Keith Jarrett & Charlie Haden
Jasmine

LA RECENSIONE

What can happen by bringing together, after more than 30 years of separation, two giants of their respective instruments and two of the greatest living improvisers in a home recording studio for four days? The answer is the album I have in my hands right now.

The piano of Keith Jarrett and the double bass of Charlie Haden meet here after a long interruption (their last collaboration dates back to the highly acclaimed "American Quartet" disbanded in 1976), but it truly seems as if these years have not passed at all: they create musical atmospheres from above their respective experiences accumulated in decades-long careers, reaching a common vision of the music produced.

This is a work recorded on the fly, without any preparation in advance, and it exhibits a (now rare) ability to make music without the need to assert anything, far from any urgency to innovate, experiment, and surprise. Thus, what stands out for once is not virtuosity, but the taste for melody, the care for sound, the management of silences and, above all, the pleasure of creating something together.

Four strengths of this work:

1. the choice of repertoire which draws from the American songbook among more or less known tracks while exploring unexpected territories;

2. the attention to sound typical of ECM is splendidly carried forward here without it appearing as an end in itself;

3. the strength of music that suggests to us with every note the emotional involvement of the musicians (how can one not be occasionally shaken by the often harrowing vocal incursions of Jarrett himself?);

4. the absolute compatibility of the two musicians leads to unparalleled balance: Haden's reflective nature somehow manages to dominate Jarrett's impetuosity (try comparing his performances on Jasmine to the dense results achieved with the trio with Peacock and DeJohnette); the formation is absolutely horizontal and the leading role between the two musicians is surprisingly naturally exchanged.

In conclusion, an album to listen to and relisten without fear of getting bored, with the certainty of coming out of each listening with a new baggage of sensations. A unique warning to sailors: to be listened to only with an appropriate mental disposition... in other words, it’s not "foot-tapping" music!