RAY COMISKEYreviews the jazz pieces of the week...
Keith Jarrett
Testament Paris/London (3 CDs)
ECM
*****
After his 1970s NCH concert here, Keith Jarrett spoke backstage about his approach to playing solo and free. “Other musicians go to the edge and look over,” he said. “I jump.” Occasionally, over more than three decades since, Jarrett has done just that. The latest example comes from two hastily arranged solo concerts late last year, played in such fraught personal circumstances by a singularly gifted, edgy, volatile talent that the jump into the unknown produced music as emotionally charged as anything he has ever done. If the questing, almost aggressive Paris concert produced an occasional longueur, it also had moments of great beauty. But they were eclipsed by the London concert a few days later, whose beauty and inventiveness must have been as reassuringly self-affirming as it may have been cathartic. It’s archetypal Jarrett. What more is there to say? Just enjoy. www.naxosdirect.ie
Loren Stillman
Winter Fruits
Pirouet ***
Altoist Loren Stillman’s latest album is, in a way, jazz as chamber music. Six originals by Stillman and two by drummer Ted Poor focus more on colour, texture and group interaction, written and improvised, than on merely showcasing soloists. Broadly, this approach, rather than chord structures, is what shapes the material and how it’s treated; even with solos and joint improvisations, each performance has a composed feel. It’s cool and understated, with no grand gestures, just a focus on sonic values and a unified result. And though something has been sacrificed for this, it makes good use of the options offered by the combinations of Stillman’s warm
yet pure and singing sound, Nate Radley’s delicate guitar, Gary Versace’s restrained organ playing, and Poor’s subtle drums, and of their almost telepathic sense of each other’s moves from years of working together. www.pirouetrecords.com
Kit Downes
Golden
Basho ****
For pianist Kit Downes, this new album is his first under his own name and the recording debut of his working trio with Calum Gourlay (bass) and James Maddren (drums). Perhaps more personally representative than his acclaimed work with Empirical, Troyka and Acoustic Ladyland, Goldenis striking not only for his playing, but also for his compositions, which do much to determine the character of this release. Seven of the eight originals are Downes's, mostly impressionistic pieces inspired by images or emotions recalled, and developed accordingly by a brilliantly interactive trio. Downes has his influences, including Mehldau and Jarrett, but he's a remarkably distinctive player. Inside or outside, his lines are full of the original and unexpected, with a logic of their own; and his stunning technique is matched by a rhythmic flexibility given full scope by his rapport with Gourlay and, especially, Maddren. www.bashorecords.com
