Keith Jarrett, piano Gary Peacock, bass Jack ... - Cal Performances

CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTSSaturday, October 29, 2011, 8pmZellerbach HallKeith Jarrett, pianoGary Peacock, bassJack DeJohnette, drums(Left to right) Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette, Gary PeacockPROGRAMTonight‘s performance will be announced from the stageand comprise two sets with one intermission.Cal Performances’ 2011–2012 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.Keith ja r r ett a nd jack dejohnette firstplayed together in 1966–1968 as membersof the Charles Lloyd Quartet, then for one yearin 1970 with Miles Davis. All three musiciansfirst played together in 1977, when Mr. Jarrettand Mr. DeJohnette played on Gary Peacock’sfirst ECM Records recording, Tales of Another.They came together as a permanent trio inJanaury 1983, when Mr. Jarrett invited the othertwo to join him in New York, for a recordingsession dedicated to playing “standards”—therich body of American popular songs from the1930s, ’40s and ’50s. At the time it was consideredpassé for top players to concentrate on playingstandards, instead of original material, butMr. Jarrett thought it was important to showthat “music wasn’t about material, but what theplayer brings to the material.”The January 1983 sessions produced thetrio’s first three ECM Records releases StandardsVols. 1 and 2, and Changes. These recordingsfrom the original New York trio session werere-released by ECM as a special three-CD boxset in January 2008 in celebration of the trio’s25th anniversary.Fifteen “live” concert recordings have followedon ECM, each recorded in a differentinternational city: Standards Live (Paris, 1985),Still Live (Munich, 1986), Changeless (U.S.tour, 1987), Tribute (Cologne, 1989), Standardsin Norway (Oslo, 1989), The Cure (New York,1990), Keith Jarrett at the Blue Note: The CompleteRecordings (New York, 1994; six-CD box set),Tokyo ’96 (Tokyo, 1996), Whisper Not (Paris,1999), The Out-of-Towners (Munich, 2001), Upfor It (Juan-Les-Pins, France, 2002), My FoolishHeart: Live in Montreux (Switzerland, 2001) andYesterdays (Tokyo, 2001).Other ECM trio releases include Inside Out(London, 2000) and Always Let Me Go (Tokyo,2001), which feature the trio performing totallyimprovised free music, rather than standards,live in concert.In October 1991, exactly two weeks after thedeath of Miles Davis, the trio went into NewYork’s Power Station studio and recorded ByeBye Blackbird, their deeply felt tribute to thejazz giant that all three had played with in theirearly years.ABOUT THE ARTISTSThe trio’s video releases include: Standards I(1985), Standards II (1986), Live at Open TheatreEast (1993) and Tokyo Concert ’96—all featuringfull concert performances. In fall 2008, ECMre-released all four concert video on two specialtwo-DVD sets.In the past 25 years, the trio has been nominatedfor many international awards, includingfive American Grammy nominations, plus dozensof “Record of the Year” awards and critics’prizes from the U.S., European and Japanesemusic press, including the Gold Disc Award(2000, 2003) from Swing Journal (Japan) andthe Choc des Chocs Award (2000, 2001, 2003)from Jazzman magazine (France) for “Best JazzAlbum of the Year.” In 1991, their Tribute recordingwas awarded the Prix du Président dela République from the Charles Cros Academy,France’s award for the “Best Recording of theYear.” The trio was voted “Best Acoustic JazzGroup” in the DownBeat Readers Polls (1998,1999) and DownBeat Critics Poll (2008), and theJazzTimes Reader’s Poll (2009).Over the past 40+ years, Keith Jarrett has cometo be recognized as one of the most creative anduncompromising musicians of our times—universallyacclaimed as an improviser of unsurpassedgenius; a master of jazz piano; a classicalpianist of great depth; and as a composer whohas written hundreds of pieces for his variousjazz groups, plus extended works for orchestra,soloist and chamber ensemble.Born in May 1945 in Allentown, Pennsylvania,Mr. Jarrett began playing piano at age three andclassical studies at age seven, then undertookformal composition studies at age 15. In theearly 1960s, while still a teenager, he began playingjazz, and was soon touring with Art Blakey,then for three years with Charles Lloyd, and finallywith Miles Davis. By the late ’60s, he wasleading his own trio with bassist Charlie Hadenand drummer Paul Motian (soon to be a quartetwith saxophonist Dewey Redman) and recordingas a leader for the Atlantic, Columbia andImpulse! labels.In 1971, he began an exclusive recordingcollaboration with ECM Records, the visionaryGerman label headed by producer Manfred14 CAL PERFORMANCESCAL PERFORMANCES15

ABOUT THE ARTISTSABOUT THE ARTISTSEicher. This collaboration has produced a catalogueof nearly 60 recordings to date, unparalleledin their diversity and scope, including 17trio recordings (on 26 CDs) with Mr. Peacockand Mr. DeJohnette; nine classical recordingsof music by Bach, Handel, Mozart andShostakovich, and Mr. Jarrett’s groundbreakingsolo piano recordings such as The Köln Concertand La Scala, which have helped to redefine thepiano in contemporary music. The most recentsolo releases include Radiance recorded livein concert in Japan in 2002 and The CarnegieHall Concert recorded in New York in 2005. InOctober 2011, ECM will release Rio, a new livesolo concert recording made in Rio de Janeiroin April 2011.The Melody at Night, With You, an intimatestudio solo piano recording of songs released in1999, has become one of the best selling jazzCDs of the past decade, winning many awardsworldwide including “Best of the Year” awardsin Japan, France and the United States.Mr. Jarrett has garnered many other awards,including eight Grammy Award nominationsand several French Grand Prix du Disque andDeutsche Schallplattenpries awards. In 1989,the French Ministry of Culture elected him anOfficer of the Order of Arts and Letters, one ofthe highest honors the French nation can bestowupon an artist. In 1996, he was elected a memberof the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, joiningDuke Ellington as only the second foreignjazz artist to be so honored. He has been voted“Pianist of the Year” in the DownBeat ReadersPolls (1994, 1996, 1997, 1999–2006) and in theDownBeat Critics Poll (1996, 2000–2008).In December 2008, Mr. Jarrett was inductedinto the DownBeat Hall of Fame. He was awardedthe 2003 Polar Music Prize, one of the world’smost prestigious music awards, presented by theKing of Sweden in a special televised ceremonyin Stockholm. In July 2004, he was awardedthe prestigious Leonie Sonning Music Prize inCopenhagen and the Miles Davis Prize at the25th anniversary of the Montreal Jazz Festival.Gary Peacock has served as an inspiration forseveral generations of jazz bass players, not contentwith the traditional bassist’s role of simpletimekeeping and harmonic accompaniment.His ability to bring melodic and rhythmic freedominto any musical setting has been his trademarkfor 45 years in jazz.Born in 1935 in Idaho, Mr. Peacock firstplayed in Los Angeles in the late 1950s withBud Shank, Barney Kessel, Hampton Hawesand Paul Bley. By the early 1960s, he was inNew York playing with Bill Evans, Miles Davis,Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sonny Rollins andothers. He moved to Japan for several years inthe late 1960s to study Oriental philosophyand medicine, before returning to the UnitedStates in the early 1970s to resume active musicmakingand to teach at the Cornish Institute inSeattle. Over the years, he has also worked withSarah Vaughn, Chick Corea, Joe Henderson,Helen Merrill, Michel Petrucciani, Don Pullen,Bill Frisell and Ralph Towner, to name a few.In recent years, Mr. Peacock’s other majorcollaborations, besides the trio with Mr. Jarrettand Mr. DeJohnette, have included dates andrecordings with pianists Marc Copland, PaulBley and Marilyn Crispell, in either duo settingsor in trio with drummers Paul Motian andBill Stewart.In the past 30 years, Mr. Peacock has playedon over 25 ECM Records recordings.Jack DeJohnette is one of the finest drummersin jazz. His approach to the drums is that of acomplete musician, exploring the varied colorsand timbres of his varied percussion instruments,rather than simple timekeeping.Born in 1942 in Chicago, Mr. DeJohnettestudied classical music and piano for ten yearsin his youth. In the mid-1960s, he joined MuhalRichard Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell as a memberof AACM, Chicago’s pioneering avant-gardecollective ensemble of musicians. In 1966, heheaded to New York, playing first with JackieMcLean, Betty Carter and Abbey Lincoln, beforejoining the Charles Lloyd Quartet alongsidethe young Keith Jarrett. By 1967, he wasplaying with many of the period’s greatest improvisers,including Bill Evans, John Coltrane,Thelonious Monk and Stan Getz, before joiningMiles Davis in 1968 to record the quintessentialjazz/rock fusion record, Bitches Brew,along with John McLaughlin, Chick Corea andDave Holland.After several years with Mr. Davis,Mr. DeJohnette moved on and began recordingwith many of the finest players in jazz, as well asleading his own groups. In the 1970s, he formedNew Directions featuring John Abercrombie,Eddie Gomez and Lester Bowie, followed bySpecial Edition, and then the Gateway Triowith Mr. Holland and Mr. Abercrombie, whichis still active today.Mr. DeJohnette has also been featured inpast years on high-profile CD releases by HerbieHancock, Betty Carter, Sonny Rollins, JoeHenderson, Milton Nascimento, John Scofieldand Michael Brecker, as well as on sessions withyoung emerging players that he feels are deservingof greater attention.In 1972, he began a 35+ year recording collaborationwith ECM Records, where he hasplayed on over 40 recordings with varied groupsas a leader and sideman, as well in the trio withMr. Jarrett and Mr. Peacock.Current touring projects include TrioBeyond with guitarist John Scofield and organistLarry Goldings; a new trio with pianistDanilo Pérez and bassist John Patitucci; ongoingduo and group collaborations with Britishsaxophonist John Surman; and the Jack JohnsonProject, a concert re-creation of the music featuredon the classic Miles Davis fusion recordingJack Johnson, on which Mr. DeJohnetteoriginally performed.Mr. DeJohnette has garnered many awards,including France’s prestigious Grand Prix duDisque (1979) and “Album of the Year” awardsin the 1984 DownBeat Readers Poll, the 1989DownBeat Critics Poll and Swing Journal(Japan). He has the distinction of havingbeen voted “Best Drummer” in the DownBeatReaders Poll for an unprecedented 13 straightyears from 1980 to 1992, as well as several moretimes in recent years. In 1991, Boston’s BerkleeCollege of Music awarded him an HonoraryDoctorate of Music. In 1997, he appeared on theGrammy Awards telecast with Herbie Hancock,Wayne Shorter and Natalie Cole in a tribute toElla Fitzgerald, and was also a featured musicianin the film Blues Brothers 2000.16 CAL PERFORMANCESCAL PERFORMANCES17