Solo Concerts: Bremen/Lausanne
{{Infobox album
| name = Solo Concerts: Bremen/Lausanne
| type = live
| artist = Keith Jarrett
| cover = Solo Concerts.jpg
| alt =
| released = November 1973ECM Records [https://www.ecmrecords.com/catalogue/143038750642 Keith Jarrett: Solo Concerts: Bremen/Lausanne] accessed May 2020
| recorded = March 20 and July 12, 1973
| venue = Salle de Spectacles d'Epalinges (Lausanne, Switzerland)
Kleiner Sendesaal (Bremen, Germany)
| studio =
| genre =
| length = 128:13
| label = ECM 1035–37 ST
| producer = Manfred Eicher
| prev_title = Fort Yawuh
| prev_year = 1973
| next_title = In the Light
| next_year = 1974
| misc = {{Extra chronology
| artist = Keith Jarrett solo piano
| type = live
| prev_title = Facing You
| prev_year = 1972
| title = Solo Concerts: Bremen/Lausanne
| year = 1973
| next_title = The Köln Concert
| next_year = 1975
}}
}}
Solo Concerts: Bremen/Lausanne is a live solo triple album by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett recorded at the Salle de Spectacles d'Epalinges in Lausanne, Switzerland and the Kleiner Sendesall in Bremen, Germany on March 20 and July 12, 1973, respectively and released on ECM November that same year—Jarrett's debut solo live album for the label.{{cite book |last=Elsdon |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HhEWDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA22 |title=Keith Jarrett's The Koln Concert |publisher=Oxford UP |year=2013 |isbn=9780199779253 |location=Oxford |page=22}}
Background
Jarrett played in the US with his American quartet between the two European solo concerts.
Critical reception
{{Music ratings
| rev1 = AllMusic
| rev2 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music
| rev3 = The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings
| rev3score = {{Rating|3.5|4}}{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Richard |authorlink1=Richard Cook (journalist) |last2=Morton |first2=Brian |authorlink2=Brian Morton (Scottish writer) |title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings |year=2008 |edition=9th |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-141-03401-0 |page=768}}
| rev4 = Pitchfork
| rev4score = 9.2/10{{cite web |last=Richardson |first=Keith |title=Keith Jarrett: Solo Concerts: Bremen/Lausanne Album Review |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/keith-jarrett-solo-concerts-bremen-lausanne/ |website=Pitchfork |date=August 13, 2023 |access-date=August 13, 2023}}
| rev5 = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide
| rev5score = {{rating|5|5}}{{Cite book
|editor-last=Swenson
|editor-first=J.
| year = 1985
| title = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide
| publisher = Random House/Rolling Stone
| location = USA
| isbn = 0-394-72643-X
| page = 112}}
| rev6 = DownBeat
}}
In 1974, DownBeat ranked the album as the best jazz recording of the year{{cite book |last=Sandner |first=Wolfgang |translator-last=Jarrett |translator-first=Chris |title=Keith Jarrett: A Biography |publisher=Equinox |year=2020 | pages=93 }}
The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 5 stars, stating, "Despite the length, the music never loses one's interest, making this an essential recording for all jazz collections".Yanow, S. [http://allmusic.com/album/solo-concerts-bremen-and-lausanne-r160033/review Allmusic Review] accessed September 9, 2011
Ted Gioia calls it Jarrett's "masterpiece"; "two titanic improvised performances".{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofjazz00gioia|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofjazz00gioia/page/340 340]|title=The History of Jazz|first=Ted|last=Gioia|edition=2|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2011|isbn=9780199830589}}
According to Mikal Gilmore in Night Beat, "with Bremen-Lausanne and the subsequent Köln Concert, Jarrett found his niche, freely mixing gospel, impressionist, and atonal flights into a consonant whole".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nRvdiFp7syEC&pg=PT213|page=213|title=Night Beat: A Shadow History of Rock & Roll|first=Mikal|last=Gilmore|publisher=Knopf Doubleday|year=2000|isbn=9780385500296}}
Bill Dobbins notes that the (short) encore on the third side, a boogie-woogie inflected ostinato, owes much to Duke Ellington's New World A-Comin'.{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CKSuDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA128|pages=108–56|title=Duke Ellington Studies|editor1-first=John|editor1-last=Howland|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2017|isbn=9780521764049|chapter='Nobody Was Looking': The Unparalleled Jazz Piano Legacy of Duke Ellington|first=Bill|last=Dobbins}}
Writing for the now defunct jazz magazine Jazz.com in December 2007, Ted Gioia rated the track "Bremen, Germany, July 12, 1973, Part I" 100/100, stating:Gioia, Ted (December 2007) [https://web.archive.org/web/20120922130249/http://www.jazz.com/dozens/the-dozens-essential-keith-jarrett The Dozens: Essential Keith Jarrett by Ted Gioia at Jazz.com] accessed September 2020
Jazz musicians have always emphasized improvisation in their work. But few have taken this reliance on spontaneous creation to the lengths Keith Jarrett has assayed in his solo concerts. He pioneered the (still rare) concept of an entirely improvised piano recital, wholly inspired by the muse of the moment. But if the concept is exciting, Jarrett's execution of this ambitious idea is even more impressive. The ECM recording of Jarrett's 1973 Bremen concert represented the first attempt to capture this type of work on tape and present it on record. This disk may not have sold as well as The Köln Concert from 1975 or matched the scope of Jarrett's massive Sun Bear Concerts (originally released on ten LPs) from 1976, but for sheer musicality and inventiveness it is hard to top the recital in Bremen. Here is piano music that is rich in complexity, subtle in detail, and completely free of cliché. One of my desert island disks.In 2023, Pitchfork{{'}}s Mark Richardson described it as a "career-defining jazz masterpiece" and wrote that the "structural coherence of these lengthy improvisations across two one-hour sets is astonishing" and "where Jarrett's improvisational skill and talent might suggest music described as 'effortless,' some of the beauty of his solo piano work is that you can hear the exertion."
Will Smith, writing for DownBeat Magazine, says, "the word incredible is an understatement here . . . The music is lyrical without being soft or fragile. It is at once a crystalline and yet flowing beauty; a music with the pastoral grace of Bach and the heart of the blues. It is heart-swelling and head-swinging. And it is totally devoid of vacant impressionism and gushing romanticism".{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Will |date=January 17, 1974 |title=Reviews Keith Jarrett Solo Concerts ECM |journal=DownBeat |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=16}}
Track listing
= Original release – ECM 1035–37 ST<ref>{{Citation |title=Keith Jarrett - Solo Concerts: Bremen / Lausanne |date=1973 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/7011637-Keith-Jarrett-Solo-Concerts-Bremen-Lausanne |access-date=2023-12-11 |language=en}}</ref> =
{{tracklist
| headline = Side I
| all_writing = Keith Jarrett
| title1 = Bremen, July 12, 1973, Part I
| length1 = 18:11
}}
{{tracklist
| headline = Side II
| title1 = Bremen, July 12, 1973, Part II a
| length1 = 19:40
}}
{{tracklist
| headline = Side III
| title1 = Bremen, July 12, 1973, Part II b
| length1 = 26:15
}}
{{tracklist
| headline = Side IV
| title1 = Lausanne, March 20, 1973, Part I a
| length1 = 22:50
}}
{{tracklist
| headline = Side V
| title1 = Lausanne, March 20, 1973, Part I b
| length1 = 7:20
| title2 = Lausanne, March 20, 1973, Part II a
| length2 = 12:34
}}
{{tracklist
| headline = Side VI
| title1 = Lausanne, March 20, 1973, Part II b
| length1 = 22:35
}}
= CD reissue – ECM 1035–37 =
{{tracklist
| headline = Disc one
| all_writing = Keith Jarrett
| title1 = Bremen, July 12, 1973, Part I
| length1 = 18:11
| title2 = Bremen, July 12, 1973, Part II
| length2 = 45:09
}}
{{tracklist
| headline = Disc two
| title1 = Lausanne, March 20, 1973
| length1 = 64:53
}}
Personnel
- Keith Jarrett – piano
= Technical personnel =
- Manfred Eicher, Keith Jarrett – producer
- Pierre Grandjean, Alan Kobel – recording engineer (Lausanne)
- Rolf Rockstroh – recording engineer (Bremen)
- Kurt Rapp, Martin Wieland – remix engineers
- Barbara and Burkhart Wojirsch – cover design and layout
- Roberto Masotti, A. Raggenbass, Jochen Mönch – photography
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Keith Jarrett}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solo Concerts: Bremen Lausanne}}
Category:Keith Jarrett live albums
Category:ECM Records live albums
Category:Albums produced by Manfred Eicher