Keith Jarrett / Gary Peacock / Jack DeJohnette
Somewhere
ECM **** RECOMMENDED
The acoustics of the beautiful Jean Nouvel-designed Lucerne concert hall and the quality of Martin Pearson’s sound engineering mean you can hear simply everything and you’ll wish to forget nothing on Somewhere, the Standards trio’s twentieth album together, and the first since the live album Up For It was released a decade ago. The presence of two songs from West Side Story is one significant thread, title track ‘Somewhere’ leading to Jarrett’s rococo response‘Everywhere’, as well as ‘Tonight’. Fittingly there’s also a Miles Davis connection, the trio’s guardian angel, in ‘Solar’ the standard seamlessly added to Jarrett’s intense ‘Deep Space’. While Jarrett’s wild and exotic vocal grunts are as elaborate and at times painful sounding as they have ever been down the years, his touch is as immaculate as ever as he pores over long fiendishly involved and tender explorations that unite him with Peacock and DeJohnette in unbelievable empathy. By the end of ‘I Thought About You’ and this extraordinary album made by the shores of the silvery waters of Lake Lucerne amid an expanse of light, in that most Jarrett-like way the melody at night melts away. As do the years. Stephen Graham
Released on Monday