CD REVIEW: Keith Jarrett- Original Album Series ....

CD REVIEW: Keith Jarrett- Original Album Series: Life Between the Exit Signs, Restoration Ruin, Somewhere Before, The Mourning of a Star, El Juicio

Keith Jarrett- Original Album Series: Life Between the Exit Signs, Restoration Ruin, Somewhere Before, The Mourning of a Star, El Juicio 

(Rhino/ Warner Music Group, CD review by Mike Collins)

Keith Jarrett turned 70 in May this year. The birthday milestone has been marked by new releases from ECM, the news that the legendary Standards Trio has called it a day and now, in retrospective mode, a neatly packaged set of CDs, his first five releases as a leader, originally on the Atlantic and Vortex labels. The individual discs nestle satisfyingly in cardboard sleeves with the original LP artwork on them (although the liner notes and credits are rendered nearly indecipherable without a magnifying glass).


Listening to the first notes of Lisbon Stomp, the first track on 1967’s debut album Life Between the Exit Signs, is startling. It was recorded nearly fifty years ago after Jarrett had spent a year touring the world with Charles Lloyd’s Quartet and released whilst he was still only 22. The opening track seems now like quintessential Jarrett with a hint of a boppish turn in the melodic phrase, an exuberant rocky flourish to resolve the harmony and slivery, fluid runs launching the improvisation. Somehow, the sound from a slightly dead sounding piano is unmistakably his. It’s as if he emerged fully formed with a distinct voice at the very beginning of his long career.

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