Keith Jarrett to record with Kurt Elling?

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Elling and JARREAU! Now that makes perfect sense.

Please let me know when the concerts are scheduled so I can be sure to remain a safe distance from them.

Mike

[bertrand]

I can't stand either of 'em as performing artists, but if it were true that they were lovers, I would not have a problem with it. Why would anyone?

Bertrand.

[7/4]

I can't stand either of 'em as performing artists, but if it were true that they were lovers, I would not have a problem with it.  Why would anyone?

Bertrand.

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Maybe we can pickup the CD at Starbucks.

[Guest youmustbe]

I got no problem either.

[Alexander Hawkins]

kurt elling is everything i dislike about the jazz world.

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I'd almost say the same about Jarrett!

[RDK]

kurt elling is everything i dislike about the jazz world.

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I'd almost say the same about Jarrett!

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Care to elaborate?

[Christiern]

Faux hipness is no hipness at all. IMO, Elling sounds better than Mark Murphy ever did, but both try too hard to sound cool--and neither succeeds.

[Aggie87]

I like Jarrett's music. Solo, trio, quartets, etc. The grunting stuff doesn't bother me enough to distract from the music at all.

I'm not really interested in his personality or opinions or such, and even so can separate that from the music.

Elling I have no interest in, and generally agree with the hipster/poseur comments.

[nathan]

The way so many jazz fans jump on Jarrett, you'd think he was some unholy apostate combination of Kenny G, Wynton Marsalis, and Paul Whiteman or something...I don't get it. OK, I sort of get it...but not entirely. I'm not a huge Jarrett fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I will say that, as a beginning jazz fan, I foolishly passed on really checking out Jarrett at all in large part because of all the vitriol directed towards him by jazz fanatics (I was young...I didn't know any better!). When I finally got around to checking him out, I was surprised to hear that he has produced so much good music (yes, along with plenty of shit that I have no taste or affinity for). I was expecting something totally different and awful. I know Jarrett is wildly off-putting as a personality, but the backlash against him is vastly overblown, in my opinion. And it's too bad that it's probably discouraging a lot of people who might really enjoy at least some of his work from finding out for themselves. I know many would disagree, but I personally don't see how someone who is into jazz could truly hate everything the man has ever done, if the reaction was based on the actual music, and not Jarrett's personality and/or reputation. The actual music is so varied. But then again, to read internet jazz boards, it certainly seems possible. Just my 2 cents.

nathan

[Alexander Hawkins]

kurt elling is everything i dislike about the jazz world.

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I'd almost say the same about Jarrett!

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Care to elaborate?

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Here goes...

First off, I should say that I meant the 'almost' I inserted...I don't know enough of Jarrett's music to make the statement more concretely. But, having started digging, I'll carry on!

1) He seems to me to take himself incredibly seriously. A lot of what attracts me to a lot of jazz is humour. Sonny Rollins, Fats Waller, Monk, AEC. to me, this often makes it more 'real' - I mean, real people do have a laugh from time to time, and what sometimes sounds like 'earnestness' amongst musicians often strikes me as in fact almost the opposite, where 'earnest' has connotations of being 'genuine' or 'honest'

2) Clearly there are exceptions to this point - his Impulse recordings, for example - but I find his music too conservative. I'd always listened to jazz at home, but as a player, I was brought up in a strict classical tradition. When I sat down and thought about what music meant, I thought it made sense to play what I loved (improvised music) rather than what I was schooled to do, and merely liked (the classical repertoire I played). So when I started listening to jazz, I couldn't get over people like Parker, Rollins, Ayler, and now people like Roscoe Mitchell, Braxton, and Leo Smith. To me, these are/were musicians who play with the freedom and risk-taking etc. that attracted me to the music. I don't really hear these qualities in KJ. What I hear is a sound that every conservatory musician (I mean that in a substantive - i.e. 'plays by the rules' - rather than a descriptive - i.e. 'happened to go to music college' - sense) I know in this country (again, I don't know how it is in the US) raves about. I hear Jarrett's sound as very generic in this respect.

3) This is very subjective, and I know will get me in trouble ...but I distrust the polish. Now, this isn't a thoroughgoing thing - I love Tommy Flanagan, Hank Jones, and Teddy Wilson, for example, but wouldn't level this charge at them...But I find Jarrett's sound very hard to relate to. It sounds too facile to me (grunts notwithstanding). When I listen to Muhal Richard Abrams, Meade Lux Lewis, Jimmy Yancey, Cecil Taylor, Monk, Bud Powell - I can somehow identify with it through its immediacy (touch, attack, choice of notes - all these things must factor into it) - but I can't get beneath what sounds a lot like a veneer to me with Jarrett.

4) The personality thing - well, it bothers me, but I'd hope never to base an opinion about someone's music on something like that, so I won't toss it into the mix!

That's a few thoughts about my comment above...

In addition, I agree with the comments about singers trying to be cool etc. - what I said most certainly wasn't a forlorn defence of Elling et al. by saying 'yeah well I hate Keith Jarrett'!

[king ubu]

Better than Christina Aguilera.

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Not so sure about that!

This:

better than that: