Rio, the double-disc solo concert recording by
Keith Jarrett, marks his 40th anniversary as an
ECM recording artist; coincidentally,
Facing You, his debut for the label, was a solo piano recording, though cut in a studio. Many of
Jarrett's improvised solo concerts have represented benchmarks in his career:
The Köln Concert,
The Sun Bear Solo Concerts, and
La Scala among them. His musical and philosophical approach toward recording this way has evolved and been refined over the decades, but nowhere more so than on
Rio, a complete document of his show at the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro in April of 2011. The date is a hint that something very different is afoot here:
Jarrett's live offerings are usually issued years after an event instead of mere months afterwards (the pianist called label boss
Manfred Eicher from the airport after the show. After one listen, it becomes obvious
Rio is indeed very special. It puts on aural display
Jarrett as a virtually boundless musician, whose on-the-spot, wide-ranging ideas are executed with astonishing immediacy and dexterity; this music is passionate, poetic (often songlike), and stands outside the confines of genre. The strength of his pianism and diversity in his thought and philosophy between music and everyday life dissolve into the freest improvisation he has ever displayed on record. In these 15 untitled selections,
Jarrett allows everything from his sense impressions about the city, the country, cultural and social history, the evening, and the audience to simply have their way with him spontaneously. The effect is intimate, energetic, emotionally engaged, and wildly expressive and imaginative. What begins in the knotty dissonance and counterpoint of the first selection gives way to the elliptical on the second to something approaching song for the remainder of disc one's six selections. By the beginning of disc two, the listener is transfixed as jazz improvisation melds seamlessly into nearly classical investigations of detail, harmony, and nuance; simultaneously, folk traditions, blues and ballad forms, and rhythmic invention are all encased in a pervasive lyricism that possesses pianist and audience alike. Even music that sounds "familiar" is based on preconceived notions by the listener, since nothing approaching what is here actually exists in
Jarrett's recorded catalog.
Rio is therefore the new standard by which the pianist's future solo recordings will be judged, and perhaps also sets the bar for any other player who attempts the same. ~ Thom Jurek