Just a short update: samples from “Sleeper” are now available from many websites (Amazon Germany, Universal Music Germany, etc.).
Update (July 11, 2012). “New Dance” (7:07) can be streamed from ecmrecords.com (for free). Thanks to Thomas for the information!
CD 1
CD 2
All tracks seem to be previously unreleased (i.e. not previously released on “Personal Mountains”).
Product description from Amazon UK:
“An astonishing double-album documentation of a great band at the peak of its powers, Sleeper features a complete and previously unreleased concert recording of the quartet that came to be known as Keith Jarrett’s ‘European Quartet’ (also sometimes named as ‘Belonging’). It took place at Tokyo’s Nakano Sun Plaza in April 1979. The pieces, all composed by Keith Jarrett for this ensemble and all delivered with enormous verve, are ‘Personal Mountains’, ‘Innocence’, ‘So Tender’, ‘Oasis’, ‘Chant of the Soil’, ‘Prism’ and ‘New Dance’. Exceptional improvisational exchanges, dynamic episodes of surging energy, and lyrical passages of wild beauty abound. The interplay between Jarrett and Jan Garbarek is uncanny and the Palle Danielsson/Jon Christensen rhythm team swings wildly and delightfully. After more than three decades in the ECM archive, this “Sleeper”, newly mixed at the Rainbow Studios in Oslo, now awakes in all its glory, sounding thoroughly alive and of the moment. Sleeper is a significant addition to the group’s small discography, until now comprised of the albums Belonging (1974), My Song (recorded 1977, released 1978), Nude Ants (recorded 1979), and Personal Mountains (1979, released 1989). In the five years between the first album and the end of the story, the quartet played infrequently enough for Jarrett to tell one journalist that it was less an ensemble than a ‘special event’. Personnel: Keith Jarrett (piano, percussion), Jan Garbarek (tenor and soprano saxophones, flute, percussion), Palle Danielsson (double-bass), Jon Christensen (drums, percussion)”
Thanks to Matthias for the information!
Five Impulse! albums have been re-released in Japan on June 13, 2012 by Universal Japan:
They’re available directly from Amazon Japan or as imports from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, etc.
Fort Yawuh (1973), Treasure Island (1974), and Death And The Flower (1975) might follow soon (or not).
Thanks to Jon for the information!
According to Jazzwise Magazine, a new European Quartet album, “Sleeper”, will be released by ECM Records on July 16, 2012 (UK release date). The 2-CD release is a recording of the April 16, 1979 concert in Tokyo, with Jan Garbarek (sax), Palle Danielsson (bass), and Jon Christensen (drums).
The track listing is apparently the following:
CD 1
CD 2
As previously announced, later this year, ECM Records will release a new trio recording. According to the press release for the Berkeley concert (April 1, 2012), “Somewhere” is actually a recording of the July 11, 2009 concert at the KKL in Lucerne, Switzerland. That concert was a pretty short one (about 75 minutes, no intermission), so it’s not impossible that “Somewhere” is a complete recording of the concert (but it remains pure speculation, at the moment).
“Later in 2012, ECM will release a new trio recording, Somewhere, recorded in July 2009 in Luzern, Switzerland featuring extended versions of “Somewhere” and “Tonight” from West Side Story.”
Thanks to Håvard for the information (posted on the Keith Jarrett Yahoo! Group)!
Update (April 15, 2012). It appears that “Somewhere” will be released in 2013, for the trio’s 30th anniversary, not in 2012 as previously announced. Another album will be released in 2012. More information coming soon (I hope).
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