Artist: Keith Jarrett
Title: The Melody At Night, With You
Year of Release: 1999
Record Label: ECM
Genre: Jazz
Every ML owner needs a solo piano disc (or 2 or 3 or 100) in his favorite music genre, as we know how well the speakers reproduce the piano. I’ll get to the point: this is the most beautiful solo jazz piano album I own. Keith Jarrett on standards is like a muscle car around town – power to spare! Yet here he channels that power not into fireworks but into deep lyricism.
He dedicated this disc to his wife, and you can feel it in the way he gives familiar tunes an Intimate, graceful, and ruminative rendition. “Blame it On My Youth,” for example, is a favorite standard of mine, and Jarrett’s is easily my favorite version – even without the lyrics! It also demonstrates Keith’s sublime technique. His right hand ensures that he is always on the melody; any improvisation exists only to get from one theme to the next. His left hand keeps the pace constant, almost forcing you to slow down your heart rate and your thoughts until you are completely at one with the music. Same goes for all the other tunes.
The sound is beyond reproach. A caveat: some find Jarrett’s humming distracting. It’s not loud here anyway in case you’re worried. Needless to say, it doesn’t distract me at all, both from listening to this and from calling it perhaps his best work.
Title: The Melody At Night, With You
Year of Release: 1999
Record Label: ECM
Genre: Jazz
Every ML owner needs a solo piano disc (or 2 or 3 or 100) in his favorite music genre, as we know how well the speakers reproduce the piano. I’ll get to the point: this is the most beautiful solo jazz piano album I own. Keith Jarrett on standards is like a muscle car around town – power to spare! Yet here he channels that power not into fireworks but into deep lyricism.
He dedicated this disc to his wife, and you can feel it in the way he gives familiar tunes an Intimate, graceful, and ruminative rendition. “Blame it On My Youth,” for example, is a favorite standard of mine, and Jarrett’s is easily my favorite version – even without the lyrics! It also demonstrates Keith’s sublime technique. His right hand ensures that he is always on the melody; any improvisation exists only to get from one theme to the next. His left hand keeps the pace constant, almost forcing you to slow down your heart rate and your thoughts until you are completely at one with the music. Same goes for all the other tunes.
The sound is beyond reproach. A caveat: some find Jarrett’s humming distracting. It’s not loud here anyway in case you’re worried. Needless to say, it doesn’t distract me at all, both from listening to this and from calling it perhaps his best work.
