Track Listing

1. From the Body
2. Inside Out
3. 341 Free Fade
4. Riot
5. When I Fall in Love

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #132019 in Music
• Brand: Peacock
• Released on: 2001-10-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Album Description
Japanese limited edition issue of the album classic in a deluxe, miniaturized LP sleeve replica of the original vinyl album artwork.

Amazon.com
Now into its third decade as a unit, this stupendous trio featuring pianist Keith Jarrett, bassist Gary Peacock, and drummer Jack DeJohnette has evolved into one of the most enduring and rewarding trios in the history of jazz. This brilliantly recorded live date captures this towering triad at its telepathic best. The highly imaginative and spontaneous Jarrett delivers a complex and gospel-like figure, then Peacock's fluid bass lines comment on the pianist's statement, and DeJohnette's intricate propulsions conclude the phrase. Although Bill Evans and Paul Bley first glimpsed this kind of jazz improvisation, Jarrett and his partners have created a new language that speaks with its own voice. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Customer Reviews

Music played inside out
This album brings a whole different concept to the trio's music and continues to add new possibilities to standard jazz playing. As Mr. Jarrett explains in the notes included in the CD, the trio uses standards as a framework to express their "jazz" from inside-out. As a result the trio's music is not a cover or tribute to any standard, but instead is a free expression of their music and talent, where standards are use as the material to guide their inspiration. The result is 78.08 minutes of fresh and new fabulous music played live at the Royal Festival Hall in London during July 2000 with an excellent recording. If you seek for standard covers or classic versions of jazz material this album is not for you, unless this time you want to listen to something different. On the other hand, if you already own the trio's CDs Standards I and II, Still Live, Blue Note, Standards in Norway, or any other I can anticipate you that this album is very different from the others. The trio's free playing is based on 4 compositions of Jarrett (From the Body, Inside Out, 341 Free Fade, and Riot) and the standard "When I Fall In Love". There is more improvisation and more dialog among the three players than usual. The double bass and drum solos are spectacular and are on the same level of Jarrett's piano playing. This album comes right in time to refresh the trio's music. I only wish it would have been a double CD due to the new music direction that the trio is achieving.

magic in London.
This is a damn good piano trio album. While not as "out there" as some of the free jazz you may find, the Keith Jarrett trio captures both accessibility and some very profound free moments.

This album is essential if only for the first and third tracks, where the improvisation carries the musicians into some downright profound sonic bliss. The first song, "From the Body" is a definite high point. In the beginning of its 21 minutes, Keith Jarrett plays a simple, catchy, odd-timed modal melody. The others join, immediately cohering their minds to create an open, extra-sensory means of communication. Quite simply, it's uncanny how well they play together, their collegiality informing every note they play. For nearly 12-minutes they carry on without a dull moment, but it only gets better. Towards the end it shifts into a subdued, high speed shimmering pointillist whirl and it's spine-tinglingly energetic. It swells to Keith Jarrett bringing down a majestic piano performance of classical power.

Then there is "341 Free Fade", my other favorite piece on the album. It opens with Peacock's heavy solo, then the others join him and they weave through a telepathically flowing jazz improv. It gradually shifts into more abstract territory, finally becoming an avant-sounding clatter that carries on for eight minutes or so, decidedly unjazzy -- un*anything* -- with DeJohnette's drums clacking, Jarrett's atonal piano plinking in odd time signatures, and Peacock's bass erratically thumping and buzzing. The most intense part is near the end where Jarrett and Peacock approach a nearly post-minimalist restraint of notes, with the spaces of silence between them just as powerful as any sound, all the while DeJohnette's high-hat hisses a steady 4/4 pulse while a continuous snare buzz radiates through the otherworldly ambience created.

The rest is very good also. I won't describe the pieces individually but they are excellent - however, the improvisation doesn't carry them into the exciting realms of the pieces I described above. "When I Fall In Love" is not improvised -- it's a gentle jazz standard that is the 'weakest' song on the album in and of itself, although it is a nice way to end the CD.

Who else can do this???
First of all, I'd like to ask who else can accomplish "total improvisation" on as high a level as this trio.

Keith's "total improvization" (e.g. 'Koln Concerts' or 'Vieena Concerts') is different from "free improvization" of avan-jazzers. While free-jazzers often stick to 'atonal improvization' most of the time, Keith prefers (and can do) 'tonal improvization'. That means Keith pays respect to more conventional song forms and chord changes. Thus, his improvization is actually instant composing like that of J.S. Bach: he can write a melody.

Melody is the the most important element of music that often a lot avan-jazzers as well as non-avan-jazzers forget.

I am not saying that all avan-jazzers cannot creat a melody: listen the phrases of Ornett Coleman, Eric Dolphy or free-jazz period Gato Barbieri...their distinctive phrasing sings storys...thus these abstract phrases for me are melodies.

But still Keith is the only one who actually can compose a song simultaneously on stage show after show...if you need proof of this statement, listen to his solo piano impriovizations.

In this album, Keith, Gary and Jack expanded the notion of 'total improvization' to trio-performance level. Yes, they have done similar things before: albums like "Changes," "Changeless" or the thought provoking song dedicated to the master "For Miles." They have already succeeded in carrying out 'trio total improvization' or in Keith's word 'trio-jazz' prior to this album.

Yet, I believe this is the first conscious declaration from this greatest jazz piano trio for exploring unseen realm of jazz improvization.