CD Review/ LJF preview: Michel Portal - Bailador

Michel Portal - Baïlador
(EmArcy 2753766. CD review/ London Jazz Fesival Preview by Chris Parker)

As an appetiser for Michel Portal's upcoming LJF appearance (QEH, Monday 14 November), this album, released in November 2010, is hard to beat: wide-ranging in scope but intense and hard-driving, often subtle and complex yet always surprisingly approachable.

The French multi-reedsman, along with Henri Texier and Martial Solal, has been at the heart of jazz in his country for nearly half a century, but on this recording of six Portal originals, plus one by compatriot Eddy Louiss and another by guest drummer Jack DeJohnette (although Nasheet Waits will replace him at the QEH), he has assembled an intriguing line-up of international musicians of the highest calibre.

Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, Herbie Hancock guitarist Lionel Loueke, bassist Scott Colley and keyboardist/arranger Bojan Z respond magnificently to the various challenges posed by the album's restlessly probing pieces, which range from the bright, freewheeling opener 'Dolce', through the more darkly sinuous Louiss composition 'Citrus Juice' to the burning energy of the title-track, but it is the cogency, imaginative range and sheer power of Portal's playing (mostly on bass clarinet, but also occasionally on saxophone) that attract and hold the attention throughout this rich, multi-textured but consistently absorbing and vigorous set.

Portal has claimed that the album represents a starting-point for future live performances by this stellar band, which makes his QEH gig (at which he will play opposite the UK duo of saxophonist Jason Yarde and pianist Andrew McCormack) a toothsome prospect indeed.

Tickets for Michel Portal at the London Jazz Festival

Review: Keith Jarrett Standards Trio

Keith Jarrett / Gary Peacock / Jack DeJohnette

(Royal Festival Hall, 27th July 2011) 

Those untameable, disconsolate beasts, social media commentators, have been giving Keith Jarrett a hard time. Or do I mean "We...."?

Rather than paying attention to the music, there is one who posts as @angryjarrett on Twitter (strapline "Are you taping this? ARE YOU FREAKIN' TAPING THIS?"). Another goes by the moniker of @fakejarrett . And those with an appetite for controversy, or a perverse need to see the artist humbled, can be sated by tracking down a Youtube clip (160,000 views) of Jarrett losing his patience with people with cameras at UmbriaJazz in 2007.

If I have to be true to the stereotype of the blogger and complain at all about last night, then all I that can find would be that Jack DeJohnette was occasionally overbalancing. This was an approach which worked well in Ornette Coleman's "When will the Blues leave?" with rims and casings producing unusual and anarchic textures, but less so at other times.

But, in the final analysis, are the seekers-out of controversy and small gripes really representative, well, of anybody? On the evidence of last night's packed Royal Festival Hall concert by the Keith Jarrett Standards Trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette, it is clear that the population of devotees, accumulated over decades, is larger, by far, than that of the malcontents.

 Listen to the recent duo album Jasmine, with Charlie Haden, and the impression is of a musician getting progressively calmer, mellower. Jarrett got a reputation for petulance in a brief period about 3-4 years ago when other aspects of his life were in turmoil. Yes,  Jack DeJohnette did plead with the audience, at Jarrett's request, to put their phone-cameras away. There were warnings in the hall about taping and photographing which did come across as draconian, heavy-handed. But in the end, these are distractions, a sideshow. It is the music which has to speak for itself. And it did, consistently.

One didn't have to look very far to see the way in which the audience takes Jarrett to its heart. I noticed a man in a seat near me reaching out to find his wife's hand in the particularly melting introduction to Jerome Kern's "Yesterdays." I also read the spontaneous reaction of pianist Andrew McCormack on Facebook last night: "The intro to 'In Your Own Sweet Way' was worth the admission price alone!"

But most telling was the audience's reaction to the end of the official second set. There was whooping, cheering. A significant proportion of the spectators was up on its feet. And they were duly rewarded. The first encore, "God bless the child" was by my watch not far short of fifteen minutes long, and was followed by three others.

Reputation is a lagging indicator. Jarrett is back on form.

Produced by Serious for the South Bank Centre

Jarretting from a distance

View from the back  row of the Royal Festival Hall

Peter Bacon has decided not to go to hear the now sold-out Keith Jarrett gig this Wednesday at the Royal Festival Hall, and writes that, the experience approaches a religious rite, and that for him, the experience involves too many compromises :

"When your overwhelming memory is of how many times you have been told to switch your phone off and warned that if you so much as think of taking a picture you will have your eyes surgically removed layer by layer, or if you even emit one too heavy a breath you will be removed for insulting not only the guru Keith but all of music that has ever been played in a public place since the gargling of the first amoeba, then one has to ask: has the point been lost here somewhere?"

 (HERE'S HIS PIECE) I'm going to review the gig, with an open mind...

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