Ritual et Encores François Mardirossian

• Keith Jarrett (b. 1945):
• 1 Jarrett: Brussels Encore (Arr. by Tim Wood) 04:04
• 2 Jarrett: Fughata For Harpsichord (Arr. by Simon Savary) 05:32
• 3 Jarrett: Ritual 31:14
• 4 Jarrett: My Song (Arr. by Morten Ravn Hansen) 07:27
• 5 Jarrett: Tokyo Encore (Arr. by Uwe Karcher) 09:13
• Total Runtime 57:30

Info for Ritual et Encores

“I've found the rarest score in the world. A year before his famous Köln Concert in 1975, Keith Jarrett composed a work for solo piano that he never played. It's called Ritual. After a quest lasting several years, it is finally on my music stand. Only four of us in the world have it! Alongside this masterpiece, I offer four other works by Jarrett. Three bis and a fugue”.

Today, almost 45 years after its composition, here is the second recorded version of this forgotten masterpiece, which, with its rich inspiration, rigorous writing and ingenious hybridization of different styles, contains the very essence of the Jarrettian universe.

Ritual: this work leaves no room for improvisation; it is through-composed from beginning to end. During an uninterrupted thirty minutes, Ritual develops an initial melodic line that is simple and repetitive. In a sense it is reminiscent of the Sonata in B minor by Liszt, also thirty minutes long and in one continuous movement. Listening to Ritual, one can hear everything that constitutes the pianist’s art: introspective melodies of great sensitivity, virtuoso flights of fancy, the enormous energy of Jarrett which makes you want to stamp your feet, breathtaking long ostinatos and a treatment of the piano that borrows as much from the past (Elizabethan chorales) as from contemporary composers (treating the instrument like a gamelan or a xylophone, with both hands parallel in a high register) or from jazz – harmony above all – with phrasing reminiscent of Paul Bley or outbursts à la John Coates Jr.

Francois Mardirossian, piano

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