On the playlist 11JUN2019…

Been looking forward to this one for a couple weeks after hearing a story on NPR about this album. The album is Kieth Jarrett  and his album "The Koln Concert". The best selling jazz solo album of all time and the best selling piano album is the result of a near disaster. The story goes that 17 year old Vera Brandes was a huge fan of Jarret's and convinced him to do a concert. She was able to get the opera house to agree but only late in the evening after an opera performance. So, this unusual concert was booked. Jarrett was very particular about the piano he played in his completely improvised performances. When he arrived, the specified piano was not available and a practice piano in rather poor shape was in its place. Suffering from back pain and sleep deprivation from his drive up from Geneva, he almost cancelled the concert but Vera convinced him to play. The piano was readied and attempted to be tuned. The concert was sold out and started at 11:30 pm. Despite the hardship of the conditions Jarrett went on to play and worked with the piano to produce what is probably some of his best work. What is amazing is that despite the hardships he played in a way to bring out the best he could of the instrument. A testament to an amazing musician. 

Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert

On the Playlist 16AUG2018…

Art Tatum - Piano Starts Here Zenph reperformance. An early 19th Century Jazz Piano virtuoso. This album is a very interesting one as it is a reperformance. When I lived in North Carolina I met the founder of Zenph Studios, John Walker. He invented a technology that would analyze old recordings and create a digital file of the notes played including a myriad of different parameters about the notes. This digital file could then be played back to a modern Yamaha Diskclavier Pro piano for a "reperformance" of the original piece of music as played by the original artist. I visited his studio in Durham and it was quite amazing to see a piano playing this music from a digital file and playing it identically to how it was originally played and recorded over 70 years ago. So this recording is a modern recording of music that was originally played and recorded back in the 30s. 

Here is a link to a story on NPR about it.

Art Tatum - Piano Starts Here Live at the Shrine - Zenph reperformance