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Keith Jarrett: Rio

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: ECM Records
Released: 2011.08.11
Time:
 40:15 / 50:10
Category: Jazz
Producer(s): Keith Jarrett, Manfred Eicher
Rating:
Media type: CD double
Web address: www.keithjarrett.org
Appears with: Jan Garbarek
Purchase date: 2014
Price in €: 2,00





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Disc 1

[1] Part I (K.Jarrett) - 8:40
[2] Part II (K.Jarrett) - 6:52
[3] Part III (K.Jarrett) - 6:00
[4] Part IV (K.Jarrett) - 4:13
[5] Part V (K.Jarrett) - 6:25
[6] Part VI (K.Jarrett) - 7:00


Disc 2

[1] Part VII (K.Jarrett) - 7:28
[2] Part VIII (K.Jarrett) - 4:58
[3] Part IX (K.Jarrett) - 5:02
[4] Part X (K.Jarrett) - 5:01
[5] Part XI (K.Jarrett) - 3:20
[6] Part XII (K.Jarrett) - 6:09
[7] Part XIII (K.Jarrett) - 7:03
[8] Part XIV (K.Jarrett) - 5:40
[9] Part XV (K.Jarrett) - 6:34

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Keith Jarrett - Piano, Producer

Manfred Eicher - Executive Producer
Myriam Dauelsberg - Producer
Steffen Dauelsberg - Producer
Guillermo Malbrán - Producer
Augusto Tapia - Producer
Martin Pearson - Engineer
Mayo Bucher - Cover Art
Sascha Kleis - Layout
Daniela Yohannes - Photography

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2011 CD ECM 2198-99

Recorded at the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on April 9, 2011

Rio is a recording of solo piano improvisations by Keith Jarrett, recorded live at the Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro on April 9, 2011, released as a two CD set on the ECM label.

The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4½ stars stating "After one listen, it becomes obvious Rio is indeed very special. It puts on aural display Jarrett as a virtually boundless musician, whose on-the-spot, wide-ranging ideas are executed with astonishing immediacy and dexterity; this music is passionate, poetic (often songlike), and stands outside the confines of genre... since nothing approaching what is here actually exists in Jarrett's recorded catalog. Rio is therefore the new standard by which the pianist's future solo recordings will be judged, and perhaps also sets the bar for any other player who attempts the same".



A fascinating document of Keith Jarrett’s solo concert in Rio de Janeiro on April 9, 2011. The pianist pulls a broad range of material from the ether: thoughtful/reflective pieces, abstract sound-structures, pieces that fairly vibrate with energy. The double album climaxes with a marvellous sequence of encores. 40 years ago Keith Jarrett recorded his first ECM disc, the solo piano “Facing You”. He has refined his approach to solo music many times since then, always finding new things to play. So it is here, in this engaging solo recording from Brazil.

ECM Records



Rio, the double-disc solo concert recording by Keith Jarrett, marks his 40th anniversary as an ECM recording artist; coincidentally, Facing You, his debut for the label, was a solo piano recording, though cut in a studio. Many of Jarrett's improvised solo concerts have represented benchmarks in his career: The Köln Concert, The Sun Bear Solo Concerts, and La Scala among them. His musical and philosophical approach toward recording this way has evolved and been refined over the decades, but nowhere more so than on Rio, a complete document of his show at the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro in April of 2011. The date is a hint that something very different is afoot here: Jarrett's live offerings are usually issued years after an event instead of mere months afterwards (the pianist called label boss Manfred Eicher from the airport after the show. After one listen, it becomes obvious Rio is indeed very special. It puts on aural display Jarrett as a virtually boundless musician, whose on-the-spot, wide-ranging ideas are executed with astonishing immediacy and dexterity; this music is passionate, poetic (often songlike), and stands outside the confines of genre. The strength of his pianism and diversity in his thought and philosophy between music and everyday life dissolve into the freest improvisation he has ever displayed on record. In these 15 untitled selections, Jarrett allows everything from his sense impressions about the city, the country, cultural and social history, the evening, and the audience to simply have their way with him spontaneously. The effect is intimate, energetic, emotionally engaged, and wildly expressive and imaginative. What begins in the knotty dissonance and counterpoint of the first selection gives way to the elliptical on the second to something approaching song for the remainder of disc one's six selections. By the beginning of disc two, the listener is transfixed as jazz improvisation melds seamlessly into nearly classical investigations of detail, harmony, and nuance; simultaneously, folk traditions, blues and ballad forms, and rhythmic invention are all encased in a pervasive lyricism that possesses pianist and audience alike. Even music that sounds "familiar" is based on preconceived notions by the listener, since nothing approaching what is here actually exists in Jarrett's recorded catalog. Rio is therefore the new standard by which the pianist's future solo recordings will be judged, and perhaps also sets the bar for any other player who attempts the same.

Thom Jurek - All Music Guide


It takes a while to get over the shock of seeing an ECM Records sleeve as a riot of blazing yellows and reds rather than the usual mysterious monochrome. Then you listen to this solo-piano double album, recorded live only six months ago in Rio, and the outburst makes sense. The story goes that Jarrett was on the phone to ECM boss Manfred Eicher barely before the applause had died down, convinced this was his best gig in years – and he's right. Warmer and less abstract than his still-remarkable 2006 Carnegie Hall solo show, a constantly changing (and totally improvised) soundscape of rocking African and Latin vamps, fragile love songs, guitar-like blues and sparingly deployed free jazz, Rio represents Jarrett at his most exuberant. Though the spurted, staccato figures and stamping chords of Part 1 suggest an edgy set, the romantic harmonies and gentle trills of Part 2 and its churning, funky successor take the music to more open ground. Wistful ballads give way to township-jazz stomps like early Abdullah Ibrahim, Latin groovers to Cecil Tayloresque free jazz, rocking rural blues, love songs full of internal conversations. For old Jarrett fans and prospective new ones, it's a must.

John Fordham - The Guardian



Pianist Keith Jarrett is the most brilliant and essential jazz musician of the last 40 years.

Okay, that a crazy-bold statement. Jarrett is not the “best” maybe, and certainly not the easiest to enjoy or to fit into a category. But in many ways he encompasses most essentially the turbulent and wonderful history of the music since Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman passed their prime.

And his new solo piano recording, Rio, is his best work in a very long time. Which is to say: it is one of the essential recordings of the year.

It’s not popular or simple to hold up Jarrett as a paragon. He has done plenty to offend whatever might be called the “jazz establishment”, including being contemptuous of audiences who dare even to cough or sneeze during his concerts. He has made many classical recordings (usually a suspicious move in jazz) and he’s been bold enough to let that sensibility bleed over his jazz playing.  He has flirted with fusion, mainly in playing with Miles Davis in the 1970s, which is an offense again purity, but he has also been a Marsalis-esque prude in other moments, eschewing electric instruments and playing a strict diet of older compositions with his “Standards Trio”.

But in fact Jarrett has been at the center of jazz’s creative core for decades.  He has played fusion, yes, but the very best and most adventurous of that style’s early work.  He has also played beautifully and consistently in avant-garde styles, moving easily beyond bebop or post-bop harmonies into “free” territory both with his bands and as a solo player.  With Charles Lloyd and then on his own he helped to define jazz as a music that could touch on popular impulses without being merely a finger-snapping gloss on the hit parade.  His classical playing has been assured and fine (particularly his recordings of music by Bach, Handel, and Shostakovich), and that work has informed all his playing in subtle and substantive ways.  He has challenged himself by working with great musicians of his generation from both the U.S. and Europe.

Most pointedly, Jarrett has done the one thing that is truly required of all great jazz players: he has developed his own, immediately recognizable sound.  And that voice is most clearly recognized when Jarrett plays—famously—as a solo artist.  Since The Koln Concert in 1975, ECM has been releasing examples of Jarrett’s remarkable, fully improvised solo concerts.  Jarrett claims to begin each of these concerts with no preconceived notions of what he will play, and the recitals allow him to spin a world of sound that is wholly his.

Rio is the most brilliant Jarrett solo recording in recent memory. Rather than improvising in a longer, more rambling form, Jarrett works here in shorter statements, each focused and concise. In 15 very different miniatures, Rio demonstrates the pianist’s astonishing facility for generating not only grooves or settings but also developing webs of melody and counter-melody. From free playing to blues to gospel to aching ballads, Jarrett covers a vast landscape of piano.

Some of the pleasures of Rio are familiar. “Part VIII” starts with a jaunty Jarrett gospel figure that sets your ears up for enjoyment.  The harmonic movement, however, goes well beyond the usual blues or gospel moves, and a certain baroque precision emerges in the improvised melody. “Part XI” is a blues, straight up, with a modified boogie bounce in the left hand, and by staying under four minutes the performance comes off as a modest but tasty bit of tradition.

When the concert turns contemplative, there are also traditional enjoyments to be heard.  Jarrett is simply a superb spinner of melody, and the ballads here are remarkably focused. “Part XIII” aches with feeling from the start, making you wonder how it could truly be spontaneous.  Jarrett starts with a simple descending chord figure, then a single-note melody takes the composition away. That descending chord figure is not all there is to the song, as new daylight seems to break over it every dozen bars or so. If you’ve never heard what Jarrett can do at his best, this track is something that might provoke a sharp intake of breath.

Beyond these moments, Rio manages to be equally good—and more surprising. “Part X” is a scribbly run of melody without a clear harmonic center that starts as two hands in octaves, then breaks out into twin harmonized melodies that keep the same rhythm.  Eventually the two hands become more and more independent, weaving like two starry arcs in the night sky.  “Part II” is an impressionist exercise that stays interesting by mixing textural shimmers and humming overtones with a stately melody that emerges over time.  “Part V” begins with a classic Jarrett trick, a telegraph-tapping ostinato note around which the pianist adorns the tune with spirited chording.  But this performance develops into what almost seems like a pop song, with the melody staying consonant and a rising “chorus” that recurs.  It’s a celebration.

From the very start, this concert has a blessing about it.  “Part I” stands out as a successful amalgam of Keith Jarrett’s best impulses.  At every turn, this improvisation resists the easiest move or the plain repetition.  It doesn’t “swing” in any regular way, but it has a pulsing forward momentum that keeps it vital.  The harmonies are not entirely beyond tonality, but there is great freedom as the piece develops.  It feels, truly, like a piece of music where “anything can happen.”  It makes the best possible case for these solo recitals being something that is not vaguely half-planned out.

Perhaps these qualities of “Part I” are the reason that Rio is best listened to in order, start to finish.  Jarrett’s artistry here is not just within each piece but also in the architecture of the whole recital.  “Part I” is a powerful thesis statement for the whole evening, and following pieces (almost all shorter) break out Jarrett’s ideas into component parts—joyous, contemplative, lyrical, caustic, dancing, blue, still, shouting.

Rio is a full range of emotion, created on the spot.  All these years later, Keith Jarrett remains great.

Will Layman - 2011-11-29
Popmatters.com



AMERICAN pianist, composer and bandleader Keith Jarrett displayed extensive musical talents at an early age.

Possessing perfect pitch, he began piano lessons just before his third birthday, appeared in a television talent show at age five, and gave his first piano recital at seven playing Mozart, Bach and Beethoven plus two of his own compositions.

As a teenager Jarrett studied jazz, became inspired by a Dave Brubeck concert and, turning down an offer to study classical piano in Paris, pursued jazz studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

After he moved to New York in 1964, Jarrett's talents were soon noticed and he joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1965, subsequently signing on with the trail-blazing Charles Lloyd group where he formed a long-lasting friendship with drummer Jack Dejohnette.

From 1970 to 1971 Jarrett played electric keyboards in a reputation-enhancing stint with Miles Davis, but later turned his back on electronics. In 1971 he also began his crucial, surviving association with Manfred Eicher of ECM records, recording his first solo piano album, Facing You. Jarrett then performed solo concerts across Europe, releasing his Bremen and Lausanne performances in a triple album voted 1974 record of the year by Down Beat and three other US publications.

Jarrett's legendary improvisations encompass many jazz traditions including blues and gospel, but also Western classical music and folk. His solo concerts in the 1970s and 80s were totally improvised, as is this live release recorded at Rio de Janiero in April this year.

Tracks are simply labelled Rio Part I through to Rio Part XV, and were recorded before an enthusiastic audience at the sold-out concert. The material is multifarious, from a boogie-woogie style Part XI to gospel-laced Part XIV and Part V or classically based Part I and Part II all executed with breathtaking technique and a seemingly inexhaustible flow of rhythmic, harmonic and melodic ideas.

Part IV is a ballad-style piece of wandering, romantic beauty, using increasingly extended harmonies, while Part X plunges straight into hyperfast high treble runs working into underlying post-bop ideas overlaid with classical motifs. Finally, Part XV evolves slowly and fluidly in a meditative piece with what Jarrett has described as "my best ending ever".

John McBeath - November 26, 2011
The Australian
 

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