CD Review: My Foolish Heart

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

By Richard Anderson

‘My Foolish Heart’
Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette
ECM Records

Like your favorite restaurant – the kind of place you go when you want to be assured of an excellent meal, with plenty of old favorites on the menu as well as a few specials to surprise you – Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette once again satisfy with their brand-new two-disc ECM release, “My Foolish Heart,” the group’s 18th recording.

There are few less risky bets in jazz than this trio. As it approaches its 25th anniversary of recording and performing, it continues to set a high bar for invention and interplay.

This outing (actually recorded live in July 2001 in Montreux) finds the three in frolicksome form. There’s plenty of swinging and romping on favorite standards (“Green Dolphin Street.” “Five Brothers” and “The Song Is You”), energetic takes on contemporary classics (“”Four,” “Straight No Chaser,” “Oleo”) that sometimes verge on the daring acrobatics of the trio’s recordings of free-form originals improvisations, and a few quieter, introspective samples from the Great American Songbook (“Guess I’ll Hand My Tears Out To Dry,” “What’s New” and the title track). Altogether, it’s a varied and balanced set that offers a leisurely sampling of the history of American popular music and also highlights the trio’s wide-ranging skills.

As a special treat, Jarrett also includes some heretofore undocumented though not completely unprecedented stride piano playing on “Honeysuckle Rose” and “Ain’t Misbehavin’” (both by Fats Waller) and “You Took Advantage of Me,” showing off another aspect of the pianist’s technical prowess and encyclopedic musical knowledge. Jarrett’s left hand bounces unerringly while his right performs Tatumesque flights that are as athletic as they are artistic.

But, as with all previous recordings by Jarrett’s trio, “My Foolish Heart” belongs equally to all three players. While Jarrett enjoys much of the limelight, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer John DeJohnette are front and center, too, adding energy and personality, deepening the harmonies and exploring the rhythms of these oft-covered tunes, and helping to make them fresh and new and unmistakably of the 21st century, even the circa-1920s stride chestnuts. Few bassists pull such rich, round tones out of their instruments as Peacock, and DeJohnette once again reminds us that he has got to be one of the top five, if not top three, most accomplished, skillful and enjoyable modern drummers alive today.

Often, these tracks brought to mind a couple of much earlier Jarrett-Peacock-DeJohnette discs, specifically “Standards Vol. 1” and “Standards Vol. 2.” Released in 1983, also on ECM, those albums introduced this working group to the world.

Nearly 25 years later, “My Foolish Heart” doesn’t stray far from the original form. In more cases than not, one would expect, perhaps even demand, change from a group that has worked together for so long – maturation, progress, increasingly complex or refined arrangements or performances. But listening to the “Standards” discs (which in the coming year will be released in a box set, along with “Changes,” a third disc), it’s hard to imagine how they might be improved.

Indeed, “My Foolish Heart” doesn’t so much represent another stage or step in a journey as much as another memorable evening spent with good friends over a familiar table and a fantastic meal.
PERMALINK:
CD Review: My Foolish Heart | Planet JH News Article: General Music Arts and Culture

Leave a Comment