Customer Reviews

Paris Concert

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A million stars would be more appropriate for this disc, where Keith Jarrett and the piano sound as if they have come from another planet, or at least as if they are working from another dimension. And Jarrett probably was, the trance-master is in his best form here, playing unique, provocative, beautiful, time-altering music. Listening this one through will change your day!

As usual in his solo concerts, the first two cuts are long, spontaneous improvisations, going from the simple and beautiful into uninvestigated territory, through some intense passages, covering many of the human emotions along the way. And the music continues to flow, on and on, but not without retrospect, in a manner only possible from a master's hands and mind.

The last cut is a short rendering of The Blues, also improvised on the spot, taking the listener back to this world.

I try to take as many of my friends as I can back to that glorious day in Paris, and all of them speak warmly of the experience.

This album is a must-have!

Keith Jarrett's "Paris Concert" beings in a classical vein, employing quiet spots to create a meditative mood, but it quickly turns to moodier, even dangerous, territory with quicksilver tempo changes. Think of a stream that rolls and runs, building a force that nothing can stop. Jarrett piles on layer after layer of dense, pulsing sound, until the last third of "October 17" is awash in thunderous arpeggios, with the clouds clearing in the final, gorgeously sunburst six minutes. This music doesn't put you "in the mood" - it opens up the moods that are inside you and transcends mere listening.

The more melodic "The Wind" seems like an appropriate coda for this brilliant recording, with a thoughtful, almost nostalgic coloring. I also own the "Koln Concert," which also has its incredible passages, but I'm surprised that "Paris" only has a dozen reviews thus far. It's one of Jarrett's best pieces of improvisation and it shows his mastery of feeling, technique and range of styles.

I think that Jarrett's fans may prefer not to overdo their praise; the music is like all the better things in life: best savored in the intimate way Jarrett meant to convey it.

I guess "The Steinway and sons" experienced multiple orgasms during this performance. Keith Jarrett is versatile and omnipotent, he`s the most powerful musician I`ve ever listened to... This is an outburst of the most intimate and most drastic Jarrett. I can barely survive a month without listening to this CD

Regarding the piece "The Wind" - it is NOT by the guitarist Russ Freeman of the Rippingtons as another reviewer mentioned, but is by the great west coast jazz pianist Russ Freeman (1926-2002). Originally recorded by Chet Baker & Freeman in 1954, the composition has been kept alive for decades with recordings by several dozen great jazz performers.

Mike

Paris Concert is second only to Vienna Concert in all of Jarrett's "heavier" discography. I use the term heavier simply because it is hard to compare something as intense and tranformational as Paris to "Keith Jarrett Lite", ie: Koln or Facing You - which are also extrordinary, but focus more on Jarrett's melodic approach and stylings rather than his emotional and creational side. In Paris, much like the rest of Jarrett's discography, we are witness to the act of creation itself. The melodies in Paris are magnificent (the Title track opens with an extrordianry improvised classical piano concerto), and simply transcends most other music, especially when the intent and devotion of the artist creating the music is put into context; we can audiably hear Jarrett's unrelenting soul being poured out onto the keys. Paris' only liability is perhaps the first part's seemingly directionless moments where Jarrett returns to stammer out the re-occuring three or five note ostinato louder than a few minutes past. These moments, however, only set up the listener for the salvation that is to come, the wind that blows Jarrett and the piano into the stratosphere.

Well, what should I say...Once I had a girl...Or should I say - she once had me. She brought me a tape , left it with me and went back home. That night changed my level of musical perception. I was introduced to Keith Jarrett and his music. That night that tape was played about 10 times until power outage and lack of AA batteries saved it from complete wastage. Folks, if you have never heard Keith Jarrett before, then be very careful listening to this album - it might knock you off your chair (bed) or it might glue you to your chair(bed) for quite a while. By now I have more than 40 CDs of Keith Jarrett and all of them are fantastic but... but... PARIS CONCERT is something enormous... This is a single most emotional concert of all I possess on my 1500 CDs and of all I have ever been present and listened to. If you can imaging a "naked piano" then that's what comes to smb's mind listening to "THE WIND" . I do not only RECOMMEND you to get this album, I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE you to do so.

The Paris Concert is my desert island disc - the one I couldn't live without. This recording is without peer, surpassing Koln and La Scala with ease. The fluidity, the rhythm, the images - this is hauntingly beautiful Jarrett at his best, as far as I'm concerned, and I cannot recommend this album too highly. However, it's not for those who want to be spoon fed their music; this is intelligent, thought provoking stuff. But worth it.

I've been a Keith Jarrett fan since 1977, when, as a college student, I attended one of his solo improvisation concerts in Boston. Some 30 years later, I own over 40 of Jarrett's discs, part of an extensive collection of classical and jazz piano recordings numbering almost 2000. I like to think that I know good piano music when I hear it. The Paris Concert is one of my top-10 "desert island" discs, and when I read the one-star "review" by Mr. Feldman, I felt I had to offer a counter-perspective.

The first track, "October 17, 1988", is, in my opinion, Jarrett's finest improvisational effort. A little over 37 minutes in duration, its beauty sweeps the listener away from the first note to the last. Yes, the composition reflects Jarrett's early classical training, but can't be strictly classified as a "classical" piece. Neither is it jazz, in the formal sense. Jarrett's music is, simply and truly, raw human emotion distilled into melody. I've listened to this disc many times, most recently tonite, at the very beginning of the new year, and I'm always stunned at Jarrett's ability to stir feelings in me that I rarely experience in day-to-day living. To me, this is the essence of music: to remind human beings of our humanity, to directly touch our emotions without any intervention by the conscious mind. One would have to be very cold indeed to listen to "October 17", especially its last two minutes, and not be stirred, or stilled. A man who can conclude only that this is a "navel-gazing narcissistic atrocity" is a man who's lost his heart somewhere along life's way.

The late tenor Luciano Pavarotti was criticized for expanding his song catalogue to include pop music from the likes of Bono, Elton John, and the Spice Girls. He said, in somewhat broken English, "There is only good music and bad music. Why should be elite, music? Music must be for everybody?" The Paris Concert is good music, exceptionally good. There is very little of Jarrett's humming, and the audience is exceptionally quiet; I like to think they were experiencing the same kind of rapture that I experience every time this disc is in my CD player. If you don't have this disc, get it. That simple.

I first "discovered" Keith Jarrett with Dark Intervals, buying it strictly on face value at, of all places, a Wherehouse. I was barely 18 at the time.

I couldn't have imagined the lifelong love and attachment I would have formed to Jarrett and his music because of that early purchase. I am still obsessed with him.

I have most of his improvisational work on CD and consider the Paris Concert the best--though shamefully I've never listened to the Koln Concert, the seminal work that cemented his virtuoso reputation and virtually established ECM Records.

This entire CD is wonderful, but the last 12 or so minutes of the first track simply soars to levels of joy we rarely experience with music. I have listened very closely to this track many times and I swear it sounds like he has three hands (listen to it! I swear!). It is such a release, such splendor on the pearly whites, such animated love and passion for the instrument of the piano--it defies all expectations and will make you fall in love with the man and his music. I quite literally have shed a tear when listening to it.

Sound a little "too too" for you? If you really dig into this music, really sit and listen to it--shut out the world for a moment and allow yourself to completely absorb it--I can't imagine how the raw and primal sensitivities of the human mind could escape the overwhelming beauty of this music.

...

The best way to describe this unbelievable improvisation is Bach with an intensity of feeling and emotion that just isn't around anywhere else. This is completely unique. The first five minutes of the first track are pure bliss and seem to resemble the Goldberg Variations somewhat, and from there Jarrett journeys through musical ideas, some of Bach, some of his own. But this is most certainly Jarrett's composition, Bach's influence only shapes a concentration of emotion into music. This is truly amazing stuff. If you've got Paris, try Vienna. If you don't have Paris, you're missing out.