# CD review: Keith Jarrett – Munich 2016 (2019): Video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2019/11/02/review-keith-jarrett-munich-2016-2019-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2019-11-02T20:03:32+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Virtuoso pianist Keith Jarrett will have _Munich 2016_, a recording of his concert
at Munich’s Philharmonic Hall on 16 July 2016, released by ECM on 1 November.**

The album captures the last night of Jarrett’s tour of that year, and a concert 
in which he was at the peak of his improvisational powers. He plays music of polyrhythmic
and harmonic complexity, intermingled with blues and folksong lyricism in what was
recognised as one of his finest performances. The attentive and admiring German 
audience hangs on every note in a show that featured an encore of ‘It’s A Lonesome
Old Town.’

_Munich 2016_, recorded in the home town of his label ECM, is the latest release
in a line of solo concert recordings that have illustrated Jarrett’s career. These
have included 1973’s _Solo Concerts Bremen-Lausanne_ as well as later high points
such as _The Köln Concert, Sun Bear Concerts, Concerts (Bregenz München), Paris 
Concert, Vienna Concert, La Scala, Radiance, The Carnegie Hall Concert, Testament,
Creation, A Multitude of Angels_ and _La Fenice_. The _Sun Bear_ album is due for
reissue on vinyl in the coming months.

That live album history also illustrates the way in which Jarrett’s concerts have
themselves been transformed. His early shows featured unbroken improvisations that
would span an entire set, but Munich 2016 highlights a modern-day style of tightly
focused and spontaneous performances. While there are far more solo improvisers 
working in this musical milieu than was once the case, Jarrett’s dexterity for developing
motifs and melodies and uncovering forms in real time is still unparalleled.

As the Polar Music Prize committee commented when honouring Jarrett with its 2003
award, “[his] musical artistry is characterised by his ability to effortlessly cross
boundaries in the world of music. He has expressed himself over the years in the
context of both jazz and compositions for various chamber music ensembles and orchestra.

“Through a series of brilliant solo performances and recordings that demonstrate
his utterly spontaneous creativity, Keith Jarrett has simultaneously lifted piano
improvisation as an art form to new, unimaginable heights.”

A solo concert from Keith Jarrett – recorded at Munich’s Philharmonic Hall on July
16, 2016, on the last night of a tour – finds the great improvising pianist at a
peak of invention. Creating a spontaneous suite of forms in the moment with the 
intuitive assurance of a master builder – interspersing touches of the blues and
folksong lyricism between pieces of polyrhythmic and harmonic complexity – he delivers
one of his very finest performances. An attentive and appreciative audience hangs
on every note, every nuance, and is rewarded with some tender encores including 
a magical version of “It’s A Lonesome Old Town”…

Jarrett’s solo concert recordings form a unique and continually evolving body of
work inside his discography. To trace the line that leads from 1973’s Solo Concerts
Bremen-Lausanne is to follow an extraordinary musical journey. High points along
the road have included The Köln Concert, Sun Bear Concerts – due for vinyl reissue
in the coming months -, Concerts (Bregenz München), Paris Concert, Vienna Concert,
La Scala, Radiance, The Carnegie Hall Concert, Testament, Creation, A Multitude 
of Angels, and La Fenice. Munich 2016 brings the story up to date, a document of
Jarrett’s most recent European performance, held in ECM’s hometown. The particular
intensity of the Munich performance singles it out as one of the truly outstanding
concerts. So, too, the flow of its component parts.

The shape of the individual concerts has been transformed, the large arc of the 
early concerts, with unbroken improvisations spanning an entire set, giving way 
to performances made up of discrete, tightly focused spontaneous compositions. Since
Jarrett embarked on this quest the number of solo improvisers has multiplied exponentially
yet his sense for developing motifs and melodies and uncovering forms in real time
remains unparalleled. There is, still, nothing else like a Keith Jarrett solo concert.“
Through a series of brilliant solo performances and recordings that demonstrate 
his utterly spontaneous creativity,” the Polar Music Prize committee noted a few
years ago, “Keith Jarrett has simultaneously lifted piano improvisation as an art
form to new, unimaginable heights.”

1. Part I (Live) (13:30)
 2. Part II (Live) (6:53) 3. Part III (Live) (5:56) 4. 
Part IV (Live) (3:51) 5. Part V (Live) (3:59) 6. Part VI (Live) (5:49) 7. Part VII(
Live) (1:50) 8. Part VIII (Live) (7:48) 9. Part IX (Live) (3:03) 10. Part X (Live)(
7:16) 11. Part XI (Live) (8:33) 12. Part XII (Live) (2:50) 13. Answer Me My Love(
Live) (4:12) 14. It’s A Lonesome Old Town (Live) (5:03) 15. Somewhere Over The Rainbow(
Live) (5:55)

**Keith Jarrett: piano**

![Image result for Keith Jarrett - Munich 2016](https://i0.wp.com/www.udiscovermusic.
com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Keith-Jarrett-Munich.jpg?resize=450%2C450&ssl=1)

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