[Sidebar] The Worcester Phoenix
October 26 - Nov. 2, 2000

[Music Reviews]

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Keith Jarrett

WHISPER NOT

(ECM)

Jarrett went through a much written-about debilitating illness that he says forced him to re-evaluate his approach to melody when he recorded last year’s critically acclaimed solo piano The Melody at Night, with You — an elemental conception that focused on the song itself because he didn’t have the energy to do anything more. Now he’s back with his longstanding “standards” trio of bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette on this double-CD concert recording, and though he plays plenty of piano here (no one would argue that he’s run out of energy), you might wonder whether the bebop didn’t get thrown out with the bath water. Not that Jarrett doesn’t play with bop velocity on chestnuts like “Bouncing with Bud,” “Groovin’ High,” and the title track, but bebop’s definitive push-pull tension, the alternating current of the music’s triplet-based phrasing, goes slack. There’s plenty to admire here in the richness of Jarrett’s harmonies, his left-hand/right-hand independence, even the occasional boppish double-time runs. In fact, in its own way the playing is rather beautiful. But the edges have been smoothed off, the driving swing that makes jazz explosive at any tempo.

-- Jon Garelick
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