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UP FOR IT
(ECM)
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The back story to this 2002 live Antibes Festival recording, as described in Jarrett’s liner notes, is that the trio were feeling old (Jarrett and drummer Jack DeJohnette in their late 50s, bassist Gary Peacock 67) and sick, and it wouldn’t stop raining. But the band went on, played, and got into it. Now celebrating their 20th anniversary, the trio have taken some knocks for Jarrett’s self-indulgence, and for passages of ensemble torpor, and for not living up to his original youthful explosiveness. All of which may be true, but album by album the trio deliver. Listen to the out-of-phase two-handed density of the intro to the opening "If I Were a Bell," or the flights of Jarrett’s single-note runs in the right hand as his left settles into regular comping, the infinite extended lines that come casting out of his short repeated phrases. If "Autumn Leaves" has been played too many times by too many people, it’s hard to think about that while you’re listening to it here, and John Lewis’s "Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West" isn’t played nearly often enough. Same goes for Oliver Nelson’s "Butch & Butch," which gets a bracing treatment. There’s gorgeous dynamic and tonal control and maximum swing with a seeming minimum of effort throughout. And so I’ll settle for "My Funny Valentine," "Scrapple from the Apple," and "Someday My Prince Will Come" as well. A penny for the old guys.
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