Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Paul Motian – The Old Country (ECM, 2024)

By Don Phipps

The jazz world was devastated to learn that Keith Jarrett had suffered two strokes in October of 2020 and would no longer be able to perform. Primarily a pianist (but also skilled on other musical instruments), Jarrett’s astonishing sixty plus year career ran from brief stints with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Miles Davis to filling halls around the world for his solo piano concerts. He received accolades for his efforts such as:

• Near hour-long free form piano improvisations that flowed in great arcs of spontaneous consciousness.

• Forming two simultaneous quartets that had distinct musical styles and focused on original compositions centered on improvisations:

  • An American quartet featuring Ornette Coleman alums Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and Bill Evans Trio alum Paul Motian on drums.

  • A European quartet featuring Norwegians Jan Garbarek (sax) and Jon Christensen (drums) and Swede Palle Danielsson (bass).

• A series of classical music albums (in which he performed the music of Bach, Handel, Shostakovich, and others) and his own orchestral compositions.

• Explorations of the “great American songbook” with a long running “standards” piano trio (the Standards Trio) that performed from 1983 through 2014 and featured bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette.

Jarrett’s long association with the ECM label meant that his works were recorded to the highest standards. (Note: I would argue that Eicher’s production techniques resulted in superior recordings of piano that date back to the 70s – at that time a notoriously difficult instrument to capture due to its overtones and extreme range of notes – and that much of Jarrett’s output benefitted from this expertise – but I digress).

The standards trio mentioned above recorded exclusively for ECM. So, it was something of a surprise to see the label issue a live Jarrett recording of a trio in 1992 (At The Deer Head Inn) that substituted Paul Motian for Jack DeJohnette on drums. Motian and DeJohnette have distinctive styles of drumming – though both are (were) excellent drummers. On The Old Country, the Jarrett/Peacock/Motian trio covers Monk’s classic “Straight No Chaser.” A year earlier, the Jarrett/Peacock/DeJohnette trio covered the same song on their album Bye Bye Blackbird. On Blackbird, DeJohnette offers up a characteristically bubbling and effervescent beat that fits perfectly with Jarrett’s roaming and bluesy improv. On Country, Jarrett’s rendition of “Straight No Chaser” is lively but cooler, and Motian skips along behind Jarrett’s musical touches while Peacock walks the bass. Think sunglasses instead of sunshine. Motian keeps the beat light and only comes forward during the drum breaks, as his concern appears more with color and texture than with exposition.

The Old Country is a second release of material from the 1992 concert Jarrett, Peacock and Motian gave at the Deer Head Inn – and it should be noted this performance was the first and only time the Jarrett/Peacock/Motian trio played together.

The Inn is a venue situated in Pennsylvania’s Delaware Water Gap Region (Allentown, PA), and, according to ECM, it has presented live music continuously since 1950, making it one of the oldest jazz clubs in the US. Furthermore, the venue held a special place for Jarrett. He says in the liner notes that he was sixteen when he got a call to join a house trio for one night at the Deer Head Inn: “So, the Deer Head Inn was my first serious trio job on piano.”

At the time of this concert, Jarrett had not played the Inn for 30 years and had not played with Motian for 16 years. Call it happenstance, call it what you will, but the three, Jarrett, Peacock, and Motian, came together to make not one, but now two, marvelous records. Yes, marvelous is as good a word as any to describe the music on The Old Country (as well as the original At The Deer Head Inn). The “standards” explored on Country all come to life and are shaped anew, from the champagne opening and rolling closing on Cole Porter’s “Everything I Love” to the bluesy repose of the title cut (composed by trumpeter Nat Adderley).

Jarrett’s touch is distinct, and this is what makes his playing on Country as well as other recordings so unique. It can glide, dance, or bounce, but regardless of the technique deployed, there is a singing quality to it. One can sense Jarrett is playing accompaniment to what he hears in his head as much as what he is hearing from his bandmates. Another thing - his phrasing. It is like he always knows just when to enter and exit, and precisely what notes or combination of notes work. His lines are never filler. Instead, they engage and reward repeated listening. All these qualities are exhibited on the eight songs explored on “The Old Country,” from the Art Tatumesque opening to Cole Porter’s “All of You” to his melancholy romanticism on Gershwin’s “How Long Has This Been Going On.” Has sadness ever sounded so sweet?

Peacock puts on quite a show as well. He seems to intuitively understand Jarrett’s moods and mimics them with an exactness that demonstrates their long-standing relationship. Check out his solo on “Straight No Chaser,” where he exhibits an all over technique that is rhythmically diverse and sonically complex (think Dave Holland). Or his joyous offering on “Everything I Love.” Peacock offers a dynamic and sincere bottom to the numbers, giving Jarrett the space to take the music far and wide. Motian too lays low, using the high hat to great effect, and adding just enough trap set work on the breaks to generate heat when called upon.

It saddened the jazz world when Gary Peacock and Paul Motian checked out of this reality. And it saddens many in the jazz world (including this reviewer) to realize that Jarrett will never again play in public. We now have only albums such as this to remind us of what was real and happening in the not-too-distant past. Such is life. As Vladimir Nabokov put it in his memoir, Speak Memory, “The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tell us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.” Even Jarrett waxed on life’s momentary flicker. As he put it in his poem “The Death of a Flower”: “We live between birth and death, or so we convince ourselves conveniently, when in truth we are being born and we are dying simultaneously every eternal instant of our lives.” Well, that may be, but with this album, a living document of a past instant, the light shines on. Enjoy!