Flying Solo

The pianist Keith Jarrett may divide certain expert opinion in both the jazz and classical fields and his solo concerts in particular can stray a little close to being giant ego trips but I don't doubt that he is a remarkable performer and am glad to have this disk of The Koln Concert. I'm also happy that it is representative enough to be the only one that I need in the series of such recordings. It is now over thirty years since this concert but there is a certain timeless feel ( if you ignore the afro hairdo in the cover photos ) The music is stretched over three lengthy and one slightly more compact improvisations for solo piano. The improvising isn't on any known theme or standard but is basically tonal and does evolve in a compositional style with a logical ebb and flow into and out of a series of climaxes. The fact of it being an improvisation and the history of the performer mean that it gets the tag of jazz but there are only occasional recognisable jazz licks thrown into the mix. Not much evidence of the blues either, if forced to say what the base of the improvs were, I would suggest that they have an underlying gospel feel to the chords and modes with a touch of some kind of indeterminate folk heritage. They can certainly get funky at times and Jarrett adds his own percussive effects on the body of the piano, together with audible vocal accompaniment in best Glenn Gould fashion at moments of crescendo.