Album Notes

By Mika Pohjola

Gary Peacock has had many great trio initiatives. One of the greatest is this trio with Keith Jarrett on piano and Jack DeJohnette on drums (another one is with Paul Bley and Paul Motian). It is remarkable that all three members of this trio are capable pianists, and Peacock additionally a drummer from his early years; however, Jarrett may be the strongest pianist. The trio is a late 20th century phenomenon in equally late bebop renditions of singable tunes from the American Songbook. Sometimes the bebop is substituted by nostalgia of 60s songwriters' grooves, or various forms of half-way swing and even 8ths. The groove barometer positions the results somewhere close to the Azores or perhaps the Faroes. The underlying genres - as naïvely described here - are of course a subconscious part of the natural existence of these icons, and if it weren't, these gentlemen would hardly admit it.

On this October 1989 recording, there is a sense of comfort, and no wonder, Jarrett has enjoyed a relatively comfortable economic existence since his recovery from deep debts in the early 80s. To illustrate this point clearly, I doubt he has visited Local 802 recently. In that sense his playing is honest and mates with his high-profiled gigs at reputable, historical symphonic and operatic locations in Europe and Japan. None of this is to say he would be less of an artist. No, he is an artist of the highest order, since he expresses his life and the world from his viewpoint in the form of music; the expression is just filled with comfort, luxury and a clear distance from what many other musicians experience and express. The sense of luxury culminates on long vamps, although there's quite little of that on these two Stockholm recordings. "My Man Is Gone Now" is the only attempt to what could have been a modal nightmare. But on his countless solo concerts, there's no shortage of the "neither minimalistic nor meditative vampness", with solid investments made on the fact of repetition, at times edging to simple continuation of time. Perhaps it is this sense of luxury that attracts the masses (as understood in jazz, meaning thousands not millions of people) toward him as an idol. Who would not want to live in clover, and those who can't may see Keith Jarrett at one of his concerts or at least buy his albums. Or something like that. He is occasionally placed in the opposite end of Wynton Marsalis in an imaginary jazz avenue, but I disagree with that kind of polarization. These two jazzmen both claim they own the golden cup of the blues. However, they both have collected more jazz-political power than most, and earned more money each compared to all the early 20th century musicians - who they love - ever earned combined. Luxury was far from those early noble men. The term "standards" also describes a lot, for Jarrett is "standard" and "the standard" in many ways, having over-influenced most jazz pianists, at least of Non-American origin, since the 1970s.

Oh yes, the music. The building blocks here are not two-by-fours, they are three-by-fives, not in stock at your corner hardware store, meaning the conservatory. You have to special order them from Jarrett on his albums and there's no manual on how to use them, with the exception of a short note "put it on, join the 'whew' when you hear a great line (hopefully according to your own judgment), and spread the hype". The architectural code is hard to crack, but at the end of the day you will find the building blocks underneath. These copyrighted blocks are far less common in the audio hemisphere, and hence preserving a freshness which other pianists are trying to buy or at least rent. The good news is that Jarrett has always maintained his blocks with solid care, and when using them, there are a few additional structural components imbedded, just to disguise the three-by-fives. That's a great lesson to pianists or any improvising musicians for that matter: Play your own building blocks (not the two-by-fours!) and finally use glue and plaster and a shiny finish coating. Technically speaking, Jarrett has an ability to play crisp jazz harmonies, not so wildly imaginative ones, but always nice; his improvised lines mostly agree with his left hand, or vice versa. That's another point in this aforementioned luxury-issue: Peacock and DeJohnette always agree with whatever Jarrett suggests, even when the suggestion is not a good one. There is never a healthy musical debate on stage, it all goes according to Jarrett's rules. There is plenty of dialogue for sure, but that's something different. It's not that Peacock would need to be in charge, but the music would definitely show an enhanced sense of trifold quality if input were allowed from all corners of the band. These single-handedly prescribed bylaws are concretely demonstrated when Jarrett plays the intro, and takes charge of the route, and ooooh... there is that magic, spontaneous line coming as a gift from God, and the people are blessed for the evening - just as planned. Well, perhaps the line wasn't planned, but the ooooh may have been. All right, let's sum up: Keith Jarrett is a great musician all this analysis aside.

For someone who grew up with the western tempered tuning system, it is difficult to accept Gary Peacock's free-range intonation in the higher register. His ideas certainly speak and speak well, but if intention is not enough, his tuning detracts from the final experience. His ears are, however, fast and superbly grand, since he is able to agree to Jarrett's harmony at a blazing speed. But why always agree? I bet his own ideas would be just as good, and even if not, the trio would - as earlier noted - benefit from occasional disobedience to General Jarrett. Peacock, however, always plays enjoyable bass lines, and when at full speed with his alternative routes to outlining the chord structure, he succeeds to add a low frequency carbon footprint to his immediate environment. That certainly pollutes the mid and high frequencies as well, and that's good.

The invisible mastermind of this trio is Jack DeJohnette. He - if anyone - has an alternative plan. He may actually represent a slight resistance movement all by himself, but he is very careful. I'm not asking for dynamic violence or any of that sort, it's a question of a mental state of not always having omnidirectional ears, and saying "Cool, I'm with you whatever you say" but at times things like "Really?!" or "Why? I think you're crazy." DeJohnette could - and he is able to - listen in, and output the reverse phase, but under Jarrett he definitely doesn't.

Overall, this trio is about great homophonic playing, sort of like C.P.E. Bach or perhaps some Alessandro Scarlatti: Clear Melody, Nice Harmony, Solid Rhythm, Qualified Sonority, Professional Solos, Good Creativity, Tight Collaboration and it all ends well, as it in good stories should. Few musicians have done what these gentlemen consistently do concert after concert.