Customer Reviews

Still Live

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Jarrett's best recording have that very rare quality of becoming better each time you listen to them. Still Live exemplifies that quality. Each time I put this CD on, I get lost in it. The third cut on Disc 2, which starts wtih You and the Night and the Music and transitions into Someday My Prince will Come is intoxicatingly beautiful. Jarrett's sublime piano work is set off perfectly by the restrained but exhilerating side work of Gary Peacock on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. If I had to own only one Jarrett recording (and that would be a miserable fate!), this would be it.

This is the Standard Trio's best single offering (The Complete At The Blue Note is on par with this one, but alas, is expensive and not recommended to most listeners new to the trio). Here we have exactly what the trio set out to do: take standard tunes, play them well, and then go farther - to find new music in the tunes, to transcend notation and venture into the sublime. This album achieves just that - on every single track. All players at at their best here: DeJohnettes rhythmic inventiveness, Peacock's lyrical high-octave playing and athletic soloing, Jarrett's stunning,frantic assymetrical lines, inventive and orchestral piano intros, and his tell-tale gospel-tinged funk-oriented gooves and ostinatos. All come to play in perfect hegemony all over this disc, and often the musicians break out into what can only be described as tranformational jam. By this, I mean that the trio will discover something within the tune being played - a riff, a certain chord sequence, whatever - and hold it, build on it, amplify it, more and more until it climaxes, and then fade back into the original tune. These types of experiences in which the Trio goes "inside out" (which also the name of their latest album of impovisational exploration) is a wonder, a synthesis of cerebral and virtually telephathic musical intuition and communication between the three musicians, as if suddenly they unite in their newfound discovery and take a voyage down a never explored avenue, only to emerge in triumphant glory. Oh, and lets not to mention Jarrett howls the roof down, too :)

Alas, I will save you from any more adjectives and simply instruct you to go but this album, and enjoy.

I write in order to counter the article written by a Mr Gill. I am a big Jarrett fan and have many of his albums; this is by far my favourite. Mr Gill is correct in the sense that yes, the general interpretation of the standards is "looser" than usual. This looseness allows for greater creativity within the bounds of the structures. The piano playing on this album is especially lyrical, and as for his own solo introductions (such as the preface to "My Funny Valentine"), they are moving in the extreme. I barely notice his alleged "burblings", so magnificent is his improvisation. As always his statement of the melody carries that Jarretesque roundness and clarity of tone. This album is an essential for any jazz lover, who wants to hear standards as they should be played.

One of jazz' great ironies is Keith's famous scolding of audiences for making noise, and then when they become silent he starts squeaking like a mouse who found the back door to the cheese compartment.

This album is so fine, however, that his endless squeals can barely besmirch the genius of the piano playing that elicits them. I haven't heard a better Jarrett record, trio or not. There is SO much MUSIC here! Not just stellar technique but truly melodic glissandos and rippling crescendos of joy that turn these jazz standards on their heads and show what true musical inventiveness can achieve.

By far my favorite is When I Fall In Love Again, best version of this chestnut I've heard including Bill Evans' (high praise indeed!). You can hear Bill all over Keith's harmonic ideas but KJ's touch on this tune is all his own and he coaxes the theme into gorgeous canyons full of light and shading that take my breath away, year after year. Jack and Gary are with him every step, prodding and supporting, and by tune's end you feel as if you've been witness to something truly magical.

One of the great jazz trio records, up there with OP's Night Train and Evans' Portrait In Jazz and Village Vanguard albums.

Can't recommend this one highly enough.
Just remember to listen past the mouse!

As a trained Musician with 20 years of playing and touring experience with many Jazz ensembles and big bands, and with experience on stage with well known pros, I can say with assuredness, this is one of the finest, most sensitive Jazz albums I've ever heard. The introduction to My Funny Valentine alone will send chills up your spine. For P2P folks, this is one that's hard to find and well worth the money to own.

The best albums by the Standards Trio, in my opinion, is the live recordings. That's where the intimacy and the spontanity has top priority, and that's what makes good music even better. The first disc begins with "My Funny Valentine", followed by the often played "Autumn Leaves" and "When I Fall In Love", and finally "The Song is You". The second disc is also standards only, excluding a short "Extension" and an "Intro".

If you're not new to the trio, you won't be surprised to learn that the form is the same as ever, but that the music is fresh, and that under the immediate layer (the output as such) there's a symbolic layer hidden. That's how _I_ hear the trio: The structure, the melody, the notes, the drums means something more than just mere sound. A philosopher names Schopenhauer once said that "music is the only art form which created direct contact to the world." Call me crazy, but I like the music not for the melody of the songs themselves, but for the deeper thoughts hidden under the surface.

"Still Live" is one of the best by the trio (as I have said), but not the best. If you want the best, go for "Up For It". But "Still Live" is still better than many other by the trio, so buying these two discs won't be a bad decision. However, newcomers should propably start elsewhere.

Possibly the best album Jarrett has ever put out. This would be a great CD to give anyone to introduce them to this jazz piano great. His trio is in top form as they add their unique flavor to these enduring jazz standards. There is not a single bad song on this album. Great for jazz neophytes, fans, and curious listeners alike.

This album is a must have. The first time you play it you're going to like it. And, it gets better the more you play it! I could go on and on about how great this CD set is, what a talented genius Jarrett is, etc. But why? Let me just say that if you don't get this album, you are missing out on a wonderful musical experience. This is great Jazz. You won't be disappointed.

What can you really say about someting that is so good-there really is no words.I myself-being a professional jazz pianist,teacher and listener-This is my favorite Keith group cd.I make all my students learn his solo to Billies Bounce.If you learn that- you can play the blues and sound good.High school kids in Tx walk around playing Keith solos on the sax , trombone,drums-whatever.Such a good example of a GREAT jazz solo.This cd is educational,grooving so hard -Live-Artistic-soulful-One of Keiths BEST!!!!!!

I'm not sure what prompts certain professed "purists" to low mark Jarrett for grunts or play the dismantle-his-genius game pursuant to other alleged impurities. Want no grunts? Sterility in plastic piano capsules? Want perfecto piano playing by stiff aficionados who, like the "purists" they cater to, are also too timid to let out a good soul-body grunt? The music world is asphyxiated with them so no need to look far. Or do you want a Jarrett bright as an angel and way up on his wing? Then look no further and grab this CD set. It's one of the best free-wheelin' Jarrett CD sets out there, I assure you, a definite winner and the trio shines. I have virtually every CD by Jarrett so I speak from that particular angle.