Keith Jarrett
Paris Concert

Intense, nostalgic, melancholic... in one word, WONDERFUL!!! Is the profusion of adjectives a bit over the top? In my humble opinion, and without hyperbole, it quite well conveys the idea. This impromptu solo piano concert is a true delight for the ears and represents one of the milestones in the almost forty-year career of Mr. Keith Jarrett. The place where such a wonder takes shape is, indeed, the Opera House in the French capital: the date is October 17, 1988, and thus is marked the first part of the concert in question.

The classical influence of a certain... Johann Sebastian Bach is tangible upon listening to the splendid initial sequence, reminiscent of the French Suites composed by the great German musician, and it flows after five minutes into a simple and effective rhythmic figure, on which Our Artist improvises in an absolutely expressive manner, only to find under his fingers a beautiful melody: evocative, sad, enchanting, it leads the listener into an unknown world, a dreamland where everything is pure and unblemished... but it is Keith himself who awakens us from the dream in a rather abrupt fashion to dive again into the previous rhythmic figure: now the keyboard is played with vehemence and vigor, and through a subsequent undulating motion (it sounds like two pianos, so high is the musician's technique), we reach the concluding melody, more reserved and contained than the previous one, but very poignant in its delicacy: the notes fall like drops of light rain from the instrument, before slowly fading away.

After this astonishing moment, which alone would be enough to bring the Paris concert into the pantheon of Jarrett's works, comes a cover: "The Wind," a composition by pianist Russ Freeman (a Californian musician who played with Chet Baker; you can hear him along with the trumpeter in a live performance of the latter called "My Old Flame" where there's a splendid version of the piece), is rendered with enchanting grace; improvisation is pared down to the bone, the exposition of the melody (here's another one!!!) occurs with unparalleled clarity and transparency. In short, yet another superlative performance. And now the evening can come to an end. Keith bids farewell to the audience with a nice blues riff, performed with elegance and passion, also bearing witness to the eclecticism of this artist, capable of moving between genres with impressive ease and naturalness, thus incorporating almost three hundred years of musical history into his piano style.

On this note, we can close with the words of a critic written in a beautiful book called "Il mio desiderio feroce," certainly the best publication released about Our Artist:

By now, when a pianist discovers they are willing to step out of the confines of jazz or classical tradition to enter a terrain that encompasses many or all cultures, it is said that they play Jarrett's style. By now, playing so-called border piano renders everyone, inevitably, a follower of Jarrett.

And, I would humbly add, listening to piano in general inevitably makes everyone a passionate fan of Jarrett himself