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Kind: News, opinion Music Genre: Jazz Categories: Entertainment, Arts, Music Published: December 12, 2009

Keith Jarrett Back Home After 38 Years in Exile

By DESIREE QUINONES-TERRENCE

Jazz piano trendsetter and superstar Keith Jarrett has been a long-time inspiration and musical idol for the artists on the German record label ECM Records, founded in 1969 by bass guitar player and producer Manfred Eicher. ECM Records has created a homegrown platform for European jazz musicians, but it is Jarrett who has been the label's bestselling artist ever since his premiere CD release, "Facing You" in 1971. After 38 years of uninterrupted representation in Germany, Jarrett's first ever recording in his home country as a leader has now been released by Blue Music Group.

Keith Jarrett is an Allentown, Pennsylvania native who lived in Boston before earning international fame in the groups of icons such as Art Blakey, Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Jarrett has been credited for creating the contemporary version of fully improvised solo concerts in the 1970s as well as modernizing old jazz songs in new formats since the 1980s. In 2003, he received the prestigious Polar Music Prize from the King of Sweden, Carl Gustaf XVI. The new recording on Blue Music Group was recorded in Stockholm, aptly titled "Standards in Sweden", released in two volumes. The jazz trio CD has been critically acclaimed as one of Jarrett's most successful outings in his entire discography, with a special consideration made to the sound production of the CD, much alike the legendary Rudy van Gelder recordings on the label. Notable music critic Anderson Riley notes that "Jarrett is a master of ballads" and that he "should receive proper credit for bringing jazz back to the popular music realm, although he represents the highest artistic quality in music overall."

Keith Jarrett, who is mainly a classical and jazz pianist, has been called the founder of the sparse and relaxing New Age music style in the mid 1970s, due to his solo piano live concert album "Köln Concert", making it with Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" a bestseller in jazz history. Jarrett has denied the new age references, claiming he is "improvising from zero," and his playing being unrelated to any particular musical style. Blue Music Group's new affiliation brings an interesting edge to the pianist celebrity's production, as the label mainly produces younger artists, several of Latin American origin, and fewer European colleagues compared to those on the German ECM Records. Blue Music Group is also known as a cutting edge technology company, and a viable player in new media. It will be interesting to see how Jarrett's recordings will benefit from Blue Music Group as the issuer of his recorded art.

standards.bluemusicgroup.com

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