taking the damned city by strategy - and in silence

Some more Jarrett discussion:

- a collection of tirades and another one that shows he actually has a sense of humour, as well.

- the inevitable massive jazz forum thread.

In the Perugia case, I think it's important to keep in mind that Jarrett's outburst did not come in reaction to an unruly crowd, but as the trio was walking out and being warmly applauded. It was a pre-emptive strike that's almost enough to make me think that Jarrett's been enlisted by the State Department.

- a great post that folds an eyewitness account account from Paris in 2006 into some more general thoughts. The eyewitness concludes:

If people were finding it hard to concentrate on the music at the start, by the end, I think all people could do was concentrate on not coughing. Doing what he did, KJ just assured HE could concentrate on the music. The audience were silent afterwards, but their attention was not with the music - it was with trying to keep as still as possible.

PWS then declares "I am put off by a lot of Jarrett's music, especially when he drifts into dangerous new agey waters of embarrassingly Romantic tonal backwash." The more I listen to Jarrett, the less this bothers me. I don't dislike it less - I hope I never come to like the sappy fusion tracks on Expectations - but the fact that Jarrett can juxtapose the thorniest inside-the-piano improvisation with mush and seem equally happy doing both somehow feels fearless, to me. I mean, was it obvious, in the late '60s, that Bill Evans and Ornette Coleman could be brought together, as they are on Life Between the Exit Signs?