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Keith Jarrett

The Old Country

ECM
Release Date: November 29, 2024

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Keith Jarrett - Interview + Speech at NEA Jazz Masters Awards 2014
1 Everything I Love  
2 I Fall In Love Too Easily  
3 Straight No Chaser  
4 All Of You  
5 Someday My Prince Will Come  
6 The Old Country  
7 Golden Earrings  
8 How Long Has This Been Going On  
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Keith Jarrett’s recordings from the Deer Head Inn have a special place among his recordings devoted to explorations of jazz standards and the American songbook. And The Old Country is a document of particular historical significance, from several perspectives.

The Deer Head Inn, situated in Pennsylvania’s Delaware Water Gap Region, has presented live music continuously since 1950, making it one of the US’s oldest jazz clubs. In 1961, the club gave Jarrett, then 16 years old, his first gig as leader of a piano trio. When owners Bob and Fay Lehr retired, handing the reins over to their daughter Dona and son-in-law Christopher Solliday, Jarrett offered to play there again, to honour the club’s ongoing commitment to jazz. On September 16, 1992, Jarrett, joined by Gary Peacock and Paul Motian, played to a packed house. There had been no promotion, but news of the event had spread by word of mouth. The Deer Head is an intimate venue and the Allentown Morning Call paper subsequently reported that, “of the 130 people inside the club, 30 had to stand. On the porch outside, another 50 or 60 people stood.”

The spontaneously organized performance marked the only occasion on which Jarrett, Peacock and Motian played as a trio. Peacock, at the time, was a dedicated member of the Standards trio completed by Jack DeJohnette. Motian had been drummer of Jarrett’s ‘American quartet’ (refer to The Survivors Suite and Eyes of the Heart), but hadn’t worked with Jarrett since that group’s dissolution. “Not only had I not played piano at the Deer Head for 30 years, but I hadn’t played with Paul Motian for 16 years. So it was like a reunion and a jam session at the same time”, wrote Jarrett in the liner notes to At The Deer Head Inn, the initial selection of material issued from this gig, in 1994.

  • Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Paul Motian. 'The Old Country,' a delightful return to 'The Deer Head Inn' / The Guardian
    Posted At: October 25, 2024
    Keith Jarrett’s recordings from the Deer Head Inn have a special place among his recordings devoted to explorations of jazz standards and the American songbook. And The Old Country is a document of particular historical significance, from several perspectives. The Deer Head Inn, situated in Pennsylvania’s Delaware Water Gap Region, has presented live music continuously since 1950, making it one of the US’s ...

  • Keith Jarrett's sense of line and contrapoint are apparent everywhere on 'CPE Bach.' A pure delight / CD Hotlist
    Posted At: November 1, 2023
    Keith Jarrett’s account of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Württemberg Sonatas is a revelation. “I’d heard the sonatas played by harpsichordists, and felt there was a space left for a piano version,” says Jarrett today.  This outstanding recording, made in May 1994 and previously unreleased, finds the pianist attuned to the expressive implications of the sonatas in every moment.  The younger Bach...

  • No doubt many a listener will be coming to the Wurttemberg Sonatas for the first time because of Keith Jarrett / textura
    Posted At: October 8, 2023
    textura writes…..Keith Jarrett possesses the rarified status of having distinguished himself in not one but two realms, jazz and classical. His participation in Miles Davis's ensemble during the revolutionary period that culminated in Bitches Brew, the ‘70s ‘American Quartet' albums he issued with Dewey Redman, Paul Motian, and Charlie Haden, the celebrated solo piano albums (1975's The Köln Concert perhaps...

  • Pitchfork revisits a career-defining masterpiece from piano virtuoso: Keith Jarrett, 'Solo Concerts - Bremen Lausanne'
    Posted At: August 13, 2023
    Pitchfork's Mark Richardson writes….Each Sunday, Pitchfork takes an in-depth look at a significant album from the past, and any record not in our archives is eligible. Today we revisit a career-defining jazz masterpiece, collecting two hours of improvised solo performances from the piano virtuoso.“My first experience composing was adding a note to the last chord of a Mozart concerto,” Keith Jarrett told Dow...

  • At home with Keith Jarrett / DOWNBEAT Q&A
    Posted At: March 20, 2023
    “There was a time I decided I was not a composer, only an improvisor, and I find that very difficult to do with one hand,” Jarrett says. “Jumping off a cliff takes two hands and two feet.”DOWNBEAT's Michael Jackson writes….Keith Jarrett can do more with his right hand than most pianists can with two. As he pulls the protective cloth from the Steinway B in his hallowed Cavelight home studio, you’re reminded ...

  • Keith Jarrett - Book of Ways is the france musique - Jazz Bonus
    Posted At: March 3, 2023
    ‘Book of Ways’ was recorded on the 14th of July 1986 in Ludwigsburg. Rather amazing is the great variety of sound and rhythm – Keith Jarrett played alternately one or two instruments simultaneously. Beyond unmistakeable echoes of lute music and Japanese koto, the whole range of modes of expression the clavichord is capable of is being fathomed out. All this has been supported by studio techniques, which rec...

  • How Keith Jarrett defied the odds to record The Koln Concert / yahoo - udiscovermusic.
    Posted At: January 23, 2023
    yahoo - udiscovermusic. - Charles Waring writes……..January 24, 1975, proved a memorable, magical night for the 1,300 people that witnessed American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett perform a solo recital in the majestic surroundings of Cologne’s opera house. Fortunately, the concert was recorded for posterity by ECM Records, who released the recording later that year as a double-album housed in stylish black-and-...

  • Part VII; from Keith Jarrett's 'Bordeaux Concert' featured on PRX: Echoes
    Posted At: October 24, 2022
    Bordeaux Concert documents a solo performance, the last that Keith Jarrett would give in France, at the Auditorium de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux on July 6, 2016, and finds the pianist at a creative high point. Each of Jarrett’s 2016 solo piano concerts had its own strikingly distinct character, and in Bordeaux – although the music would progress through many changing moods – the lyrical impulse was t...

  • 'Bordeaux Concert' certainly holds its own in Keith Jarrett's storied catalog / glideMagazine
    Posted At: October 3, 2022
    glideMagazine's Jim Hynes writes……Two years ago, following the breaking story in The New York Times that pianist Keith Jarrett had suffered two strokes in 2018 and may never perform in public again, his label ECM released Budapest Concert, the second complete show issued from Keith Jarrett’s 2016 European tour, recorded two weeks earlier than the widely acclaimed concert released as Munich 2016. Now, two ye...

  • Keith Jarrett: Bordeaux Concert. A fearless final performance / The Guardian
    Posted At: September 30, 2022
    The master of solo-piano improvisation proved his spontaneous alchemy was as mesmerising as ever in this 2016 performanceBordeaux Concert documents a solo performance, the last that Keith Jarrett would give in France, at the Auditorium de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux on July 6, 2016, and finds the pianist at a creative high point.Each of Jarrett’s 2016 solo piano concerts had its own strikingly distinct cha...

  • Keith Jarrett, at his peak on Bordeaux Concert / AP
    Posted At: September 28, 2022
    Bordeaux Concert documents a solo performance, the last that Keith Jarrett would give in France, at the Auditorium de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux on July 6, 2016, and finds the pianist at a creative high point.Each of Jarrett’s 2016 solo piano concerts had its own strikingly distinct character, and in Bordeaux – although the music would progress through many changing moods – the lyrical impulse was to the ...

  • Keith Jarrett's eternal balancing act / NPR - WBGO
    Posted At: August 4, 2022
    'During a concert, certain things are not nonexistent,' Jarrett shares"I remember there was a river next to the hotel, or across the street. And I walked along that," Keith Jarrett says of the tour stop captured on Bordeaux Concert. "That's what I remember." Daniela Yohannes/ECM RecordsNPR - WBGO's Nat Chinen writes……Almost two years ago, pianist Keith Jarrett shared publicly that he had suffered two stroke...

  • Re-release of Keith Jarrett's ECM debut, 'Facing You' is highly expressive and as fresh as ever / glideMAGAZINE
    Posted At: November 12, 2021
    On November 10, 1971 pianist Keith Jarrett entered the Arne Bendiksen studio in Oslo Norway to record his ECM debut, Facing You. This album of solo piano pieces, which now has its 50th anniversary, was produced by Manfred Eicher and engineered by Jan Erik Kongshaug.Facing You was the auspicious start to a celebrated landmark run of recordings that created a new solo piano paradigm, with albums including: So...

  • Keith Jarrett has always been with us. That comes across in 'Budapest Concert' / Jerusalem Post
    Posted At: January 10, 2021

    Budapest Concert is the second complete show to be issued from Keith Jarrett's 2016 European tour, recorded two weeks earlier than the widely-acclaimed concert released as Munich 2016. The new double album documents the pianist's solo performance at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest. Jarrett, whose family roots reach back to Hungary, viewed the concert as akin to a h...

  • Keith Jarrett - Budapest Concert makes The San Diego Union-Tribune: 2020 year in review
    Posted At: December 28, 2020

    The San Diego Union-Tribune's George Vargas writes; The vital need for music has never been greater, at least in this century, than it was in 2020. Best albums came as COVID-19 made music more essential than ever in a year we'd all like to forget. Untold numbers of musicians have lost their jobs. So have concert promoters, stagehands, audio engineers, lighting operators, security guards, merchandise ...

  • Keith Jarrett's masterful 'Budapest Concert' is incredibly special / Morning Star
    Posted At: December 28, 2020

    Budapest Concert is the second complete show to be issued from Keith Jarrett's 2016 European tour, recorded two weeks earlier than the widely-acclaimed concert released as Munich 2016. The new double album documents the pianist's solo performance at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest. Jarrett, whose family roots reach back to Hungary, viewed the concert as akin to a h...

  • Kieth Jarrett - Budapest Concert makes 'Jazz Police: 20 from 2020 - the New Music that Helped'
    Posted At: December 23, 2020

    2020 was the Year of the Rat which seems fitting for this year of plague. Concerts have been canceled, jazz clubs closed and it was a time when we needed music more than ever. If this dark cloud has a silver lining there must be serious wood-shedding going on right now and in 2021 after some normality returns we will witness a creative explosion of new music. But for now live streaming events help and bo...

  • Keith Jarrett - Budapest Concert, nearly equal to 'Koln Concert' / Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
    Posted At: December 20, 2020

    For those who loved Jarrett's superb "Koln Concert" from 1975, this recently released two-CD set of improvised music performed live in 2016 in Budapest, Hungary, may be nearly its equal. It was recorded on the same tour as last year's release "Munich 2016." For Jarrett, who is of Hungarian descent, the Budapest concert was something of a homecoming. It's a recording to treasure for other ...

  • Keith Jarrett - Budapest Concert makes the JAZZ.FM91: Year in review
    Posted At: December 16, 2020

    JAZZ.FM91 writes.....The jazz clubs all closed, and so did everything else. But thankfully, the music never stopped. This was a challenging year for most people. Yet jazz artists from around the world went on to release an impressive amount of great music - for some, the best of their careers. That music brought us a sense of excitement and hope at a time when we needed it most. One day, these musici...

  • Keith Jarrett - Budapest Concert makes KCRW: Rhythm Planet 'New Tunes to Close Out the Year'
    Posted At: December 15, 2020

    Budapest Concert is the second complete show to be issued from Keith Jarrett's 2016 European tour, recorded two weeks earlier than the widely-acclaimed concert released as Munich 2016. The new double album documents the pianist's solo performance at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest. Jarrett, whose family roots reach back to Hungary, viewed the concert as akin to a h...

  • Keith Jarrett - Budapest Concert makes NPR: Best Music Of 2020
    Posted At: December 4, 2020

    This week we shared NPR Music's best songs and albums of 2020, lists voted on, politely argued over and presented by our staff, station partners and contributors. Today we're featuring the good stuff from the private reserves. Below you'll find lists of top 10 albums and songs from the members of NPR Music's staff. Nate Chinen DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL CONTENT, WBGO writes; In a year ...

  • Keith Jarrett - Budapest Concert makes Echoes November 2020 Top 25
    Posted At: December 1, 2020

    Budapest Concert is the second complete show to be issued from Keith Jarrett's 2016 European tour, recorded two weeks earlier than the widely-acclaimed concert released as Munich 2016. The new double album documents the pianist's solo performance at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest. Jarrett, whose family roots reach back to Hungary, viewed the concert as akin to a h...

  • KPFK: Global Village - Thurs. is thankful for Keith Jarrett
    Posted At: November 27, 2020

    Pianist, composer, and bandleader Keith Jarrett is one of the most prolific, innovative, and iconoclastic musicians to emerge from the late 20th century. As a pianist (though that is by no means the only instrument he plays), he literally changed the conversation in jazz by introducing an entirely new aesthetic regarding solo improvisation in concert. Though capable of playing in a wide variety of styles...

  • Keith Jarrett - Budapest Concert makes 'jazzwise: Editor's Choice, December 2020 - Best New Jazz Albums
    Posted At: November 23, 2020

    The Editor's pick of the best new albums reviewed in the December 2020 issue of Jazzwise, featuring Keith Jarrett, Elina Duni & Rob Luft, Mary Halvorson, Rob Mazurek and Sun Ra Arkestra. 'It seems such a short step from 2016, when Keith Jarrett recorded these two double albums towards the end of his European tour, to his shock announcement last month that he has been forced to retire from...

  • Keith Jarrett on 'the calling' that drew him to jazz / NPR: Fresh Air
    Posted At: November 14, 2020

    Keith Jarrett is acclaimed for his intense and physically energetic improvised performances. NPR: Fresh Air Kevin Whitehead reviews Jarrett's new album, Budapest, and we listen back to a 2000 interview with him. Budapest Concert is the second complete show to be issued from Jarrett's 2016 European tour, recorded two weeks earlier than the widely-acclaimed concert released as Munich 2016. The ...

  • Budapest Concert finds Keith Jarrett once again mining improvised territory and producing magic / Jazz Views with CJ Shearn
    Posted At: November 10, 2020

    Life is fleeting, a series of joys, triumphs and sorrows captured in a brief glimpse.  For iconic musicians, the glimpses of greatness are captured in three or four decades, and the legacy is preserved forever in recorded form. Particularly for the improvising musician, these legacies captured on tape, in addition to the brilliant moments, also at times have captured the struggle in getting there.&n...

  • 'Keith Jarrett: A Biography' by Wolfgang Sandner / LondonJazz News
    Posted At: November 7, 2020

    With the great American pianist announcing that his performing career is almost certainly over, this account is sadly timely. Why has Keith Jarrett been so intolerant of the slightest distraction at his solo shows – a lone cough, the swish of a camera shutter? The obvious answer is that he is a perfectionist whose feats of spontaneous composition at the piano require utter focus. This biography...

  • The Keith Jarrett story / RollingStone India
    Posted At: November 5, 2020

    Keith Jarrett announced in October 2020 that his piano playing career might well be over. This has come as a painful shock to his legion of followers and admirers everywhere. Jarrett had suffered a stroke which incapacitated his left hand which is so vital for a pianist. He has kept a low profile since 2018, when first, his concert at New York's Carnegie Hall was abruptly canceled, followed by a cancella...

  • Keith Jarrett - Budapest Concert makes The Mercury News: 3 great new jazz albums that fans need to hear
    Posted At: November 3, 2020

    The great pianist-composer, who has performed with such fellow jazz legends as Miles Davis, Art Blakey and Charles Lloyd during a career that dates back to the '60s, returns with another live set that is sure to please his many fans. "Budapest Concert" is the second complete show to be released from the acclaimed artist's 2016 European tour, following "Munich 2016." This new double-album is due out Oct. ...

  • Keith Jarrett may never perform again / JazzTimes
    Posted At: October 23, 2020

    Pianist Keith Jarrett, one of the most important figures in jazz of the last 50 years, has been curiously invisible since his last performance in February 2017 at New York's Carnegie Hall. He has now revealed the reason for his silence in a New York Times interview with Nate Chinen: Jarrett suffered two strokes in 2018 that have likely permanently derailed his ability to perform in public. Jarrett, 7...

  • Keith Jarrett - Budapest Concert makes JAZZIZ 'The Week In Jazz'
    Posted At: September 25, 2020

    The Week in Jazz is your roundup of new and noteworthy stories from the jazz world. It's a one-stop destination for the music news you need to know. Let's take it from the top. Master pianist Keith Jarrett is releasing a new live solo double-album, Budapest Concert, on October 30 via ECM. The set documents a solo piano live performance at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in...

  • 32 years ago, Keith Jarrett mesmerized an audience with Bach, and now that recording has finally been released and chosen by WCRB as 'CD of the Week'
    Posted At: October 7, 2019

    Pianist Keith Jarrett has long been a global phenomenon – a rare and unique musician known and loved not only for his soulful adventures in jazz improvisation, but also for his recordings of classical music (Bach, Mozart, Shostakovich, Handel, Hovhaness, Harrison, and more).  In 1987, when he was 42, Jarrett made a studio recording of Book I of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier – 24 prelu...

  • No one doubts Keith Jarrett's classical chops, and his 1987 live 'WTC' concert is the KDFC: Album Of the Week
    Posted At: August 26, 2019

    No one these days doubts Keith Jarrett's classical chops, but in 1987 it was a bit of a surprise to hear the famous jazz pianist essay the Well-Tempered Clavier of Bach with such great aplomb. Our Album of the Week is a previously unreleased live concert recording of Jarrett performing this music just before the release of the studio set, which quickly became one of the most praised interpretations o...

  • KUSC: Album of the Week is the previously unreleased live concert recording of Keith Jarrett performing Bach's WTC
    Posted At: August 26, 2019

    No one these days doubts Keith Jarrett's classical chops, but in 1987 it was a bit of a surprise to hear the famous jazz pianist essay the Well-Tempered Clavier of Bach with such great aplomb. Our Album of the Week is a previously unreleased live concert recording of Jarrett performing this music just before the release of the studio set, which quickly became one of the most praised interpr...

  • Keith Jarrett's Bach WTC preludes in minor keys, bring out his best / beyondcriticism
    Posted At: August 11, 2019

    In February 1987, Keith Jarrett recorded, on piano, the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was the first in a series of lauded Bach discs that Jarrett would make for ECM. On March 7, 1987, prior to the release of the studio set, he performed the complete WTC Book I for an audience in upstate New York at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, a venue renown...

  • Keith Jarrett's Well-Tempered Clavier is straight-up Bach with no frills / offBEAT Magazine
    Posted At: July 30, 2019

    In 1988 ECM released Keith Jarrett's studio recording of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book One. ECM has now released a live version of the same music. The live recording and performance took place at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in upstate New York in 1987. The Well-Tempered Clavier, or in German Das wohltemperierte Klavier, is a book of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys. Compos...
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