Keith Jarrett

I had always wondered how ECM Records funded itself. Its catalog is vast, its production values are extremely high, but the commercial appeal of its artists, even in Europe, is, in the grand scheme of things, limited. Now I think I know - whenever the label needs money, they release another recording by Keith Jarrett, then sit back and watch his rabid fans gobble it up, lining the label's coffers.

I'm really starting to think that Jarrett has managed to attain that enviable position where critics and listeners alike stopped trying at anything resembling objectivity. It doesn't matter what he plays. He achieves instant holiness just by touching the keyboard.

His latest recording is Yesterdays, with his usual trio of Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette. Though released a couple of weeks ago, it was recorded back in 2001, so clearly it is from the vaults. I was initially drawn to it because it was purported to be available on LP - the first new recording ECM has issued on vinyl in fifteen years. Turned out the LP was not officially available in the US, and to get it from Europe would have cost me €30 plus trans-Atlantic shipping. But by the time I found this out, I was convinced, on no basis whatsoever, that I had to hear it. So I got a copy of the CD.

While Yesterdays is not bad per se, it is definitely not essential. Turns out Jarrett's trio has released several other trio records since my last acquisition --1999's Whisper Not. Yesterdays is just another link in a seemingly endless chain. Everything they play here they have played before. The songs are all standards - their stock in trade these days - and while everyone plays competently, and I normally love standards, it is just not that interesting. The band grooves, Peacock plays some tasteful solos, and DeJohnette tosses off some pretty wild stuff now and then without ever losing the beat, but as a whole package it doesn't make me go "wow." I suspect one of the major problems is Jarrett's infamous humming and moaning. I realize that anyone who is going to listen to him in any quantity is going to have to live with it and learn to listen through it. But on Yesterdays it seems louder and far more distracting than on any other record I've heard. I've played the disc all the way through a few times now, both through the speakers and on headphones, and it still grates in a major way.

To give credit where it is due, the last two tracks come a ways towards redeeming the record. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is lovingly played, with one of those floating, harmonically ambiguous extended intros that used to be Jarrett's trademark but have not been heard much since he recovered from a major illness in the 1990s. "Stella By Starlight," recorded during a sound check (the rest of the record is live), is more uptempo, but Jarrett is still a bit restrained, not only articulating extremely well (he usually does), but holding back from gratuitously long and fast passages. Download those two from a music source of your choice and forget the rest, I say.