COMPOSERS: Keith Jarrett
LABELS: ECM
ALBUM TITLE: Creation
PERFORMER: Keith Jarrett (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: 472 1225
Creation, a collection of live pieces taken from a world tour last year, marks Keith Jarrett’s 70th birthday. It’s also exactly 40 years since he raised the artistic (and commercial) bar for piano soloists everywhere, with the ground-breaking Köln Concert record. An hour-long improvisation, the disc has sold over four million copies – more than any other solo piano disc in any genre.
Jarrett’s music is intensely personal but the feeling is heightened here because he himself selected and sequenced the pieces included on Creation. His uplifting choices suggest he is in a spiritual state of mind. Each of the untitled nine pieces are created in the moment. Slow paced and lyrical, sometimes growing out of a simple vamp, the music nevertheless dissipates like smoke. With all the emphasis on gently ebbing, flowing harmonic/melodic ideas, there’s
no resolution: you’re left with a sense that something profound
has just happened.
Garry Booth