Description
Tender is the night on what is, perhaps, Keith Jarrett's most intimate album. It is comprised of solo piano renderings of jazz ballads and folk songs, recorded at home and played with unmistakable affection. Jarrett dispenses with the jazz soloist's emphasis on flamboyancy, the "clever" phrase, the virtuosic sleight-of-hand. Instead he strips these songs to their melodic essence and, gently, lays bare their emotional core. A quiet, glowing album, for quiet moments.
"Jazz standards seldom sound so pure, so sheer. Like a calligrapher, Keith Jarrett avoids all unnecessary decoration. He concentrates on the core, on the innermost part of each piece - which others, and he himself, have often garnished, decorated, modified and explored with ever increasing virtuosity. And now here is a disc of melodies, melodies and more melodies, slow, hesitant, but always with immense internal tension, pieces full of an inward quality, introspective meditations. But they're also pieces "with you", they accompany the listener on a tonal journey to the heart of music. Jarrett's music has rarely been so intimate." - Werner Stiefele, Stuttgarter Zeitung
Personnel: Keith Jarrett (piano)
