Standards (Jarrett album)

Background

The trio of Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette originally worked together on a 1977 album headline by Peacock, Tales of Another, coming back together in 1983 when producer Manfred Eicher proposed a trio album to Jarrett. Jarrett approached Peacock and DeJohnette with the idea of performing standards, which was greatly contrary to the contemporary jazz scene of the early 1980s. In a 2008 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Jarrett recalled his reasons for wanting to record standards. "This material was so damn good," he said, "and why was everyone ignoring it and playing clever stuff that sounds all the same?" He told Salon in 2000 that "[a] valuable player doesn't have to play anything new to have value, because it's not about the material, it's about the playing."

The three joined in a studio in Manhattan, New York City for a 2 ¹⁄₂ day session during which they recorded enough material for three albums, the two Standards volumes and Changes. For that session, as in subsequent, the trio did not rehearse or pre-plan their playlist.

DeJohnette, also speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle, recalled that the trio had agreed to "do this until we don't feel like doing this anymore". In 2008, the trio celebrated its 25th anniversary, becoming during that time "the preeminent jazz group interpreting standards".

Reception

The first of the pair, Standards, Vol. 1 reached No.14 on the Billboard Jazz Albums charts. In its review, Rolling Stone describes the album as "merely...competent", criticizing Jarrett's "deficiencies as a jazz improviser". The second in the series, Standards, Vol. 2, did not chart, but according to jazz commentator Scott Yanow "gets the edge over the first due to its slightly more challenging material". Yanow characterizes Jarrett's performance in this set as "surprisingly playful".

Jazz musician and writer Ian Carr noted in his biography of Jarrett that with these volumes the trio had found "fresh ways of approaching the classic jazz repertoire". In its review of the box set, Pop Matters noted that the material "sounded dazzling in the mid-1980s", adding that "[f]ans of Jarrett, like myself, will always hear these records as having a fresh immediacy".

Side one

1. "Meaning of the Blues" (Bobby Troup, Leah Worth) – 9:26
2. "All the Things You Are" (Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern) – 7:47
3. "It Never Entered My Mind" (Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers) – 6:48

Side two

1. "The Masquerade Is Over" (Herbert Magidson, Allie Wrubel) – 6:01
2. "God Bless the Child" (Arthur Herzog Jr., Billie Holiday) – 15:32

Side one

1. "So Tender" (Jarrett, Airto Moreira) – 7:19
2. "Moon and Sand" (William Engvick, Morty Palitz, Alec Wilder) – 8:59
3. "In Love in Vain" (Jerome Kern, Leo Robin) – 7:14

Side two

1. "Never Let Me Go" (Ray Evans, Jay Livingston) – 7:52
2. "If I Should Lose You" (Ralph Rainger, Robin) – 8:32
3. "I Fall in Love Too Easily" (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne) – 5:12

Personnel

Technical personnel