Keith Jarrett in full swing in 2004.Andre Pichette
Toronto Jazz Festival Various locations in Toronto, Tuesday and Wednesday
"Do you hear that?" asked Keith Jarrett at the Four Seasons Centre Wednesday, after abandoning a song in mid-intro. As bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette looked on, Jarrett stood behind his Steinway, jabbing at a note like a kid picking a scab.
"It's the sound of 'Help!'" he joked. Apparently, the hammer wasn't hitting the strings properly, and the thinness of the tone obviously irked him, although it sounded only slightly anemic out in the auditorium. "It's nothing to do with you," he assured the fans. "Steinway's getting a phone call from me."
Of course, it wouldn't be a Jarrett concert without some grousing from the star, but however peeved he was at the piano, he had no gripes with the crowd. If anything, his playing was joyous as he happily hammed up an unabashedly sentimental Tennessee Waltz, and gave Peacock a thumbs up after a wide-ranging extrapolation on My Funny Valentine.
But the best indicator of how happy he was was that the trio played not one, not two, but three encores, including a gloriously funky God Bless the Child and a hard-swinging Bye Bye Blackbird. It was a show Jarrett fans will tell their grandchildren about.
Elsewhere:
It's a monster
It was odd to see trumpeter Dave Douglas' Keystone pushed to the side at the Enwave Theatre on Tuesday, but the semi-electric quintet was sharing the stage with Spark of Being, a film by Bill Morrison. The idea was to breath new life into what Douglas called "the Frankenstein myth," and though it wasn't easy to glean a narrative from Morrison's stitched-together bits of old film, there was a lot to love in Douglas' live soundtrack. Adam Benjamin's effects-heavy Fender Rhodes splashed colour throughout the atmospheric compositions, which drummer Gene Lake (who played with David Sanborn on Sunday) kept animated. And Marcus Strickland's mournful tenor sax was the perfect foil for Douglas' quicksilver lyricism.
Saving Grace
People say clubs are more intimate than theatres, but it would be hard to imagine a vibe cozier than the one Grace Kelly conjured at the Trane Tuesday. It helped that she has the natural chattiness of a teenaged girl (which, at 17, she is), and that her parents were in the audience. But the friendliness of the crowd also contributed to the rec-room atmosphere, and encouraged Kelly to try out material - including a work-in-progress she dubbed Sad Love Song Waltz - that would otherwise have stayed in rehearsal. She's a strong singer and stunning saxophonist, and her solos were enough to make one wish her band shone as brightly as she does.
Farm fresh
At this stage, it may seem silly to talk of jazz super-groups, but that's what James Farm is. Saxophonist Joshua Redman may be the marquee talent, but this is very much a quartet of equals, with pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Ari Hoenig taking as much of the foreground during Wednesday's show at the Enwave Theatre. Yes, they can play it straight, as they showed with a feisty romp through Charlie Parker's Scrapple from the Apple, but where they really shine is when each voice resonates with equal strength, as on Parks' deceptively simple 1981. Definitely a band to watch.