Keith Jarrett - Always Let Me Go / 2CD set

Recorded on two nights in Tokyo in 2001, this double album is an endlessly fascinating document that takes the full measure of the group’s creativity. Keith Jarrett describes the work as “free music that was not written, rehearsed or planned in advance of the performances.” But Jarrett’s free music embraces an enormous range of possibilities.

There is an abundance of melody in these spontaneous constructions, and passing allusions to the entire history of jazz, though the music also reaches beyond it. There are cascades of sound, tremulous lyrical passages, deep grooves, wide-ranging dynamics, silences, and quiet dissonances. The range of possible references in this music runs from Thelonious Monk to Anton von Webern. The music couldn’t have been played by anyone but Jarrett’s trio, yet they have never sounded quite like this. Keith himself has described the music as “a volcanic eruption” and feels it is their best and most concentrated work to date.