This double album, long anticipated, presents Keith Jarrett's concert at the
Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice, from July 2006. The setting – one of
Italy's most famous classical venues – may evoke some parallels with La
Scala, the pianist's much-loved 1995 recording, but each of Jarrett's solo
performances is its own world, his protean creativity continually bringing new
forms to light. La Fenice (the phoenix) finds him channelling the flow of
inspiration into a suite of eight spontaneously created pieces referencing
everything from the blues to
atonality. From the first flurry of notes, it is a consistently captivating
journey. Between Part VI and Part VII, Jarrett surprisingly but very touchingly
segues into “The Sun Whose Rays”, from Gilbert and Sullivan's opera The
Mikado. Encores are the traditional tune “My Wild Irish Rose” (previously
recorded by Jarrett on The Melody At Night With You), the timeless standard
“Stella By Starlight”, which the trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette
often played (see for instance the albums Standards Live and Yesterdays). The
concert ends with a tender version of Keith's tune “Blossom”, first heard
on the Belonging
album with Jan Garbarek, Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen back in 1974. La
Fenice could be considered the culmination point of a series of solo concerts
that began the previous September with the The Carnegie Hall Concert. Reviewing
that performance, Fred Kaplan of The Absolute Sound wrote: “His concert
pieces, all pure improvisations, are models of economy, themes stated, explored,
varied on, departed from, returned to, done – and gripping from start to
finish. The encores were similarly taut – and lyrical and gorgeous.”
Release of the Venice concert is timely. The 62nd International Festival of
Contemporary Music of the Biennale di Venezia has honoured Keith Jarrett with
its Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. It's the first time that a “jazz”
musician has received this award, which has previously been given to
contemporary composers including, in recent decades, Luciano Berio, Pierre
Boulez, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, Sofia Gubaidulina and Steve Reich.
Of course, there is more than one way to be a contemporary composer, as Keith
Jarrett eloquently illustrates on La Fenice, shaping his musical
structures in real time.