Spirits (Keith Jarrett album)

Arguably one of his most misunderstood recordings, Spirits is a double album by Keith Jarrett on which he does not perform solo piano, jazz standards or the kind of music he is usually known for. Instead he performs vocals, guitar, glockenspiel, soprano saxophone, recorder, piano, tabla, flutes and percussion on multiple tracks that were recorded at his home studio (aka Cavelight Studios) in New Jersey. It was released by ECM Records in 1986 and Jarrett dedicated it to his wife Rose Ann Colavito.[1]

Spirits
Studio album by
Keith Jarrett
Released1986, September [1]
Recorded1985, May–June
StudioCavelight Studios (Jarrett's home studio), New Jersey (USA)
GenreJazz
Length1:50:58
LabelECM Records
[ECM 1333/34]
ProducerManfred Eicher
Keith Jarrett chronology
Changes
(1984)		 Spirits
(1986)		 Standards Live
(1985)

Background and inception

According to Edward Strickland in his book "American Composers: Dialogues on Contemporary Music"[2]

"After abandoning the solo concerts in early 1984, Jarrett began releasing albums of jazz standards with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette, with whom he continues touring and recording. For a year and a half he devoted himself primarily to performing classical recitals and concerts. In mid-1985, frustrated to the point of numbness, he canceled further engagements and recorded what became Spirits alone in his studio in a reconverted barn beside his home. He used only the instruments on hand and two cassette recorders, on which he overdubbed himself playing a family Moeck recorders, tablas (the Indian drums that are his favorite instrument), soprano saxophone, other winds, plucked strings, percussion, and a bare minimum of piano.

Jarrett described the unpremeditated primitivism of Spirits as intuitive rather than a calculated reaction to the speciousness of contemporary musical and other technology. Its twenty-six sections range from under two to eight minutes, some pristine in their lyricism, others pulsing with rhythm or unsettling in their desolation. Jarrett considers Spirits his most important composition to date, and subsequent conversations and correspondence, now five years after its inception, confirm it as a watershed work in its influence on both his interpretive and his compositional concerns."

Original liner notes

On the double CD release (ECM 1333/34, 829 467-2) Keith Jarrett himself writes extensive liner notes where he states that:

" (..) These tapes were made in my studio in New Jersey without an engineer and without anything but cassette recorders. They were recorded during the month of May–June 1985 with no purpose other than allowing them to happen; filling a need. The music was not recorded with the intention of release to the public During the month or so that the project lasted, I would go into the studio every day and "make" something. There was no "studio" feeling at all because I was alone with the instruments "at home". These instruments have lived with me for quite some time and there is a Pakistani flute (originally a nose flute) that I bought in Sweden in the '60s that plays a central role in these pieces. There also was no program to follow and, by far, most of the pieces were not written at all. Some of them that sound written were, also, not written.

Spontaneity is what I worked with. Some flute and drum tracks were recorded "flute-first", others "drums-first". There were no rules followed in sequencing or arranging. When it felt finished it was finished. Occasionally, when I added one more track, I would listen back and realize it was one too many. Since I could be in complete control I avoided controlling anything (including the recordings themselves)."

Reception

Among mixed enthusiasm after such a different output in Jarrett's previous production, the Rough Guide to Jazz states :[3]

"The process of creating this home-recorded "ethnic" music helped Jarrett weather his crisis and get back to full music-making. The music on this two-disc set has its own direct depth and beauty -the glorious rhythm and Pakistani flute on 'Spirits 21' for example, or the liturgical vocal drones and haunting soprano saxophone on 'Spirits 17'- but also stands as a record of a unique revelatory experience."

According to Tom Moon at NPR the album is "an experimental (and unfairly disregarded) transfixing two-disc vision quest recorded between May and July 1985 by Jarrett alone in a studio in New Jersey".[4]

While Allmusic review by non-jazz or "ethno" music specialist, The Tina Turner Story author Ron Wynn awarded the album 3 stars, calling it, "More a technical showcase than a musically worthy enterprise", other views have contested those claims as "incompetent".[5]

In 2002, on occasion of the double CD "Rarum: Selected Recordings of Keith Jarrett" release (which contains Spirits #2, #13, #16, #20 and #25) a "Various All About Jazz staff members" review states that the tracks belonging to "Spirits, a totally flat overdubbed solo record from '85, stand as a terrible exception to Jarrett's usual freshness and verve."[6]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[5]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz[7]

Track listing
All compositions by Keith Jarrett

Spirits Vol. 1:

  1. "Spirits 1" - 5:07
  2. "Spirits 2" - 1:37
  3. "Spirits 3" - 8:04
  4. "Spirits 4" - 5:56
  5. "Spirits 5" - 4:10
  6. "Spirits 6" - 1:58
  7. "Spirits 7" - 7:09
  8. "Spirits 8" - 4:52
  9. "Spirits 9" - 5:12
  10. "Spirits 10" - 3:27
  11. "Spirits 11" - 2:36
  12. "Spirits 12" - 4:47

Spirits Vol. 2:

  1. "Spirits 13" - 5:09
  2. "Spirits 14" - 3:06
  3. "Spirits 15" - 2:26
  4. "Spirits 16" - 2:10
  5. "Spirits 17" - 2:57
  6. "Spirits 18" - 6:20
  7. "Spirits 19" - 4:50
  8. "Spirits 20" - 5:13
  9. "Spirits 21" - 4:21
  10. "Spirits 22" - 3:08
  11. "Spirits 23" - 4:04
  12. "Spirits 24" - 3:02
  13. "Spirits 25" - 2:18
  14. "Spirits 26" - 6:12

Personnel
  • Keith Jarrett – Flute [Pakistani, Alto Vermont Folk], Tabla [3 Sets], Shaker [South American], Recorder [Ebony Moeck Sopranino, Ebony Moeck Soprano, Ebony Moeck Alto, Ebony Moeck Tenor, White Maple Moeck Bass, White Maple Moeck Great Bass], Voice, Saxophone [King Straight Soprano], Piano [Steinway], Guitar [Orozco], Glockenspiel [Miniature], Tambourine [Small], Cowbell [African Double], Baglama [Saz]
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References
  1. ECM Records Keith Jarrett: Spirits accessed June 2020
  2. Strickland, E. American Composers: Dialogues on Contemporary Music, Indiana University Press (1991), ISBN 978-0253206435, p13
  3. Carr, Ian; Fairweather, Digby; Priestley, Brian; Alexander, Charles (2004). The Rough Guide to Jazz (3rd ed.). Rough Guides. p. 402. ASIN B00NPO95UE.
  4. Moon, T. , Keith Jarrett's Transfixing Tour de Force accessed May 2020
  5. Wynn, R. Allmusic Review accessed August 12, 2011
  6. AAJ Staff , Rarum: Selected Recordings of Keith Jarrett accessed May 14, 2020
  7. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 771. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
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