Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.5

Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 7, 2022

The music world has lost two of its indisputable jazz piano titans over the past couple of years, though not exactly for the same reasons, and interestingly, this pair of keyboard virtuosos has many interconnections, including performances together, as is documented outright in this absolutely top notch piece. The two pianists are Chick Corea, who very sadly passed from cancer last year at the age of 79, and Keith Jarrett, who thankfully is still with us but who tragically has been unable to play (in public, anyway) since a series of strokes left him partially paralyzed. Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation stems from 2004, and so the interview segments with Jarrett find him completely unafflicted (so to speak), with a sweet demeanor that reveals what might be termed a cautiously optimistic view on what it means to be a musician.

As wonderful as the interview segments with Jarrett scattered throughout this documentary are, one of the best things that Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation has to offer are interviews with Jarrett's "sidemen", though to call them that probably isn't indicative of their "equal" status in any group Jarrett has put together. Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette, and Charlie Haden are also on hand here giving background information on what it's like to work with Jarrett, and providing a number of really interesting comments, including the fact that the Jarrett-Peacock-DeJohnette trio would frequently not know what any given concert's playlist was going to be, and that in fact at several performances, the tunes they did at soundcheck were never actually gotten to during the performance.

There are some really fun and informative interviews with others like Keith's brother Scott (how would you like to be a musician/sibling and share that last name?). One of the coolest moments in the documentary is Scott playing an old reel to reel (!) he had saved of a kind of pop band that he was in with Keith where Keith not just played the piano, but also sang. Jarrett's longtime manager and (then) wife are also on hand giving biographical and/or behavioral tidbits. Fittingly, the phenomenally important Manfred Eicher of celebrated ECM Records offers some keen insights into Jarrett and their long association together.

In terms of "behavior", one place where critics of Jarrett have been fairly caustic is with regard to his almost possessed mien when he performs on stage. He's known to play standing up or crouching, frequently jerking manically, and his guttural vocalisms have been compared to those of another iconic pianist, Glenn Gould. Now as someone who had a retinue of piano teachers insisting that a good pianist never displays anything other than arm or finger movement (and certainly not any exaggerated facial expressions), I get the criticisms, but when you are getting the sort of music that Jarrett provides, it seems almost ridiculous to complain about any seemingly odd mannerisms.

Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of EuroArts with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer (often) in 1.78:1. EuroArts is to be commended for clearly stating on the back cover (albeit in "the fine print") that this is an upscale, and so potential consumers should be aware that video quality is not this release's strong point. As can clearly be seen in some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, there are clear signs of the upscaling process and sharpening. Take a look for example at that halo surrounding Manfred Eicher in screenshot 3, who I would argue is an angel for recording so much incredible music, but even still (yes, folks, that's a joke). There are also manifest combing artifacts throughout, so much so that it was hard for me to get screenshots without any kind of anomaly (and I frankly may have failed). Still, the palette looks reasonable in all of the "contemporary" footage, and detail levels are at least decent if never outstanding. The documentary includes quite a bit of archival video and/or film which can look pretty shoddy at times.

Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation features a nice LPCM 2.0 track that more than capably supports this talk heavy effort. That said, there's perhaps more music than "normal" in these kind of documentaries in this particular piece, and virtually all of the music sounds full bodied and distortion free. There are some noticeable variations in terms of some of the archival audio and especially some of the live performance material. While the back cover of the release and even the Setup Menu on the disc suggests that there are English subtitles on this release, they never showed up for me. Optional German, French, Spanish and Italian subtitles seemed to work fine.

Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Live in Concert (HD; 8:03) features the Jarrett-Peacock-DeJohnette trio performing Butch and Butch.


• Interview (HD; 33:51) offers more with Jarrett, Peacock and DeJohnette in moments that didn't make the final cut of the documentary.

Additionally, a nicely appointed insert booklet contains a long and informative essay by Mike Dibb, who produced the documentary.

Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As regular readers of my reviews of music related Blu-rays may know, music has played an incredibly important part of my life, both professionally and personally, and in that regard I have been indelibly touched by too many musicians and their recordings to even try to list. That said, I can probably count on my fingers (and possibly toes) albums that have unabashedly changed my life, and I would put Jarrett's Facing You in that category. A woman in a completely unrelated college class I was taking decades (and decades) ago somehow knew of my musical background and simply turned around one day in class, asked me if I had heard of the album or the still largely unknown Jarrett, and when I said "No," she responded, "Go out today and buy it. You won't be sorry." To say the very least, I wasn't, and it introduced me to the mind boggling brilliance of Jarrett's solo piano work, which then gave me a foothold to start exploring some of his other work. While it's unavoidably sad that Jarrett no longer feels competent to perform in public, we at least have his immense body of recordings to return to again and again, and this incredibly appealing documentary can also give fans some unique insights into his creative life and approach. Video quality is this release's least appealing element, though I'd argue that the historical importance of this documentary outweighs its standard definition source material. Audio is fine and the supplements very enjoyable. This is currently showing as a pretty pricey import (though it's Region Free, in case anyone is concerned), but for those with relatively deep pockets and a love of jazz and/or Jarrett, this easily comes Highly recommended.