John Fordham
CD OFTHEWEEK
As if to further tantalise the thousands who packed London’s Festival Hall in the summer, the double disc Whisper Not (ECM), celebrating Keith Jarrett’s comeback after chronic-fatigue syndrome, has been late showing up. Now it is here, Jarrett fans everywhere will be listening anxiously to every bar to detect signs of the long rest leaving a lasting transformation as the pianist himself has hinted.
The luggage of Jarrett’s three-year struggle is now hard to detach from the experience of the music. Is that a slightly altered approach to the beat on Bouncing with Bud? A fraction more delay, a hint of reserve? Jarrett’s creativity pushes such preoccupations aside. If the opening of Bouncing with Bud has a tentative streak, it doesn’t last. When Jarrett launches himself into a superb long-lined solo, it testifies as strongly as anything in the Standards Trio’s history to his ability both to vault over the harmonically strict rules of the Broadway song while maintaining the core and shape. A rarely detected playfulness appears in Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams, with its jauntily mischievous stride beat, and in the long-delayed melody of What Is This Thing Called Love.
This double set is packed with moments that would make even the most impassive of bebop fans jump in the air without discouraging the non-buffs in his huge, worldwide audience who are simply seduced by his astonishing lyrical fertility.
The trio sounds more integrated and organic than ever, with Jack DeJohnette’s playing full of imaginative colouration and Gary Peacock’s bass a mix of high-stepping fast walks and dark, booming undercurrents. With George Shearing’s Charlie Parker-like Conception, and Bud Powell’s Hallucinations, the Trio sounds mostly like the highest class of bebop band. There will be a lot of takers for that.