Track Listing

1. I Loves You, Porgy
2. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)
3. Don't Ever Leave Me
4. Someone to Watch over Me
5. My Wild Irish Rose
6. Blame It on My Youth/Meditation
7. Something to Remember You By
8. Be My Love
9. Shenandoah
10. I'm Through With Love

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3628 in Music
• Released on: 1999-10-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Amazon.com
This solo recording is a fitting coda for Keith Jarrett's more restrained, less prolific output in the 1990s. The fitful vamps and long, ruminative improvisations that made Jarrett a solo piano star in the '70s are here either stillborn or tightly tethered to classic melodies from the likes of Gershwin and Ellington, yet there is not the slightest hint of repression. Instead, Jarrett sprinkles notes and brings the familiar strains of "I Loves You, Porgy" and "Someone to Watch over Me" to bloom with a dynamic but resonantly earth-toned vibrancy. Rarely has the pianist kept his music so simple and free of pageantry. Audible moans and shenanigans with the piano's sustain pedal are held to a minimum, and even brawny, sing-along stuff like "Shenandoah" and "My Wild Irish Rose" never lapse into sloppy sentimentality--indeed, Jarrett's two-handed caress of the latter song is so delicately self assured, the tune seems to play itself. Among the 10 tracks, only "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good" finds the pianist stretching into busy (but still crisp) extended passages. Yes, there are moments when Melody's shimmering standards exude the glazed predictability of cocktail music in a hotel lobby. But those are far outnumbered by the cherished occasions when Jarrett's romanticism rings true. --Britt Robson

Customer Reviews

One of the most beautiful recordings I've ever come across
We Germans like to quote Goethe - so let me start out with a free translation of a Goethe quote that comes to my mind when I think of this CD: "A true master proves himself when his means are limited."

Of course the circumstances under which this CD was produced (Jarret's Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) have been (ab-)used by the record company (and by himself?) to hype up this album quite a lot. So until I actually had listened to the CD, I was quite sceptical about what to expect here. Did Jarret simply record some cocktail bar tunes, only presenting them in a pseudo-sophisticated fashion? The plain and simple answer is "anything but that". Every single track on this album is truely deep, inspired and meditative in the best way - only a very superficial listener can confuse this album with bar music. The songs on this CD may be played in bars, too - but never in Jarret's way. While bar music only pretends to be truely felt and meaningful - certain amounts of alcohol might be required for the listener to believe so, too - this music does the opposite: It does not have a certain fake sentimental attitude, but it simply sounds out simple and truthful. At first, one might be tempted to get a nice glass of wine (or a cup of coffee) ready, sit in an armchair, and try to just "hang loose" while listening. The thing is, though, that the music won't let you! Moreso, it does the opposite: It forces you to listen very, very closely - and what you'll hear you'll find amazing: Simple classic tunes played in a way that is never overdone, never superficial, but that reflects what can't easily be put into words and thus makes us play and listen to music at all: Truths about ourselves, the way we perceive outside and inside worlds...just find out for yourselves!

The music on this album never reminded me of Jarret's disease; it is not at all "music played by a patient". What is more: On his older recordings, I sometimes find Jarret's ("old", respectively "pre-CFS") style of producing cascades of sounds disturbing and out of place - it seems to me that there, he is occasionally providing a shiny and shimmery surface more than he is focusing on the core powers that lay within the music. On this album, he HAS to focus on the latter because of his disease. And through that he is maybe more of an artist than he ever was before: No more finger acrobatics (only a brief souvenir of that in "I Got It Bad"), but music which is simply beautiful and deep. On this album, Jarret's piano doesn't just sound, it sings.

Piano...memories...and the time with you.
Finally there's a solo piano album in my collection that can match John McArthur's `HIDDEN', Brad Mehldau's "Elegiac Cycle", Bill Evans' "Alone" and Keith Jarrett's legendary "Koln Concert". It's Keith Jarrett's `The Melody At Night With You'. Haven't heard such a great piano solo album in years. "The Melody At Night With You" was a revelation to me. Jarrett finally prooves that he CAN be the kind of piano player we new he could be. He tones down his signature moans and grunts, his beating of the piano and he plays, honestly and sincere. As a gift to his wife, Jarrett's playing takes your breath away. His playing is daring and adventurous, and because he has a perfect sense of structure as well, he never gets lost and keeps everything in perfect balance. And on top of this, his playing is deeply moving. I hear a lot of McArthur and Evans in Jarrett's playing on this album, but, much more important, I hear foremost a pianist with a distinct style of his own, that is warm and not pretentious. He is distinct. You will not regret buying this album.

JARRETT SCORES
In one of the most beautiful piano jazz albums I own, Keith Jarrett takes eleven standard songs about love and gives them a nighttime, quiet-by-the-fireplace treatment. He was obviously inspired/influenced by jazz pianists like Bill Evans and Barbara Carroll to name just two, but this album is certainly not a re-tread. It is an original.

Jarrett can do almost anything on the piano. I not only own some of his wonderful jazz recordings like "Whisper Not," but also classical recordings of works by Shostakovitch and Haydn. Everything Jarrett records comes out golden.

Every tune on this CD is special, but I particularly enjoyed the Gershwins' "I Loves You, Porgy" and Oscar Levant's "Blame It On My Youth" (a gorgeous song with a great lyric which, sadly, so few people sing or play). The American folksong "Shenandoah" is given a lovely, surprising arrangement by Jarrett. This album is a treasure. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.