Jarrett/Peacock/Dejohnette: The Out-Of-Towners

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * * )

On the final track of this exceptional live album pianist Keith Jarrett dismisses bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette and delivers a beautifully spare, then increasingly romantic version of the old standard, It's All in The Game.

It is the perfect, quiet and considered coda to a set which is otherwise surprisingly muscular, notably on the swinging bop treatment of Gerry Mulligan's Five Brothers and the 20-minute title track which digs deep into various facets of the blues with reference points in Bill Evans, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk and others.

Elsewhere they negotiate Jimmy McHugh's I Can't Believe You're In Love With Me from some stately solo playing in the long intro, then taking it into a brisk tempo with DeJohnette's deft kitwork sounding like discreetly exploding fireworks, propelling Jarrett and Peacock into better things as the tune unfurls over 10 minutes.

On You've Changed the mood is taken right down into a lachrymose ballad of regret which then lifts itself optimistically through Jarrett's angular explorations of the melody. Cole Porter's I Love You is bright, prismatic and energetic. Then it's into the blues and bop, and that shimmering ballad at the end.

A terrific concert - and his label is promising another live set next year.

Jarrett's career has seen him shift from sprawling improvised concerts in the late 60s and 70s, through the classical repertoire and some wayward multi-instrumental albums (which wouldn't have seen the light of day from any other artist) in the 70s and 80s, then curtail playing because of illness. But in the past decade - notably with this line-up which has specialised in revisiting standards - he has refined his style and sounded the better, and more consistent, for it.

His solo album The Melody at Night, With You of five years ago was the sound of an artist at yet another creative peak. This year he won Downbeat's critics' poll as best jazz pianist - and the persuasive evidence is here in this warm, sometimes funky playing and then, in that solo coda, distilled magic.

Label: ECM/ODE