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Stories   >   Kieth Jarrett - Budapest Concert makes 'Jazz Police: 20 from 2020 - the New Music that Helped'

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Kieth Jarrett - Budapest Concert makes 'Jazz Police: 20 from 2020 - the New Music that Helped'

Posted: 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 both that and the new music released this year was a healing balm. We can take some comfort from the titles of new releases in which Matt Wilson gave us a Hug, Bill Frisell gave us a Valentine, Fred Hersch joined us in isolation with Songs From Home, Craig Taborn's Junk Magic acknowledged our lack of direction with Compass Confusion, John Scofield regaled us with Swallow Tales, Delfeayo Marsalis cheered us with a Jazz Party, and Carla Bley assures us Life Goes On.

2020 also included new releases recorded in the past: an Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers' recording from 1958 called Just Coolin' and sat in the vaults until now. Rollins in Holland from both studio and live recordings made in 1967 and never released. Charles Mingus @ Bremen 1964 & 1975 from two concerts a decade apart, the 1964 concert features Eric Dolphy on his final tour with Mingus and one of his last public performances before his death just two months later. And a live recording from Kieth Jarrett's Budapest Concert from 2016 which although not as from very long ago is poignantly significant as it was his final solo tour in light of Jarrett's announcement this year that he would never play publicly again after suffering two strokes in 2018.

Making the 'Jazz Police: 20 from 2020 – New Music that Helped' list was Kieth Jarrett's Budapest Concert was released on October 30th on ECM

This is the second album released from his 2016 solo tour (Munich 2016 was released in 2019). But according to the New York Times Jarrett was even more enthusiastic about the Budapest Concert, which was the tour opener," which he briefly considered calling "The Gold Standard." This was his final European tour as Jarrett announced earlier this year that he would never play publicly again as he is dealing with partial paralysis from suffering two strokes in 2018.

The double album Budapest Concert documents Jarrett's brilliant performance at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest. The program consisted of twelve moments "Part I" through "Part XII" followed by two encores: "It's A Lonesome Old Town" and "Answer Me." Listen to "Answer Me"

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