El Juicio (The Judgement)/Life Between the Exit Signs

Performer: Keith Jarrett
Artist: Dewey Redman; Charlie Haden; Paul Motian
Distributor: Gotham Distributing Corp.

Notes: 2 LPs on 1 CD: EL JUICIO (THE JUDGEMENT) (1976)/LIFE BETWEEN THE EXIT SIGNS (1968). Includes liner notes by Keith Jarrett and George Avakian. EL JUICIO (THE JUDGEMENT): Personnel: Keith Jarrett (soprano saxophone, flute, piano, steel drums, percussion); Dewey Redman (tenor saxophone, steel drums, percussion); Charlie Haden (bass, steel drums, percussion); Paul Motian (drums, steel drums, percussion). Producer: George Avakian. Originally released on Atlantic (1673). LIFE BETWEEN THE EXIT SIGNS: Personnel: Keith Jarrett (piano); Charlie Haden (bass); Paul Motian (drums). Originally released on Vortex (2006). Personnel: Keith Jarrett (flute, soprano saxophone, piano); Dewey Redman (tenor saxophone); Paul Motian (drums). Liner Note Authors: George Avakian; Keith Jarrett. Recording information: 01/??/1976-05/04/1967. This compilation is valuable for restoring to circulation Keith Jarrett's first release as a leader and for its major doses of Charlie Haden's bass playing and Paul Motian's drumming. On Jarrett's Life Between the Exit Signs from 1968, Haden rumbles, throbs, and drones, marvelously lost in bass reverie. Motian has begun to transcend traditional ideas about tempo and to extract absolutely remarkable sounds from his kit. With brushes alone, his sonic palette includes frantic, flapping, prehistoric birds caught in drain pipes and 60-pound bags of sand pelting into banks of fresh snow. In a program of originals and one standard, Jarrett feeds off his partners with strategies informed by key influences from Bill Evans to Cecil Taylor. El Juicio, from 1976, transforms the same trio into a quartet with the addition of tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman -- like Haden, an Ornette Coleman alumni. The opening track, "Gypsy Moth," is a loose, funky affair, but from there the group becomes a freewheeling, garage-band version of the Ornette Coleman quartet, with Jarrett playing soprano sax, flute, and percussion as much as piano. Haden provides most of the structure. Motian dispenses with traditional timekeeping, and Jarrett and Redman engage in furious duets on soprano and tenor. ("Pardon My Rags" from the original release of El Juicio is not on this compilation due to time restrictions.) Perhaps the most appealing quality of this Collectables compilation is it lets listeners look back on a group of established players at a time when they were still finding their way, opening new doors, crossing new frontiers, and discovering the traits that would make them unique as musicians. ~ Jim Todd

Pianist Keith Jarrett has carved out a unique place among contemporary improvising musicians. After a brief mid-'60s stint with Art Blakey, Jarrett joined the enormously popular Charles Lloyd Quartet before being recruited by Miles Davis at the height of early fusion. Initially, Jarrett's solo career continued in a similar electric vein, but he soon turned exclusively to acoustic instruments. His improvised solo piano concerts captured genius at work, and his Standards Trio redefined the genre. In between, he has performed classical works and his own folk-inspired music, and he has been an outspoken critic of the commercialization of jazz.

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