Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden

“Jasmine”

(ECM 2165 273 3485)

This album marks something of a departure from Keith Jarrett’s releases in recent years, which have alternated between live recordings taken from a purple patch of dates with his trio from nearly ten years ago and more recent solo improvised concerts. In contrast, this is a laid-back affair, recorded in Jarrett’s home studio with bassist Charlie Haden. It is rare for him to record with any musician outside of his regular trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette, and it is the first time in over 30 years that he has played with Haden.

The intimate, stripped-down aesthetic of ?Jasmine’ is reminiscent of Jarrett’s outstanding 2000 solo album, ?The Melody at Night with You’. On a set of standards ranging from the very well known (?For All We Know’, ?Body and Soul’) to the under-recorded (?I’m Going to Laugh You Right Out Of My Life’) and one surprising choice (?One Day I’ll Fly Away’), Jarrett and Haden let the songs take centre stage. Harmonic embellishments and substitutions are kept to a minimum while solo departures are also reigned in. Many of the pieces clock in way under the marathon excursions we have become accustomed to with Jarrett’s trio. Another striking feature of the album is its dry sound, almost giving the impression that the pair are playing in the same room as you.

Haden is masterful in settings without a drummer, as he has shown in previous projects including those with Lee Konitz, Kenny Barron and John Taylor. His unerring sense of tempo and warm, resonant tone firmly anchor the music and he never fails to swing. This rubs off on Jarrett, who delivers some of his most unhurried playing to date, avoiding cerebral sophistication where a simple idea would work better.

Yet for all its virtues, this album still falls short of expectations, reaching neither the thrilling peaks of creativity in the work of Jarrett’s trio, nor the profound level of sentiment of ?The Melody at Night with You’. The avoidance of more adventurous re-harmonisations and voicings sounds at times a little too austere, while a few casually thrown-away endings (notably on ?No Moon At All’) don’t quite pay off. Like everything that Jarrett does, this will polarize listeners; several plays in I still can’t help feeling slightly underwhelmed.

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