ECM continues the series of
Keith Jarrett's live archival recordings with
La Fenice. The recital occurred in 2006 at the Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice, some four years after the pianist had resumed performing solo following his recovery from a long illness. Given that these outings are all spontaneously improvised, it stands to reason that no two are alike, from the spacious and lyrical
Koln Concert from 1975 through the 1995's transcendent
La Scala, through 2017's kaleidoscopic four-disc release of
A Multitude of Angels, captured in four cities on a tour of Italy some 20 months after
La Scala. Interestingly, the
La Fenice show took place some ten months after
Jarrett's triumphant July 2005
Carnegie Hall Concert.
The music found here is rangy and adventurous, commencing with the knotty, nearly 18-minute opening section that is one of the better showcases of the pianist's inventive delivery. Elements of classical technique and invention meet dissonant mechanics in a dazzling technical display until, ten-and-a-half minutes in,
Jarrett begins to dissemble economically to near-meditative chord voicings. "Part III" melds blues and boogie woo gie to the inherent lyricism of
Vince Guaraldi in a piece that comes close to sheer joy. The chromatic keyboard acrobatics in "Part V" touch on everyone from
Bud Powell and
Art Tatum to
Lennie Tristano and
Bill Evans, while winding through post-bop blues. Abstraction returns in the sparse yet expressive inquiries in Part VI," and seems like a whispered dialogue between himself and the keyboard.
Jarrett emerges from that 13-minute section to offer a tender reading of "The Sun Whose Rays" from Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado. While "Part VII" is a gorgeous exploration of jazz harmony executed with warmth and taut elocution, the final section playfully returns to the stride blues and gutbucket boogie-woogie. (
Albert Ammons and
Pete Johnson were probably smiling from heaven as he played.) The concert could have ended right here, but
Jarrett generously offers the audience three surprise encores. First is a new reading of "My Wild Irish Rose" that he previously recorded on the impromptu 1998 home studio set
The Melody at Night, With You. This version is far more romantic; he caresses lyric lines from the middle register and turns them back on themselves. His "Stella by Starlight" is at once exploratory and de rigueur -- it was a regular bandstand fixture of his standards trio.
Jarrett saves the best surprise for last in the achingly tender reading of his own "Blossom," an elegant, melancholy ballad that dates back to 1974. He journeys along its pathways until he finds the whisper at its nadir and, after a scant moment of silence, the crowd erupts in appreciation.
La Fenice may be yet another
Jarrett solo concert, but when he chases after it with this kind of energy, humor, passion, and emotion, an hour-and-a-half passes in what seems like a moment. ~ Thom Jurek