js Throughout his lengthy career, Keith Jarrett has been one of the most important pianists of our time, but there was something different about his youthful playing that you don’t hear as much over the years. Before the Koln concert, the classical performances and the association with the somber 80s ECM sound, Jarrett’s playing was a lot funkier and bluesy soulful with plenty of gospel and roots country riffs to go around for everyone. Its from this earlier phase of his career that we get the loose, experimental and mostly high energy live concert known as “Fort Yawuh”. Joining Keith on this concert is his very talented, ‘American Quartet”, with Dewey Redman on tenor, Charlie Haden on bass and Paul Motian on drums. Part-time member, Danny Johnson, joins on percussion.

The album starts with the free post bop of “If the Misfits (Wear It)”, which opens with what sounds like the musicians imitating a North African field recording before going into high speed free-bop mode. Keith’s piano runs are both lightning fast and harmonically interesting at the same time. Dewey follows him with a strong tenor solo that shows the Coltrane and John Gilmore influences of the time. The album title track follows, and features the piano trio in free mode, but when they kick into an African rock groove, Redman joins with a Chinese musette solo that works really well with this sort of non-western rhythm. Side two kicks off with the gospel groove of “De Drums”, halfway through the track the rhythm picks up the tempo as Redman leads the band in a high energy soul jazz romp. Album closer “Still Life, Still Life”, is a ballad, but during Jarrett’s opening solo improv, he takes the tune into some very complex twisting turning twelve tone treatments.

The salient features on this album are enthusiastic energy and an open mind towards any possible musical influence. This group pulls from all the various musical influences described above, yet all those influences come together to make one sound and nothing sounds contrived or unnatural. There is a real joy at work in this album that is rare to come by.

Steve Wyzard "We will never forget Miles."

Miles Davis died on September 28, 1991. The Keith Jarrett Trio rushed into the studio on October 12, 1991 and recorded this tribute album. As Miles Davis tribute albums go, it's really very good. The potential purchaser is advised that this album ranks rather high on the infamous Keith Jarrett vocalization spectrum. If you're a long time Jarrett listener and familiar with his singing, you should have no problem enjoying the album.

Among the highlights are "For Miles", an 18:39 improvisation with an utterly amazing Jack DeJohnette percussion performance, and one of the best ballads this group has ever done, "You Won't Forget Me". After 10:42 of awe-inspiring poignancy, however, a major sequencing mistake is made by following this up with the hard-driving "Butch and Butch": the juxtaposition of the two is simply too harsh. Other than this, I have no further complaints and can highly recommend this album to fans of the performers. Special accolades must go to the aforementioned DeJohnette, as this is one of his best as part of this trio.

Amilisom I came to listen to this album as a result of many sources regarding it as being Keith Jarrett's best. What I expected to hear at the time was Keith Jarrett playing a form of bop with a trio or quartet of some kind, which is generally what you find if you search for Keith Jarrett on Youtube.

Instead, as I began the 15-min first track "Runes" I discovered that this entirely wasn't the case at all. This album doesn't even have a drummer, but instead has a string orchestra accompanying Jarrett on piano, Haden on bass, and Jan Garbarek on saxophone. The three rarely ever play at the same time. Instead, there will be stretches of time where Charlie Haden will begin soloing with the string orchestra with Jarrett either playing very sparse or not at all. This changes with the second half of "Solara March", when the three members start a groove and improvise over it with the string orchestra still giving backgrounds. "Mirrors" is similar to "Runes" but with a more complex string arrangement at times.

As a result, most of the music in this album is very free, spacious, and beautiful. Although it may draw influences from pop piano music, the spirit of improvisation is still very much existent here.

idlero Well, it's a fact that not everyone loves Keith Jarrett's solo albums( Koln, Scala..., ), it's also a fact ( even if not widely known ) that I am a big fan of Keith Jarrett's solo albums( The Koln concert is on my list of desert island albums) but not an automatic fan of KJ releases ( for example I didn't like the highly acclaimed Jasmine ). Anyway, like 'Koln', with 'Rio' it was love at 1'st audition.I don't know and I don't care if KJ isn't bringing anything new in his music here, I just love this music. A double CD set recorded on April 9, 2011, in front of an enthusiastic audience, a collection of 15 relatively short tracks(at least shorter than in 'Koln') -KJ at his best, sweeping through energetic, slow, melancholic , abstract , jazzy , romantic compositions, creates a beautiful, colourful soundscape. A must for fans of Keith Jarrett solo works, definetely one of his best albums in recent years.And a very unusual ECM cover...And no reference to brasilian music...(somehow in a double CD I would have expected some locally inspired improvisation...)

Chicapah I don’t have enough years left on this mortal coil to become an expert on any jazz musician. There’s just too much music from across the globe to sift through in order to do that unless one begins that task in their teens. Committing sins of severe compromise, I often pick out one album at random from an artist’s catalogue of material and form my opinions about their music from that one sample. I realize that that method is fraught with potholes and may be considered grossly unfair in the long run but my rationale is that every record someone puts out should represent them to some extent, for better or for worse. In the case of Keith Jarrett, all I know is that he’s highly regarded by many jazz aficionados, he was a child prodigy on piano, he worked with folks like Art Blakey, Charles Lloyd and the great Miles Davis and that his live album, “The Köln Concert,” is the best-selling piano recording of all time. (I ran a record shop for a while in the late 70s and I constantly had to restock that LP. I guess I should’ve given it a listen. Duh.) So earlier this year I picked up a copy of his 1971 disc “El Juicio (The Judgement)” out of the used vinyl bins and started playing it as often as possible to see what Mr. Jarrett is about.

He and his talented trio of sidemen start with what turns out to be my favorite cut, “Gypsy Moth.” It owns a cheerful Ramsey Lewis-like groove yet it has a slightly sinister slant as if this particular “In Crowd” is hanging out at the bar in the Hotel Hades rather than the Ritz Carlton. Apart from the exuberant atmosphere that surrounds this song I was immediately drawn to and impressed with the slinky upright bass work of Charlie Haden. Jarrett’s piano solo is mirthfully loose up till Dewey Redman’s tenor saxophone enters and together they run through an involved but intriguing melody line. Redman then proceeds to deliver a sax ride that flies delightfully all over the place while Haden’s bass tactfully weaves in and out of the fray from underneath. All in all it’s a fun aural excursion. “Toll Road” is next, a far less structured number that’s good, no doubt, but doesn’t hold my attention as well. It does give me an opportunity to hear Keith’s remarkable abilities on the soprano sax, though, and I find his style to be fluid and somewhat frolicking in manner. Further kudos to Charlie for his entertaining bass solo and to drummer Paul Motian for keeping this tune from spinning out of control.

“Pardon My Rags” is an unaccompanied piano recital by Jarrett. It’s an intense but terrific piece that’s a cross between Scott Joplin on amphetamines and Art Tatum on Xanax. I really, really like this song as it lifts my mood immediately with every listen. If “Pre-Judgement Atmosphere” is any indication of what sitting in God’s waiting room is going to be like then we need to prepare ourselves for a nerve-racking experience. Cacophonous percussion dominates the first half, followed by a drum solo by Paul that’s ominous and arrhythmic. It’s mercifully short, serving as the intro for the album’s centerpiece, “El Juicio.” This is a 10+ minute busy affair that’s purposefully disjointed and decidedly free-form. While I fully understand and appreciate the skill involved in pulling off such an endeavor as this, it isn’t my preferred brand of jazz. That causes me to observe it from the outside instead of being drawn into it. Once again Haden’s upright bass is the highlight of the number and the odd alien voices, whistles and toots concoct a distinct air of mystery. In other words, if this represents what’s going to go down on Judgment Day then nothing is for certain for anybody. (My advice is to hedge your bets and spend a little time in church. Can’t hurt.)

“Piece for Ornette (L.V.)” is a fast-paced, near-frantic song where Dewey’s alto sax gets to shine, aided to a large extent by Keith’s soprano sax injections. It evolves into a spirited conversation/argument between the two instruments that eventually rises to a fevered pitch with Charlie and Paul racing to keep up. Again, not my cup o’ Lipton, but quite admirable on a wild, torrid level. “Piece for Ornette (S.V.) is a 12-second reprise of the central theme that fits in well as a clever caboose.

If not for the bubbly “Gypsy Moth” and the invigorating “Pardon My Rags” I’d have to compartmentalize this album as being too avant garde for my slightly conservative taste but those two cuts positively affected me so I opt to recommend “El Juicio” as a fine jazz record that touches a lot of bases. While I’m not inclined to go out and blow my allowance on more Keith Jarrett discs immediately, this record indicates to me that I’d enjoy hearing more from him in time. He’s definitely a beast on the ivories and he obviously hangs out/associates with guys who know how to play hot jazz with fervor.