The Melody at Night, with You (Album)

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The Melody at Night, with You
Template: Infobox music album / maintenance / type undetectedKeith Jarrett music album

Publication
(s)

October 14, 1999

admission

1998

Label (s) Edition of Contemporary Music (ECM)

Format (s)

CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

10

running time

55:13

occupation Keith Jarrett

production

Manfred Eicher, Keith Jarrett

Studio (s)

Cavelight Studio

Location (s)

Oxford, NJ

chronology
Tokyo '96 The Melody at Night, with You Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette - Whisper Not

The Melody at Night, with You is a solo album by the American pianist Keith Jarrett . It was recorded in his private music studio in 1998 and released in 1999 by ECM Records .

The album

The album was recorded during his illness with chronic fatigue syndrome ( myalgic encephalomyelitis ) and was dedicated to his second wife Rose Anne: "For Rose Anne, who heard the music and then gave it back to me."

In an interview with Time Magazine in November 1999, he explained: “I started recording in December 1997, it was supposed to be a Christmas present for my wife. I had just had my Hamburg Steinway overhauled and wanted to try it out and I have my private music studio very close to my home. So when I woke up, when I had a reasonably decent day, I intended to turn on the tape recorder and play for a few minutes. I was too exhausted to do more. Then it worked with the placement of the recording microphone, the new mechanics of the instrument ... I could play so gently ... and the inner dynamics of the melodies ... the songs. It was one of those little miracles that you have to be ready for, but part of it was that I just didn't have enough energy to be refined. ”For more information on the album, see Wolfgang Sandner's biography on Keith Jarrett:“ I had only the strength for a single thing, which thereby acquired something of a Zen character - slim, graceful, discreet. They are recordings that show how you can play melodies without being sophisticated at the same time. In a way, I've detoxified myself from jazz harmonies that come from the head and not from the heart. "

Although Jarrett is mostly noted for his improvisations, this album contains only a few improvisations - it consists of eight jazz standards, two traditionals and only one improvisation ("Meditation", the second half of track 6, thematically linked to Blame It on My Youth , the first Half of the title).

The contributors

Keith Jarrett (2003)

The musician and his instrument

The production staff

  • Daniela Nowitzki - cover design
  • Rose Anne Jarrett - photos of the booklet
  • Sascha Kleis - design
  • Manfred Eicher - producer
  • Keith Jarrett - recording engineer, producer

The playlist

All tracks are jazz standards or traditionals (5 & 9) by other composers, with the exception of the second half of track 6 ("Meditation"), which is an improvisation by Keith Jarrett.

  • Keith Jarrett: The Melody at Night, with You (ECM 1675 (547 949-2))
  1. I Loves You, Porgy ( George Gershwin , Ira Gershwin , Dubose Heyward ) - 5:50
  2. I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good) ( Duke Ellington , Paul Francis Webster ) - 7:10
  3. Don't Ever Leave Me ( Oscar Hammerstein II , Jerome Kern ) - 2:47
  4. Someone to Watch Over Me ( George Gershwin , Ira Gershwin ) - 5:05
  5. My Wild Irish Rose (Traditional) - 5:21
  6. Blame It on My Youth / Meditation ( Edward Heyman , Oscar Levant / Keith Jarrett) - 7:19
  7. Something to Remember You By ( Howard Dietz , Arthur Schwartz ) - 7:15
  8. Be My Love ( Nicholas Brodszky , Sammy Cahn ) - 5:38
  9. Shenandoah (Traditional) - 5:52
  10. I'm Through with Love ( Gus Kahn , Fud Livingston , Matty Malneck ) - 2:56

The reception

The album was very successful commercially, was one of the best-selling jazz instrumental albums of 2000, and won a number of awards. The second track, I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good) , was nominated for the 2001 Grammy Award for best instrumental solo in jazz.

The critics' ratings were mixed, some of the reviews praising the intimacy of the recordings, others criticizing their simplicity. Ralf Dombrowski writes in Jazz thing (11/99): the album “is full of charm and transports the musical intimacy of a purified romantic who recalls the sheen of simplicity that he once tried to leave behind with 'Facing You'. The 52 year old pianist plays Gershwin and Ellington, folk songs and a hit by Mario Lanza . He avoids the nimble fluency in favor of auratic contemplation. Seriously chorale and pathetically gospel-like, he immerses himself in meditations on closeness and grace. The single, purposefully placed tone replaces the abundance of melodious rambling impressions. Jarrett gets older and uses the sum of his experiences to reduce. An album full of space, but without gaps. "And Werner Stiefele comments in Scala (6/99):" Keith Jarrett refrains from using George Gershwin's ' I Loves You Porgy ' as the starting point for a furious fireworks display. The piano virtuoso plays the melody, just weaves in a few notes with his left hand that support rather than accompany, nothing more happens. It has been a long time since anyone has made the modern opera classic sound so beautiful, slow and reduced. Just as slowly and deliberately, Jarrett creates all ten standards on his solo CD. Like the poets of the Japanese haikus , he brings the quintessence out of the subject - and thus expresses more than most large orchestral versions could. Jarrett dedicated The Melody at Night, with You to his wife Rose Anne, a declaration of love in ten parts, each of which is a resounding island of beauty, tenderness and hope. "For Wolfgang Sandner - the German biographer Keith Jarretts - it is" simple pianistic self-talk as a sign of convalescence after a serious illness. ... The recording, which he brought out about three years after the outbreak of the disease in 1999 with endless effort and patience ... is his ' Heiligenstätter Testament ': simple ballads from the Great American Songbook , straightforward sound studies without any rhetorical effort, just that, what was still possible for him technically. You think you 're attending a private soiree at the Jarrett house behind the hills of New Jersey . "

The evaluation by Richard S. Ginell from Allmusic was negative, who only gave the album 2½ out of 5 stars on the grounds: “These recordings lack color, contrast and life; and while one is happy to see Jarrett regaining the energy to make music, the results are touching for a while, but quickly lose their appeal. ” Doug Ramsey also missed the expansive and exploratory spirit of earlier solo albums in JazzTimes . In terms of its approach, the album is more reminiscent of his Mozart interpretations; the tempos are slow and the surfaces calm, which makes hearing easy. The ranking as # 2 jazz album in the Down Beat Critics Poll 2000 was positive , as was the rating #A in Entertainment Weekly .

literature

Web links

Transcriptions

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see the album in the Keith Jarrett catalog at jazzdisco.org. Retrieved January 12, 2017 .
  2. ↑ see Keith Jarrett's dedication in the booklet of the album
  3. ↑ see the article in Time Mazagine. Retrieved January 12, 2017 : “I started taping it in December 1997, as a Christmas present for my wife. I'd just had my Hamburg Steinway overhauled and wanted to try it out, and I have my studio right next to the house, so if I woke up and had a half-decent day, I would turn on the tape recorder and play for a few minutes. I was too fatiqued to do more. Then something started to click with the mike placement, the new action of the instrument, ... I could play so soft, ... and the internal dynamics of the melodies ... of the songs ... It was one of those little miracles that you have to be ready for, though part of it was that I just didn't have the energy to be clever. "
  4. ^ A b Wolfgang Sandner: Keith Jarrett. A biography . ISBN 978-3-644-11731-0 .
  5. ↑ see the Keith Jarrett Biography at allaboutjazz.com. Retrieved January 12, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Jazzthing quoted from amazon.de. Retrieved January 13, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Scala quoted from amazon.de. Retrieved January 13, 2017 .
  8. ↑ see the rating of the album at allmusic.com. Retrieved January 12, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Doug Ramsey Keith Jarrett: The Melody at Night, with You JazzTimes January / February 2000
  10. ↑ Down Beat (8/00, page 27), loses with one vote to Soul on Soul by Dave Douglas
  11. ^ Entertainment Weekly , Issue # 512, Nov. 12, 1999, p. 83