Track Listing

1. Survivor's Suite: Beginning
2. Survivor's Suite: Conclusion

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #217366 in Music
• Released on: 2000-05-09
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Amazon.com essential recording
Keith Jarrett's prolific quartet work during the 1970s had lots of peaks, from his Nordic band's Belonging to his U.S.-based band's entire Impulse! output (now available on two excellent multi-CD sets, The Impulse Years: 1973-1974 and Mysteries: 1975-1976). This 1977 date, featuring the U.S. lineup of Jarrett and tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Paul Motian, also highlighted Jarrett's soprano saxophone, celeste, bass recorder, and percussion across the span of two lengthy 20-plus-minute segments of the Survivors' Suite. Slow developments intensify the music's length, both harmonic and melodic, as it builds toward cresting and busting points and recedes again into remarkably sensitive, quiet solos and duos between the group's players. Haden and Jarrett (on Celeste) play a stellar duet to usher in the closing movement from the first segment, and, as always, Redman plays with a biting intensity and a Texas-blues yearning that's as wide and long as the Lone Star state. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

Transcendent
In my CD collection, I have many from the 70s and 80s whose qualities diminish each time I pull them out for another spin. ("What on earth did I see in that one??" is a familiar lament.)

Not the SURVIVOR'S SUITE. I must have played it a thousand times over the years, and each time I hear new things in this outstanding album. It's the usual purchase history: taped it off a friend at uni in 1977, persuaded my brother to buy it on LP in the vac, bought my own copy of the CD in the 80s, still waiting for ECM to reissue on SACD (or at least remastered) in the 00s.

Not for nothing was this voted the Melody Maker's Jazz Album of the Year in 1977.

I just finished playing it again today, and my area of intrigue is another tiny detail: was it over-dubbed? This would be unusual for a Jarrett album, but there are passages where Jarrett appears to be playing both soprano sax and bass recorder. (And you thought this was going to be just another piano album?!)

The extraordinary thing about this album -- which has always been in my all-time Top Ten -- is that there are passages which I regard as almost unlistenable. But those noisy, free-jazz sections serve only to accentuate the total beauty of the quiet pieces which follow them.

There is so much going on in this album. There's more than a hint of world music. Paul Motian's drum-playing is extraordinary, and a source of inspiration for anyone worried that their creativity might dry up in the forties. Haden's bass is fantastic -- utterly dependable whenever Jarrett needs to swing, yet rich in emotion when required to perform a solo or the closing coda of each track. Redman, though primarily a saxophone player, actually gets to play more percussion than sax on this album. Jarrett's piano -- particularly those long right-hand runs -- has never been better, but here he experiments with several other instruments -- soprano sax, osi drums (whatever they are), celeste and bass recorder.

This is the album that got me into jazz. It takes time to get into. My recommendation is to start by listening repeatedly to the rest of track #2 after Motian's drum solo.

Once 'into' this album, you will treasure it for life. I've known it for 27 years, and it never palls.

A Masterpiece...
It is a personal requirement that I listen to this recording at least once a month. This music takes me to places I have never been before and I always return with a refreshed point of view. Jarratt & company explore the full range of human emotions on this beautiful masterpiece. From a soft and tender relaxing vibe to a full blown controlled rage, this music parallels the experience of life - its'ups and downs and ebbs and flows. It is something to experience often. The long winding suite starts out slow, builds to a boil and then mellows out before exploding into what can only be described as an emotional storm. When the music final ends, you have been through an emotional roller-coaster. I have over 25 Jarratt recordings in my collection and each one offers a diverse and unique listening experience, but this one goes to the proverbial desert island with me along with Wayne Shorter's "Native Dancer" and Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue. This recording is appropriately titled "Survivors Suite," because if you "get it" you will be completely exhaused after you "survive it" - but you will have a big smile on your face when you finish. After almost 25 years, this music is still fresh and exciting. Thanks for the experience Keith. Peace!

Outstanding
Keith Jarrett has recorded many fine albums, but this is simply the finest jazz record I know. It takes some getting into, but many people start with the beautiful piano run that starts at about 4:30 in Part 2. (This album has just two tracks, which may make it seem daunting.)

Jarrett worked with two quartets in the mid-70s: a European one with Jan Garbarek on sax, and this, the American one, with Charlie Haden on bass and Dewey Redman on sax. The differences between the two are enormous, but both produced wonderful albums.

On this, released after the US quartet had broken up, Jarrett experiments with the bass recorder and celeste, to entrancing, mystical effect. It seems ridiculous to suggest it, but could Jarrett have been trying to ape (purely in marketing terms) Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' by way of his multi-instrumentalism and two-tracks-to-an-album structure?

That is sheer whimsy. What is not in doubt is that from the moment you start getting into this album, you have before you many years of listening pleasure. If you like any sort of intelligent music and can cope with the occasionally raucous sax, you will love this album. Charlie Haden's bass coda at the end of each track are alone worth the price of the CD. Magnificent!