspection. Jarrett has made comparisons here against Webern , and it is not difficult to imagine an enterprising soul with too much time getting [material] from some of the more abstract moments for a string quartet . "

Jarrett's playing was not surprisingly brilliant, Peter Marsh continued, “with his ability to conjure up a memorable melodic line and sumptuous sounds from the air intact , coupled with a penchant for knotty, tumbling clusters of notes made up of independent lines . "The solo 'The River' is" a classic example of the pianist's talent for reflective, immediate composition, while on the final 'Relay' his happy, folk lines (reminiscent of Ornette Coleman ) burst with verve. "

"Freed from their more conventional rhythmic duties," sums up the author, Peacock and DeJohnette shone; the bass player is in brilliant shape, “every note is powerful and graceful. His expressive, sluggish solos, razor-sharp time and almost telepathic relationship with Jarrett are reminiscent of the legendary partnership between Bill Evans and Scott LaFaro . DeJohnette just keeps getting better; Very few jazz drummers have both a wide range of experience and undisputed opportunities. 20 years together have paid off and how. "

Cecil Taylor

At the beginning of his review of the album in the UK's The Independent, Phil Johnston asks the rhetorical question "whether we really need another live album by the trio of Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette", after all the trio has had since its formation 20 years ago recorded more live albums than the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead combined. What is new about Always Let Me Go , however, is that since Inside Out (the recording from 2000 in London) the trio has dedicated itself to "what Jarrett calls 'free music' that has not been written, recorded or planned." Track most obviously relates to Jarrett's ideas of "free music," with "Jarrett's fingers in a series of nervous, knuckled Cecil-Taylor isms [...]. The grace with which the three musicians negotiate mood changes and tempo is almost stunning here, as in almost all albums. In 'The River' follows a delicate ballad, the short, three-minute duration of which one would like to extend indefinitely, and the transparent 'Tributaries' that follow. It's clear we're listening to vintage Jarrett. "

There was “nothing wrong with the second part of the album,” wrote Johnston; that is “not just good jazz. this is music on a completely different level. The beginning of the opener, 'Waves', is almost perfect, it sounds like a Beethoven sonata before it turns everything in the direction of Bud Powell and Bop bonds. Always Let Me Go is no ordinary album. Those of us who thought we had all the live Jarrett albums we needed need to think again. "

Derek Taylor said in Dusted magazine that "Jarrett, Peacock and DeJohnette are arguably the most outstanding piano trio in the world that has been an institution for improvised music for decades," Jarrett probably arranged a carte blanche with his label . " Coltrane had it with Bob Thiele at Impulse and Miles had it that way with Teo Macero at Columbia , but the current economy of jazz makes this an almost impossible convenience today." Jarrett could do the feat at ECM by working closely with the producer Manfred Eicher and have a compelling track record of record sales and artistic excellence, said Taylor. Even more impressive is that the quality standard achieved continues to set the bar for his colleagues. Always Let Me Go advance the winning streak and reaffirm why Jarrett "holds the imaginary keys to the ECM kingdom."

While the improvisations are largely spontaneous, Taylor continued in his review, they are almost always based on a strong sense of melody and rhythm. “Each record opens with a mammoth excursion that runs over half an hour of frightening duration. Hearts in Space moves from slightly thoughtful beginnings, built around Jarrett's jittering clusters and the flood of DeJohnette's beating drums, to a more clearly defined trajectory built on comprehensible chords. ”Of particular note is a pastoral interlude in gloomy Mid-range Americana where Jarrett's exemplary method of romantic lyric poetry really flourishes. The aptly and succinctly named “Waves” works from a different framework and retains the colossal dimensions.

Most of the other pieces are shorter, but are still around the 14-minute range in size and scope. Of these, 'Tributaries' and 'Tsunami' really stand out. "Along the way, the sparse trampling pattern of DeJohnette's basin begins a journey that evolves exponentially in terms of density and momentum. From humble beginnings to a dark, distinctive groove dominated by piercing block chords and the corpulent ostinato of Peacock's bass, the piece is inundated with an almost angry dysphoria. 'Tsunami' underlines Jarrett's agility [...] at the beginning, before whirling around in a comparatively narrow tonal center. The close contact with his partners drives the pianist on as he races through a litany of rows of ladders. Later, DeJohnette's tribal-toned beats put the piece on a fever. "

Gary Peacock 2003

Perhaps the only annoying facet of the set, according to Taylor, is the inclusion of deafening applause at the end of many of the pieces. “Jarrett's infamous ego is near legendary in jazz circles, but this tactic seems particularly sycophantic - the music speaks for itself without the added praise of an adoring audience. However, this is a minor complaint when weighed against the brilliance of the music. [...] Anyone who has an ear for finely carved jazz improvisation should refer to this immense case study in the state of the art. "

Mike Quinn praised in JazzTimes : “What fascinates most about this virtuoso show of strength is the way in which this trio can turn outward in no time to pull a melody and structure out of the air, usually at the right moment, and Bringing everything with something to earth, from bluesy funk, a bit of wistful romance, a bit of bop or swing. "As always, the two CDs were wonderfully recorded and gave all three space enough space to keep the spotlight:" DeJohnette still has it never listened to so refined primitive or to Peacock so strong, so melodic, while he explored the intuition field so well-known for Jarrett, who has apparently managed to find another 30 or 40 keys on his piano. "

Thomas Conrad awarded the album five stars on Down Beat and praised it: “This free music requires the faith and inspiration of the listener and makes value judgments even more subjective than usual.” Unlike on Inside Out, “we hear pieces like ' Hearts in Space 'and the 34½ minute long' Waves' as whole long arcs. The fact that this wholeness is always in jeopardy, that it doesn't stick to rules but its own, and that we feel like we're discovering it at the same moment as the trio, makes it exciting and fulfilling. ” Always Let Me Go get "through its sudden shifts, peaks and valleys, the exquisitely made songs in the songs that the trio encounters, an increased sense of the imagination - a crystalline, three and a half minute miniature performance from the silence of the 'tributaries'' , the melody grace of 'Waves' - and the dramatic fluctuations in its dynamic range. In this twentieth year, this trio is growing more and more in the ability to challenge the creativity of its audience. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Keith Jarrett: Always Let Me Go. Jazz Echo, March 1, 2002, accessed March 1, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Album information at ECM
  3. ↑ a b c Peter Marsh: Keith Jarrett: Always Let Me Go (Review). BBC Music, March 1, 2002, accessed March 1, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Phil Johnston: Keith Jarrett: Always Let Me Go. Independent, October 25, 2002, accessed March 1, 2019 .
  5. ↑ a b c Derek Taylor: Keith Jarrett: Always Let Me Go. Dusted, April 16, 2003, accessed March 1, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Mike Quinn: Keith Jarrett: Always Let Me Go. JazzTimes, November 1, 2002, accessed March 1, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Thomas DConrad: Keith Jarrett: Always Let Me Go. Down Beat, December 1, 2002, accessed March 1, 2019 .