At the Blue Note: Saturday, June 4th 1994 1st Set

by Richard S. GinellAs a sampler from Keith Jarrett's huge six-disc omnibus documenting a gig at New York City's Blue Note, ECM extracted one of the discs and put it out on its own. Yet it is enough to demonstrate that Jarrett and his "Standards" trio reached new peaks of creativity and internal telepathy in the 1990s. Not only that, this way is preferable to the usual method of taking fragments of every set and patching them together; those who can't afford the box can still hear how a complete set evolves. The first set of June 4, 1994, is dominated by two marathons, a most inventive 26-and-a-half-minute series of meditations and developing grooves on the subject of "Autumn Leaves," and a 20-and-a-half-minute resumption of Jarrett's Middle East fusions on "You Don't Know What Love Is/Muezzin." There is also a romp through the artist's own "Bop-Be," which holds its own against any of the established standards. A must-buy for the casual or impecunious Jarrett fan.