Customer Reviews

Solo Concerts: Bremen & Lausanne

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Probably Jarrett's best...and that's really saying something considering his wonderfully diverse and prolific output. This is the three-record (now 2 CD) set that established him as a legendary solo improvisor, broke all the rules about what kind of music was commercially "viable", and won endless awards. While it has been far outsold by the Koln Concert album, this collection is far deeper and more emotionally involving. If I had to choose one single Jarrett disk to own (and thank heaven I don't need to choose), this would probably be it. However, The Koln Concert may be a better introduction to his solo piano music for the uninitiated.

These concerts contain some of the most beautiful passages you'll ever hear...all the more remarkable since they were totally improvised on the spot. Most amazing of all is that one of the concerts (Bremen) was performed while Jarrett was in excruciating pain from a back injury...he literally went from his hotel bed to the piano bench and back to bed afterwards. This story is related in "Keith Jarrett - The Man and His Music" also available on Amazon.com (it also has an interesting story about the Koln Concert recording).

Buy this album...you'll be listening to it for the rest of your life.

A brilliant amalgamation of bebop, gospel, boogie-woogie, free jazz, almost-unforgettable melodies and just plain genius flowing from a well recorded piano. This is so intriguing that you don't really notice that it's solo piano. If you're not familiar with Keith's solo work, this is a great place to start. There's a lot more rhythm and soul here than on some of his later work. Highly recommended!!

Probably Jarrett's best...and that's really saying something considering his wonderfully diverse and prolific output. This is the three-record (now 2 CD) set that established him as a legendary solo improvisor, broke all the rules about what kind of music was commercially "viable", and won endless awards. While it has been far outsold by the Koln Concert album, this collection is far deeper and more emotionally involving. If I had to choose one single Jarrett disk to own (and thank heaven I don't need to choose), this would probably be it. However, The Koln Concert may be a better introduction to his solo piano music for the uninitiated.

These concerts contain some of the most beautiful passages you'll ever hear...all the more remarkable since they were totally improvised on the spot. Most amazing of all is that one of the concerts (Bremen) was performed while Jarrett was in excruciating pain from a back injury...he literally went from his hotel bed to the piano bench and back to bed afterwards. This story is related in "Keith Jarrett - The Man and His Music" also available on Amazon.com (it also has an interesting story about the Koln Concert recording).

Buy this album...you'll be listening to it for the rest of your life.

As I write this review, I feel somewhat blessed that I have not had a chance to listen to Keith Jarrett's "The Koln Concert" which so many people rave and review about, considering it is one of jazz's top selling albums. I feel blessed because I am able to approach this album and this review completely untainted and am able to judge it by its merits alone.

I was not familiar with Keith Jarrett, his style, any of his albums, or anything about him until a few weeks ago. After doing some brief research into his life and work, I became eager to listen to something by him. Considering that his solo concerts have received much publicity in the past continuing into the present, it seemed proper to begin with such an album as this. Even before I ordered the album, I had very high expectations - and once I received the album and played it, it surpassed even my wildest dreams. This album is truly phenomenal. Both works, Bremen and Lausanne, engulf every spectrum of emotion by being romantic yet unattached, melancholic yet celebratory, anxious yet calm, etc.

I will typically go about my daily activities while listening to piano concerts, but the moment I pressed play on my CD player, Keith Jarrett's performance demands attention all the way through. By the end of Bremen, I was finally able to breathe again having felt as if the music was breathing for me, for Life is the essence of Keith's performance. With each keystroke, with each chord, Keith's improvisation is not only at the heart of jazz, but like jazz, is at the heart of Life - only, where some jazz fails, Keith succeeds by transposing a work of art which is indelibly beautiful and unmistakably transcendent.

This is a two CD set. The first disc contains Keith Jarrett's most appealing music, if not his best. If you're only curious enough about Jarrett's music to buy one of his albums, this is the one to get! No doubt.

This solo concert was the first Keith Jarrett solo concert I heard, and from the very first notes I was immediately swept into his wonderful, exciting self-created world. It has remained my favourite solo concert ever since that moment.

Part 1 on the first CD is the best of the three parts. It's 18 minutes of pure genius. Part 2 is longer and not that "compact", but it's still nearly perfect. The second CD is very good. I can't describe the music in words alone, for it's just too beatiful, deep, and powerful that you have to listen for yourself.

What is characteristic of the Bremen/Lausanne concert is that is has much more flow to it than all of his other concerts. And it's far more based on melody, whereas in a lot of other concerts he keeps his left hand playing the same notes again and again. You won't find it here - a little, but not much anyway. Just a little note on the Köln Concert. In comparison to Bremen/Lausanne, it's very direct and not very deep. The Köln Concert is the most famous and popular of Jarrett's solo concerts, but the most overrated too. If you want the real thing, and aren't afraid of listening to this music in a quiet environment many times, you'll come to love it.

I have been listening to Jazz for almost 40 years and am also a jazz pianist and flutist. I first heard keith Jarrett Live in 1974 at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver,Canada...that concert was the best musical experience I have ever had. There were also Jazz concert reviewers there (including Bob Smith a man in his 60's then) that wrote that the concert was "Mind-Blowing" , I also felt that way. Keith Jarrett came on stage and just blew everyone away, it was as though we were transported into a higher dimension far from Earth and all it troubles, Jarrett was playing 8 note chords in rapid rythms and also started drumming on the piano and strings at one point, this was the man a his peak, the power and endless ideas of his playing just flowed like a river, as if effortlessly, all the musical ideas from centuries around the world were being fused into something astonishing! Unfortunately that concert was not recorded...however Bremman Lussane which was recorded - about 1 year earlier - is a very good album (was named Time Magazines Jazz Album of the year in 1973) These disks contain exhillaratingly beautiful passages and complex counter-point type runs as well as the thick chords that he became famous for.

Unfortunately Keith could not keep it up, the Sun-Bear concerts while very good do not have the over-all brilliance that these disks have. Koln concert which was his most poplular and has great moments and a harp-like sound due to close miking still is not as good over-all as Bremman Lussane.

This is a musician's musician's finest recorded work. This is the man who Oscar Peterson named as one of his favourite pianists, Winton Marsalais said "he is very good". Down-Beat Mag's readers named him best Pianist in the World. Even Rock stars Elton John and Mick Jagger("I know its only Rock and Roll but I like it") said he was their favourite.
BTW...One likely strong influence on Keith way back in the early 1970's was South African pianist Dollar Brand (now Abdulla Ibrahim)and you can also hear Keith's influence on Abdulla on some of his albums of recent years. No one comes from no where.

Being a pianist myself (and into Improv), I can really appreciate what Jarrett is actually putting himself through to create this music. I can't improvise for more than twenty minutes at a time. Jarrett goes on for an hour, and every note carries meaning and power. And the intense emotion - at the end of each concert I can imagine him stumbling offstage with exhaustion, yet exhilarated like he has just climbed the Matterhorn.

From 42:00 to the end of disc two is THE BEST piano music I have EVER heard.

This is Keith Jarrett's first live solo piano offering. Recorded at two separate concerts in 1973, it represents Keith Jarrett's early achievements of long, intense, emotional improvised piano performances. Along with this album, the Koln Concert, Facing You and La Scala will successfully overview Jarrett's solo piano offerings for the beginning Jarrett fan. The Koln Concert is the best one to begin with. However it's arguably not his finest work, but it is his most famous and easilly accessible.

5 stars? 5 billion stars. An incredible display of TRUE genius. Like so very
many other listeners, I had that big, green ECM 3 record box set that I
listened to more times than I can remember when I was in college. I now
have the 2 cd set, without all of the pops, clicks, etc. that one had to
hear as well (since they were vinyl records, and it was a solo piano con-
cert with many quiet passages). I actually first heard a "cut" of one of
the record sides one night out of a Rochester, New York radio station,
even though I lived in Lexington, KY, and went out and got it the next
day. A pricey purchase for a 3 record set, but I didn't care. From the
first gorgeous note to the last, this is utter BRILLIANCE. It's my favorite
Jarrett recording (and I have many). It still amazes me, since the whole
thing was totally improvised on the spot in front of a mesmerized German
audience who were obviously witnessing something VERY special. It has to
be heard to be believed. A timeless masterpiece from 1973 produced by
legendary ECM founder/owner Manfred Eicher and Jarrett himself. Beauti-
ful beyond words.