Arbour Zena

Artist: Keith Jarrett
Label: Ecm Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD

UPC: 781182107021
EAN: 0781182107021
ASIN: B0000031PI

Release Date: 1994-05-10

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Tracks:

Runes (Dedicated To The Unknown)
Solara March Dedicated To Pablo Casals And The Sun)
Mirrors (Dedicated To My Teachers)

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Customer Reviews:

One of the best pianists and great orchestration.......2007-03-10

A jazz pianist introduced me to Keith Jarrett along with a bunch of other jazz musicians. From that point on, I was fascinated with Keith Jarrett's music. I grew up learning classical music and this was a great introduction to a very flexible jazz style using a wide array of musical instruments from solo bass, solo saxophone and solo piano all ranging from very individual but great talented musicians. The orchestration was well recorded. It had an awkward sound from conventional orchestration that is usually heard, but it blended in well with the various moods of the music. I agree, this album is very flexible. You can really relax with it, or simply do work while listening to it. I prefer to turn off all lights and simply listen to all the music on the album.

A FAILED EXPERIMENT.......2006-04-09

As big a fan as I am of Keith Jarrett, frankly this record is one of my least favorite. Admittedly, it was an experiment of the type you would expect from ECM; but it doesn't work for me. There are sections when Jarrett just plays his keyboard unfettered and these are interesting and enjoyable. The saxophonist, Jan Garbarek, however seems to be an acquired taste-his horn sounds like a loon across a frozen lake. Be that as it may, I didn't enjoy his solos as I normally would any other sax man. The normally dependable Charlie Haden is almost inaudible here. I especially could do without the string orchestra that pops up constantly.

Nevertheless, I suppose one has to take this record for what it is: an experiment in a style Jarrett did not go back to. My own brother swears by this record. I swear at it.

Eggs & Ham.......2005-07-15

This album and Luminessence are underrated, maybe because they occupy an area looked on askance by both jazz fans and listeners to modern classical music, but also because Jarrett is not a great orchestrator, tending to use the strings as little more than a see-saw backdrop for fantasies on piano and sax. But track 2 on this album, "Solara March" is great fun, and the combination of Jarrett and Garbarek produces such instant magic that Arbour Zena is a success. It's lighter in tone and more playful than Luminessence, though a considerably lesser work. For what Garbarek and Jarrett have to say, much of the album would have been more relevant as a trio, the wonderful Charlie Haden being more than capable of replacing the constant hee-haw of the strings.

As other reviewers have remarked, this album is very much of its time and when we first heard it in the mid-1970's, it clearly showed the way forward for a lot of artists. Now it sounds somewhat wistful, since all three of the soloists have made such much more dazzling recordings since then.

Still recommended as a delightful piece of music in its own right.

Restrained Artistry for a Refined Taste.......2004-02-10

Ever in the mood for something a little more soothing? This is a recording made for just those occasions. Less frenetic than "Backhand", more accessible than "Fort Yawuh", "Arbour Zena" is Jarrett at his most measured and thoughtful. There are no drums, so the music doesn't really swing, let alone rock, but that doesn't mean there isn't something moving about these three long compositions for piano, bass, sax, and strings.

"Runes" has Jarrett framing chords for the strings, while sax master Jan Garbarek adds sinuous glissandos and Charlie Haden provides drive with the high "chattering" bass assault that he has used to great effect on some of Jarrett's gamelan pieces. The effect is that of an ancient spirit of the veldt speaking to us in fervid, almost menacing tones. "Solara March" wanders through some gentle, delicate themes for while, until Jarrett picks out a solid rhythm and the music starts to move. "Mirrors" is the longest track, the strings starting with a hymn-like, almost fugal structure. There's a more strongly rhythmic passage toward the middle, and a section where piano, sax, and strings are all putting out lines at a more urgent pace, but the overall effect, while beautiful, is more relaxing than exciting.

Jarrett says that the music on this album was composed rather than improvised, although much of it certainly has an improvised feel. One by-product of this is that the sometimes annoying, (and even off-key) accompaniment of Jarrett's thin, squeaky voice is wholly absent here, a fact that some listeners may consider a godsend. Overall, this material is stately, graceful, lyrical, and somehow very reassuring. If you've stayed away from Jarrett because you found him too raucous, this could be the CD that changes your mind. Restrained artistry for a more refined taste.

Visionary Jarrett Masterpiece.......2002-07-13

Wynton Marsalis, the current Stalin of the Jazz world has systematically disparged jazz of the 1970's, Jazz that opened new vistas, or used non-traditional instrumentation. Would that Marsalis had the same breadth of vision as Keith Jarrett. Arbour Zena, an orchestral work released in 1976, embodies the aesthetic that Jarrett was to carry forward in the decades to come; cool but not disengaged, experimental, but not inaccessible, complex, but not eschewing lyricism. There is a masterful talent and a visionary mind behind this work; the coupling of Garbarek's artic saxophone with the warmer strings, Jarrett's stunning piano work place it among the better works of the time.

From the first statement of quivering strings on Runes, to the nearly triumphant Solara March, Arbour Zena is a sustained and cohesive vision that nourishes the mind and replenishes idealism. If this is bad Jazz, then I am a fool.

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