ECM records – musicophilesblog – From Keith Jarrett to Johannes Brahms

Accordion And Guitar? Seriously? Absolutely! Rivages – A beautiful new ECM release by Jean-Louis Matinier and Kevin Seddiki

Is this Jazz?

I’ve not only been neglecting my blog overall quite a bit since 2020, but particularly if you’re following this site because you’re interested in Jazz, I’ve been really not writing about that a whole lot recently.

Unfortunately, this trend started already in 2019, when I barely found enough new releases that interested me enough to write about them, and really hasn’t improved this year. But when I saw this new cover popping up in the Qobuz New Releases section, with the beautiful typical ECM style cover, I had my hopes up.

Luckily enough, I wasn’t disappointed.

Now, before we go to the album itself, one could really argue if this is “Jazz” at all. A duo of accordion and guitar is certainly not your typical jazz setting.

And indeed, the music takes many inspirations, from “Manouche” type “gypsy” jazz, to more ethnic music (Matinier previously played on several of Anouar Brahem’s albums, and one of the tracks is coming from traditional Bulgarian folklore) to Gabriel Fauré (track 3, Les Berceaux).

But who cares, this is beautiful music, full stop. I anyhow already had a certain soft spot for the accordion, being a big fan of Richard Galliano (see here, here, and here).

Jean-Louis Matinier & Kevin Seddiki – Rivages (ECM 2020)

I must admit, I’m not really sure what to write about this music.

I could be descriptive, and go into more details around Matinier’s long career including his contribution to Anouar Brahem’s masterpiece Le Pas Du Chat Noir.

I could equally detail the fascinating collaborations guitarist Kevin Seddiki has been part of over the years.

I could mention the amazing sounds quality of the album (though that’s not a surprise for an album produced by ECM’s Manfred Eicher).

Or I could go into a track by track description of the content. While I sometimes do this myself, I’m often struggling with the added value of trying to describe music.

Seriously, because this album is very special, I’d rather suggest you really give it a go directly. If you’re open to two outstanding musicians who just click and produce fascinating and intriguing music, check it out now.

My rating: 5 stars

You can find it here (Qobuz)

Finally A New Keith Jarrett Solo Live Album – Munich 2016

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)

One of the best Jarrett Solo albums: Paris Concert

Keith Jarrett’s Solo Albums

At some point on this blog I had said I was planning to review all of Jarrett’s solo recordings here.

Well, I haven’t written about them in a long time. Nicely enough, a reader comment, inquiring about a live concert by Jarrett she heard on the radio a long time ago, brought me back on track.

I’m still not sure, but most likely the album she is looking for is one of Jarrett’s best ever solo piano recordings, Bremen/Lausanne, actually one of my 25 Essential Jazz albums.

Therefore, let’s talk about another excellent Jarrett solo album I’ve had for a long time:

Keith Jarrett: Paris Concert (ECM 1990)

This is not one of Jarrett’s longest solo albums, containing just a single concert. It mainly consists of one impressive continuous improvisation of more than 38 minutes, simply titled “October 17, 1988”.

The concert starts sounding like Jarrett is actually doing a Bach concert, he plays something that could be a slow Präludium, indicating that Jarrett clearly knows his counterpoint.

This is not totally surprising, Jarrett was actually playing a lot of Bach at the time, e.g. his recording of the Goldberg Variations was released just one year later after this concert was recorded in 1988 at Salle Pleyel. (Side note: I’m not such a fan of Jarrett’s classical recordings on their own, but am very happy how they influenced his Jazz playing).

About 9 to 10 minutes in this evolves into a more hypnotic part, with the left hand in a steady bass pattern over which the right hand freely improvises.

Later, around the 20 minutes mark, the music becomes increasingly minimal, but probably even more beautiful and mesmerizing. He quickly evolves back into a much more powerful improvisation.

After the main course you get two smaller pieces, simply called The Wind and Blues, both of which are highly enjoyable.

The only downside of this album is Jarrett’s really annoying tendency to hum along with his music. I sincerely hope one day artificial intelligence will be good enough to remove his singing from his otherwise fantastic albums.

This is clearly one of his best ever solo efforts, and should be in every Jarrett lover’s collection.

My rating: 5 stars

You can find it here (Qobuz)