Sun Bear Concerts

This gargantuan package — a ten-LP set now compressed into a chunky six-CD box — once was derided as the ultimate ego trip, probably by many who didn't take the time to hear it all. You have to go back to Art Tatum's solo records for Norman Granz in the '50s to find another large single outpouring of solo jazz piano like this, all of it improvised on the wing before five Japanese audiences in Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo, and Sapporo. Yet the miracle is how consistently good much of this giant box is. In the opening Kyoto concert, Jarrett's gospel-driven muse is in full play, up to the level of his peak solo performances in Bremen and Koln, and the Osaka and Nagoya concerts have pockets of first-rate, often folk-like, even profound, lyrical ideas. The Tokyo concert takes a while to get in gear, but when Jarrett finally locks into one of his grooving vamps, he carries us along, and there is a memorably melodic encore. In Sapporo, Jarrett breaks from a nicely flowing pattern into a jumpy rhythm that reminds one of C&W guitar fingerpicking, and there's some exuberant barrelhouse stuff and outbreaks of dissonance in part two. Each concert is placed on a single CD, while the much briefer sixth disc is reserved for the encores from Nagoya, Tokyo, and Sapporo. While Sun Bear breaks little ground that his earlier solo piano albums had not already covered, it is nevertheless richly inventive within Jarrett's personal parameter of idioms. If price is not a barrier, the Jarrett devotee need not hesitate.

昏暗的房间里 枪口顶在了我的头上 作为一个希望在死亡面前保持尊严的爵士乐迷 我淡然地问：“能在杀我之前陪我听完一张爵士专辑吗？” “可以。” 我随手点开了Sun Bear Concert 五个半小时之后 Keith Jarrett返场的时候 杀手开枪自杀了

1976年11月，Keith Jarrett 在日本延续着他的即兴钢琴独奏演出。ECM 更把他的这次美的延伸毫无后期剪辑修饰的作为10张 LP 经典发布。（ECM 1100 Recorded November 1976） 奉上唱片内页仅有的一句摘录：“Think of your ears as eyes 。”