Keith Jarrett Live Concerts
Keith Jarrett is without doubt one of the most important, if not THE most important artists alive today in the space of solo piano improvisation.
Seeing one of his live concerts finally triggered me to start this blog now more than 4 years ago, and I’ve already reviewed a lot of his live albums (always on ECM) as well, including Paris, A Multitude Of Angels, Bregenz München, La Scala, and Bremen Lausanne.
Each of these albums is worth having, my ratings typically are either 4 or 5 stars.
So I was obviously very happy when Jarrett finally released a new (well, 3 years old) solo concert recording again.
Keith Jarrett – Munich 2016 (ECM 2019)
This album was recorded live in Munich in July 2016, about one year after my “own” live experience in Lucerne, and it has a very similar feel.
Jarrett has moved away from the very long improvisations of the Köln concert era to shorter pieces, simply titled “Part”. The concert is split into 12 parts, with roman numerals, plus two encores.
Don’t be afraid by the slightly atonal start in Part I, there is so much more to come.
Part V for example is are the kind of melodic improvisations that fans of the Köln concert (including me) are just loving so much
Part VI and VIII are yet another of the slowly flowing parts, 5 minutes of absolute bliss.
In part IX, Jarrett all over sudden starts a boogie woogie. For most other artist, this would make me run away. Not so with Jarrett, here it is just 3 minutes of a lot of fun, which he’s clearly having.
I personally am not such a big fan of when Jarrett goes much more crazy like in part VII, but these wilder improvisations are typically short.
And I’m so happy to report, that nearly 20 years after La Scala, Jarrett goes back to Somewhere Over The Rainbow as his final encore. And in a way, this improvisation is even better. It must be my sentimental side, but I just love this song.
So in total, this album is an absolute joy!
My rating: 5 stars
You can get it here (Qobuz)
musicophilesblog - From Keith Jarrett to Johannes Brahms 
A nice review as allways, thanks. My feelings about “Over the rainbow” are not the same… for me “La Scala” interpretation is second to none…
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Thanks for your feedback. And I hope you agree on one thing: we can never have enough versions of this beautiful song!
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Every new album of the great artist is an unintentional joy. It seems Jarrett has already grown out of his music like a butterfly from a cocoon, and very soon will throw away the husk of endlessly repeating notes and sounds and fly away for good.
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Thanks! I’m not sure I fully follow your prose but I hope Jarrett will stick around for a bit longer!
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Every solo outing by Jarrett is cause for celebration. I was going to say I’d listen to it (and I will) but why do I think I already did? Maybe I read about it somewhere else. Anyway, on the list for tomorrow.
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You won’t be disappointed. It’s truly one of his better live albums IMHO and that means something give. The overall standard of Jarrett solo live albums.
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I was able to listen to about half of this the other day, the rest to come. It meets expectations, to your point. However, I cannot get into that atonal stuff at all. Musicians may think they’re breaking boundaries or something but it just sounds like self-indulgent noise to me. I will listen to this album again (several times) but I will skip over that part. Love the fact that he did a blues or what you, I think rightfully, called boogie-woogie. Any improvisational musician who cannot play a blues is missing a major tool in their arsenal.
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While I’m having similar issues with the atonal sections I just accept them as an expression of a creative mind like Jarrett that just doesn’t want to be channeled to closely. So I take them with a different attitude. But I fully understand where you are coming from.
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I agree with that. Jarrett has always marched to his own drum. He certainly has the freedom to play what he wishes. But then I have the freedom to “pick up the needle.” 🤣
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