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Keith Jarrett: Bye Bye Blackbird

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: ECM Records
Released: 1991.10.12
Time:
 67:55
Category: Jazz
Producer(s): Manferd Eicher
Rating: ********.. (8/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.keithjarrett.org
Appears with: Jan Garbarek
Purchase date: 2009.12.09
Price in €: 3,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Bye Bye Blackbird (Dixon/Henderson) - 11:14
[2] You Won't Forget Me (Goell/Spielman) - 10:46
[3] Butch and Butch (Nelson) - 6:37
[4] Summer Night (Anthony/Dubin/Hagar/VanHalen/VanHalen/Warren) - 6:42
[5] For Miles (DeJohnette/Jarrett/Peacock) - 18:43
[6] Straight, No Chaser (Monk) - 6:47
[7] I Thought About You (Mercer/VanHeusen) - 4:02
[8] Blackbird, Bye Bye (DeJohnette/Jarrett/Peacock) - 3:00

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Keith Jarrett - Piano
Jack DeJohnette - Drums, Snare Drums
Gary Peacock - Bass

Manfred Eicher - Executive Producer
Jan Erik Kongshaug - Mastering
Jay Newland - Engineer
Dieter Rehm - Cover Design
Catherine Pichonnier - Cover Photo

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1991 CD ECM Records 314-513074-2
1993 CD ECM Records 513074
2000 CD ECM Records 513074
2008 CD ECM Records 001182602

Recorded at the Power Station, New York, New York on October 12, 1991.

This 1991 recording by Keith Jarrett's so-called Standards Trio was recorded less than two weeks after the death of Miles Davis, who's pictured in silhouette on the cover photograph. The choice of material reflects that of Davis, the man to whom this music was recorded in tribute. There are standards (such as the title song), bracing numbers by Davis contemporaries (Thelonious Monk's "Straight No Chaser" and Oliver Nelson's "Butch And Butch"), and eloquently emotive originals. The centerpiece is the extended "For Miles", which, over the course of its 18 minutes, celebrates the darkness andlight of Davis's life and death. The fact that Miles Davis could be celebrated on an album that features no trumpet speaks both to the breadth of Davis's musical reach, as well asthe prodigious strengths of these three players.



This is the Keith Jarrett Trio's - featuring bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette - elegy for their former employer Miles Davis, recorded only 13 days after the maestro's death. The lonely figure in shadow with a horn on the cover contrasts with the joyous spirit of many of the tracks on this CD, yet there is still a ghostly presence to deal with - and in keeping with Miles' credo, Jarrett's choice of notes is often more purposefully spare than usual. There is symmetry in the organization of the album, with "Bye Bye Blackbird" opening and the Trio's equally jaunty "Blackbird, Bye Bye" closing the album, and the interior tracks immediately following the former and preceding the latter are "You Won't Forget Me" and "I Thought About You." The centerpiece of the CD is an 18-and-a-half-minute group improvisation, "For Miles," which after some DeJohnette tumbling around becomes a dirge sometimes reminiscent of Miles' own elegy for Duke Ellington, "He Loved Him Madly." As an immediate response to a traumatic event, Jarrett and his colleagues strike the right emotional balance to create one of their more meaningful albums.

Richard S. Ginell - All Music Guide



Unglaublich, mit welcher Eleganz und Klarheit das Keith Jarrett Trio am 15. Oktober 1989 in Köln zehn Jazzstandards und zwei Kompositionen des Bandleaders spielte. "Ich glaube, die Typen, von denen die Stücke stammen, hätten ihre Freude an unseren Versionen", sagte Pianist Keith Jarret im Januar 1983 nach der ersten Standard-Session des Trios. Dies gilt erst recht für die fünfte Disc mit Jazz-Klassikern. Eine überragende Scheibe, obwohl die Tontechniker nicht immer die Idealbalance der Instrumente fanden.

© Audio



Mit seinem "Standards"-Trio, soviel kann man heute mit Gewißheit sagen, war Keith Jarrett seiner Zeit weit voraus. Als der Pianist 1983 das Terrain des "Great American Songbook" neu sondierte und in Bassist Gary Peacock und Drummer Jack DeJohnette Brüder im Geiste fand, da war das Erstaunen groß über einen sparsam, fast abgeklärt agierenden Jarrett - und über ein (damals mutiges) Bekenntnis zur Tradition. Zehn Jahre danach schmökert alle Welt im Buch der eleganten Broadway-Evergreens und Club- Klassiker, doch Jarretts Trio ist und bleibt etwas Einzigartiges. "Bye Bye Blackbird" nun ist ein früher später Nachruf auf Miles Davis: früh, weil das Trio unter dem direkten Eindruck von Miles' Tod im Oktober 1991 ins Studio ging, spät, weil man mit der Veröffentlichung anderthalb Jahre hinwartete, um nicht in den Sog der allgemeinen "Tributes" an den großen Trompeter zu geraten. Wie es der Zufall will, erscheint es nun beinahe zeitgleich mit Joe Hendersons Miles-Musings "So Near, So Far" (auf Verve, siehe stereoplay 5/93). Die Affinität von Jarrett, Peacock, DeJohnette zu Davis liegt auf der Hand: Alle drei haben mit ihm gespielt, Peacock von 1964 bis 1967, Jarrett und DeJohnette waren eine treibende Kraft in den Electric-Bands der frühen Siebziger. Doch der Blick des Trios geht weiter zurück in die Vergangenheit: zu "'Round About Midnight" von 1955 (mit dem Titelstück), zu den "Milestones" von 1958 (mit dem Monk-Standard "Straight No Chaser") und zu "Someday My Prince Will Come" von 1961 (mit "I Thought About You"). Diesem "coolen" Miles nähern sich seine drei einstigen Zöglinge ganz uncool-locker, mit süffig ausgespielter Melodik und einer kraftvollen Souveränität, die an Live-Bedingungen denken läßt. Zwei freie Improvisationen, "For Miles" und "Blackbird, Bye Bye", runden dieses rasante Tribute trefflich ab.

© Stereoplay



It wasn't too long after Miles Davis' passing away in 1991 that stories surfaced about the incredible sessions Keith Jarrett pulled together in his honor shortly afterwards. Upon hearing the news of the master trumpeter's passing, keyboard wizard Jarrett booked time with his trio in a New York studio and just jammed, using the work and the music as a form of therapy to deal with the loss of one of jazz's true titans. Parts of the ensuing sessions are presented on Bye Bye Blackbird. Far from being a doom-laden, moribund eulogy or requiem, Bye Bye Blackbird is instead a vibrant jazz date where every note is imbued with palpable emotion and charged with intensity. The real star moments of Bye Bye Blackbird are the fireworks between drummer Jack Deiohnette, bassist Gary Peacock and Jarrett, as they literally convey their feelings for Miles through the music, evoking the mystery, magnetism, regality and spark of the late, great trumpeter in their playing. Sometimes Jarrett's trademark spontaneous vocalizations are over-miked and a little distracting, but you can hardly criticize one of jazz music's most prolific and active keyboardists when he's giving his all behind the keys. Best Blackbird: the title track, "Straight No Chaser," "Butch And Butch" and the 18-minute mini-epic "For Miles."

CMJ.com - Nov 10, 2000



Entertainment Weekly (8/6/93, p.59) - "...dishes up a mostly musky rather than mournful late-night reverie for a departed master..." Rating: B+

Musician (8/93, p.93) - "...blends suspense with sentimentality. You expect a Jarrett record to be gorgeous. This one's robust as well..."


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