Welcome to the first ever Daily Jazz post!
In every post, I’ll give you a classic jazz track to listen to, so you can discover the very best music to listen to.
I’ll also tell you some “need-to-knows” and give you some listening notes, so you can learn how to listen to jazz.
Today’s track:
Bye Bye Blackbird - Keith Jarrett Trio
Artist: Keith Jarrett Trio
Album: Bye Bye Blackbird
Date of recording: 1991
Who am I listening to?
By Olivier Bruchez - Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14982563
Keith Jarrett (piano) is one of the greatest living jazz musicians.
He’s known as a great improviser, and for his long solo piano concerts.
His trio, the Keith Jarrett Trio has been together for decades, and tours the world performing classic jazz tunes.
What’s the music?
Bye Bye Blackbird is a classic jazz standard, and favourite tune of trumpeter Miles Davis.
This is no coincidence.
The album, also titled Bye Bye Blackbird, was a tribute to Miles David, who had died a few weeks before the recording.
“Goodbye, Miles.”
When you look at the album artwork, you’ll see that it shows Miles himself walking off into the distance.
3 things to listen for
Piano trio
Listen for the three instruments of the trio:
piano
double-bass
drums
Jarrett’s vocalisation
This is a polite way of saying “singing and grunting”.
Jarrett is known as a great improviser, and one of the ways he improvises is to sing along as he plays. Jazz musicians often do this, as it helps to get the creative juices flowing.
Jarrett does this in quite an extreme way, though… as you’ll see!
Inspired improvising
This recording is straightforward, simple modern jazz… with out-of-this world improvising.
And it’s the quality of this improvising that sets it apart and makes it special.
Remember that 95% of what you’re listening to is made up on the spot by the trio, and it’s the quality of this improvisation that you can use to judge whether a musician is “good” or not.
But although improvisation is spontaneous, the goal of improvising is to make amazing music. It’s kind of irrelevant whether it’s written in advance or made up on the spot.
So when you’re listening, sit back and take in the energy and beauty of the music… then, as you’re listening, just remind yourself that they’re making this up on the spot.
And that’s the genius of this.
Share the music!
That’s all for today.
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Until tomorrow,
Olly Richards