From the 1970s to the 1990s, most of Keith Jarrett’s extended improvisations—a marvel of the jazz world—were long, clocking in at about 30 to 45 minutes apiece. You can hear this in the celebrated live recordings of his solo concerts in Bremen, Cologne, Kyoto, Munich, Paris, Vienna, Ferrara, and Milan. But in the 2000s, his solo pieces became shorter, hardly ever topping 15 minutes, and mostly hitting well below that mark. This stylistic shift called attention away from the capaciousness of Jarrett’s extemporaneous playing and focused it instead on his freakish ability to improvise sonata-like movements on the fly.
With Munich 2016, Jarrett’s latest solo concert album for ECM, the overall pattern in his spontaneous composing is easy to spot: He starts with a free-form exposition (Part I), returns to it ever so briefly (Part VII), and recapitulates in a raucous conclusion (Part XII). But following the first two such motions, he pulls back into serene contemplation (Parts II and VIII)—just long enough to obliterate any expectations. In the midsections that follow, he highlights tension between the segments by accelerating on gospel grooves (Parts III-IV); skipping along through breezy arpeggios (Part V); riffing on dark, sharp-edged chords (Part VI); vamping on cool blues (Part IX); or soothing with warm harmonizations (Parts X-XI).
Jarrett recorded the album at The Gasteig’s Philharmonic Hall in Munich almost four years[SL1] ago; each track ends with roaring applause echoing through that large room. The encores—three familiar standards, low on suspense, high on comfort—earned him the most noise. But even on these known melodies he managed to find something uniquely fascinating.
Munich 2016: Parts I-XII; Answer Me, My Love; It’s A Lonesome Town; Somewhere Over The Rainbow. (Disc 1: 44:48; Disc 2: 48:45)
Personnel: Keith Jarrett, piano.
(Reprinted from the February 2020 issue of Downbeat magazine)