The Melody at Night, with You
The Melody at Night, with You | ||||
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Studio album by Keith Jarrett | ||||
Released | October 1999[1] | |||
Recorded | 1998 | |||
Studio | Cavelight Studio New Jersey | |||
Genre | Jazz | |||
Length | 55:13 | |||
Label | ECM ECM 1675 | |||
Producer | Manfred Eicher, Keith Jarrett | |||
Keith Jarrett chronology | ||||
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Keith Jarrett solo piano chronology | ||||
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The Melody at Night, with You is a solo album by American pianist Keith Jarrett recorded at his home studio in 1998 and released on ECM October the following year.[1]
Background
It was recorded during his bout with chronic fatigue syndrome and was dedicated to Jarrett's second and then-wife, Rose Anne: "For Rose Anne, who heard the music, then gave it back to me."[2]
In an interview in Time magazine in November 1999, he explained:
I started taping it in December 1997, as a Christmas present for my wife. I'd just had my Hamburg Steinway overhauled and wanted to try it out, and I have my studio right next to the house, so if I woke up and had a half-decent day, I would turn on the tape recorder and play for a few minutes. I was too fatigued to do more. Then something started to click with the mike placement, the new action of the instrument,... I could play so soft,... and the internal dynamics of the melodies... of the songs... It was one of those little miracles that you have to be ready for, though part of it was that I just didn't have the energy to be clever.[3]
Reception
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Penguin Guide to Jazz | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
DownBeat | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The album was commercially successful, becoming one of the best-selling jazz instrumental albums of the 2000s, and winning a number[which?] of awards.[7] "I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)" was nominated for the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo.[8]
The critical reception was more mixed, however, with some critics praising its intimacy, while others criticized its simplicity.
On the negative side, the AllMusic review by Richard S. Ginell awarded the album 2½ stars (out of 5) and states, "these performances lack color, contrast and life; and while you pull for Jarrett to summon the energy to make music again, the results are touching for a while but soon pall."[4]
On the positive side, it was ranked the No. 2 Jazz album in the DownBeat "Critics Poll 2000",[9] and Entertainment Weekly rated it an A.[10][11][12]
The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded the album 4 stars, calling it "a record of fragile magnificence, a sequence of filigreed songs from a common musical past... It is a quite simply magnificent record, swinging in a way that Jarrett has rarely before been swinging... and sweetly melodic."[5] Writing for DownBeat, John Ephland commented: "the playing on this solo-piano recording is subdued, but does not lack for earnestness, passion or focus. The music is exquisite, unnerving and disarming, as the virtuoso bypasses flourish, instead choosing to speak plainly."[6]
Track listing
- "I Loves You, Porgy" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Dubose Heyward) - 5:50
- "I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)" (Duke Ellington, Paul Francis Webster) - 7:10
- "Don't Ever Leave Me" (Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern) - 2:47
- "Someone to Watch over Me" (Gershwin, Gershwin) - 5:05
- "My Wild Irish Rose" (Traditional) - 5:21
- "Blame It on My Youth/Meditation" (Edward Heyman, Oscar Levant/Jarrett) - 7:19
- "Something to Remember You By" (Howard Dietz, Arthur Schwartz) - 7:15
- "Be My Love" (Nicholas Brodszky, Sammy Cahn) - 5:38
- "Shenandoah" (Traditional) - 5:52
- "I'm Through with Love" (Gus Kahn, Fud Livingston, Matty Malneck) - 2:56
Personnel
- Keith Jarrett – piano
Technical personnel
- Manfred Eicher – producer
- Keith Jarrett – producer, engineer
- Sascha Kleis – design
- Daniela Nowitzki – cover photography
- Rose Anne Jarrett – liner photography
References
- ^ a b ECM Records Keith Jarrett: The Melody at Night, With You accessed May 2020
- ^ Jarrett's foreword in the album's booklet
- ^ Terry Teachout (November 1999) Music: Directly from the Heart Time (subscribers only)
- ^ a b Ginell, R. S. Allmusic Review accessed July 6, 2020
- ^ a b Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 770. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
- ^ a b Ephland, John (December 1999). "Keith Jarrett: The Melody At Night, With You". DownBeat. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
- ^ Keith Jarrett Biography Archived 2010-06-15 at the Wayback Machine, All About Jazz accessed April 6, 2010
- ^ "43rd Annual Grammy Nomination List". Variety. January 2, 2001. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
- ^ DownBeat (8/00, p.27), losing by 1 vote to Soul on Soul by (Dave Douglas)
- ^ Entertainment Weekly, issue #512, Nov 12, 1999, p. 83
- ^ See Keith Jarrett Melody At Night, With You CD for a selection of reviews.
- ^ Further reviews: Q (2/00, p.90), 4 stars out of 5; DownBeat (8/00, p.27); JazzTimes (1-2/00, pp. 95–6)
External links
- "The Melody at Night, With You" – review in All About Jazz, Glenn Astarita, November 1, 1999
- "The Melody at Night, With You" – review in All About Jazz, David Adler, December 1, 1999
- Keith Jarrett, "The Melody at Night, With You", ECM Records – review in JazzTimes, Doug Ramsey, January/February 2000
- ECM 1675 – publisher page (Album background)
- Transcriptions
- "My Wild Irish Rose", transcribed by Evilásio Vilar
- "Shenandoah", transcribed by Douglas Gould
- v
- t
- e
- Life Between the Exit Signs (1968)
- Restoration Ruin (1968)
- Gary Burton & Keith Jarrett (1971)
- The Mourning of a Star (1971)
- Facing You (1972)
- Birth (1972)
- Expectations (1972)
- Ruta and Daitya (1973)
- Belonging (1974)
- Treasure Island (1974)
- In the Light (1974)
- El Juicio (The Judgement) (1975)
- Back Hand (1975)
- Death and the Flower (1975)
- Mysteries (1976)
- Shades (1976)
- Arbour Zena (1976)
- Hymns/Spheres (1976)
- Staircase (1977)
- Byablue (1977)
- The Survivors' Suite (1977)
- My Song (1978)
- Bop-Be (1978)
- The Celestial Hawk (1980)
- G.I. Gurdjieff: Sacred Hymns (1980)
- Invocations/The Moth and the Flame (1981)
- Standards, Vol. 1 (1983)
- Changes (1984)
- Standards, Vol. 2 (1985)
- Spirits (1986)
- Book of Ways (1987)
- Bridge of Light (1994)
- The Melody at Night, with You (1999)
- Jasmine (2010)
- No End (2013)
- Last Dance (2014)
- Somewhere Before (1969)
- Solo Concerts: Bremen/Lausanne (1973)
- Fort Yawuh (1973)
- The Köln Concert (1975)
- Sun Bear Concerts (1978)
- Eyes of the Heart (1979)
- Nude Ants (1980)
- Concerts (1982)
- Standards Live (1986)
- Still Live (1988)
- Dark Intervals (1988)
- Personal Mountains (1989)
- Changeless (1989)
- Paris Concert (1990)
- Tribute (1990)
- The Cure (1991)
- Vienna Concert (1992)
- At the Deer Head Inn (1994)
- Standards in Norway (1995)
- Keith Jarrett at the Blue Note (1995)
- La Scala (1997)
- Tokyo '96 (1998)
- Whisper Not (2000)
- Inside Out (2001)
- Always Let Me Go (2002)
- Up for It (2003)
- The Out-of-Towners (2004)
- Radiance (2005)
- The Carnegie Hall Concert (2006)
- My Foolish Heart (2007)
- Yesterdays (2009)
- Paris / London: Testament (2009)
- Rio (2011)
- Sleeper (2012)
- Somewhere (2013)
- Hamburg '72 (2014)
- Creation (2015)
- A Multitude of Angels (2016)
- After the Fall (2018)
- La Fenice (2018)
- Munich 2016 (2019)
- Budapest Concert (2020)
- Bordeaux Concert (2022)
- Mysteries: The Impulse Years 1975–1976 (1996)
- The Impulse Years: 1973–1974 (1997)