Today is Keith Jarrett’s birthday, but he’s the one bearing a gift.
To be more precise, ECM Records has released a new track by the celebrated pianist: a sensitive treatment of “Answer Me, My Love,” recorded at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest, Hungary on July 3, 2016. It’s the first taste of an album scheduled for release sometime in the fall.
Seasoned Jarrett fans will recognize it as a classic solo encore, softly radiant and emotionally absorbing. In fact, the song — a standard originally titled “Mütterlein,” and most famously recorded with its English lyrics by Nat King Cole — has been a staple of his repertoire for the last decade or so. In 2010 I reviewed a trio concert at Carnegie Hall, singling it out as a highlight.
If this new version sounds faintly familiar, it might be because you’ve spent time with Jarrett’s most recent album, Munich 2016, which was recorded about two weeks later on the same tour, and includes https://youtu.be/4RYyvqovjEY" target="_blank">another treatment of the song.
The 2016 solo tour was actually the last time Jarrett took to the road. But he has remained relevant even in absentia. His tune “The Windup” appears on recent or forthcoming albums by Branford Marsalis, Rudresh Mahanthappa and Julian Lage. (It’s a piece from the book of his Belonging Quartet, whose drummer, Jon Christensen, died in February.)
As a piano touchstone, of course, his influence can be heard far and wide. And his stature only seems to keep growing; in 2015, when Jarrett turned 70, The Guardian ran a piece by Geoff Dyer hailing him as “our greatest living musician.”
However you feel about that superlative, it’s a good occasion to celebrate Jarrett and his sprawling body of work — in a solo setting, with his Standards Trio, with both 1970s quartets, or in duologue with Gary Burton or Charlie Haden. WBGO will spend his birthday playing music from across that career, and we’ll surely revisit his Budapest solo concert when it’s time.
For more information about Keith Jarrett, scroll down, or visit his ECM artist page.
