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Jazz piano guru Keith Jarrett explains in the liner notes that he was holding onto this live document, recorded in 2001, ’till the right moment presented itself.’ What that means only the enigmatic Jarrett knows, but fortunately the moment has arrived.
If you were blown away by his Carnegie Hall disc, released this time last year, My Foolish heart easily bests it. Here Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack Dejohnette, one of the most gifted triumvirates in jazz history, reunite for a two-hour set split between two discs. As they steam-engine through Miles Davis’s Four, Sonny Rollins’s Oleo and Straight, No Chaser by Thelonious Monk, you’re simply in awe at their intuitive communication, at a level most musicians will simply never attain.
Some purists might turn up their noses at the ragtime cuts, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Honeysuckle Rose, and Jarrett’s distracting grunts are in full effect, which are always off-putting.
Still, as far as jazz trios go, these are the untouchables.
