The “Somewhere” in which the ‘Standards’ trio find themselves is Lucern, Switzerland with a performance both exploratory and in-the-tradition. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung headlined its review of the show “kontrollierte Ekstase” – controlled ecstasy – an apt metaphor for a set that begins in improvisational “Deep Space” modulates into Miles Davis’ “Solar”, soars through the standards “Stars Fell On Alabama” and “Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea” and climaxes with an extended romp through West Side Story, as Bernstein’s “Somewhere” and “Tonight” are bridged by the freely associative Jarrett original “Everywhere”. - Commentary from http://www.ecmrecords.com/ - The project: “This formation remains one of the best, not just of this, but of all times,” wrote Jürg Meier, reviewing the Luzern concert of Jarrett / Peacock / DeJohnette in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. “Their engagement with the Great American Songbook, the standards of jazz, is exemplary in the simultaneity of absolute respect for the material and absolute freedom in dealing with it.“ The songs are honoured for their melodic strengths and credited with sufficient robustness to support fiery improvisation that scales a heaven of invention. The Luzern set (recorded July 2009) finds Jarrett, Peacock and DeJohnette improvising on some celestial themes. The entry point, Jarrett’s solo meditation “Deep Space”, already breathes the air of another planet, and opens up a flight path for Miles Davis’ “Solar”. That blues-drenched standard, historically famous in the interpretations on Miles’ “Walkin’” and Bill Evans’ “Sunday At The Village Vanguard”, has been a favourite vehicle for the trio. Endlessly manoeuvrable in the hands of these players, it has suggested a sphere of emotion to negotiate, as well as a point of departure for new music. While there are several earlier recorded versions in the trio’s discography (including on “Tribute”, and the “Live in Japan 93/96” DVD): the Luzern version may be the most satisfying yet, exhilarating from the outset. “Stars Fell On Alabama”, one of the few ballads about meteor showers, follows. Beautifully delivered in the past by artists from Billie Holiday to Cannonball and Coltrane, Jarrett’s shimmering interpretation has the stars falling in slow motion. Not everything adheres to the freely-associative empyrean lyrical subtext: Harold Arlen’s “Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea” looks in the opposite direction, with a stoical good humour that acknowledges Thelonious Monk’s take on this great tune first popularized by Cab Calloway and by Louis Armstrong. A version of Leonard Bernstein’s “Somewhere” from “West Side Story” evokes a world of peace and quiet and open air which Jarrett, Peacock and DeJohnette explore until they cross into new territory, with an “Everywhere” like a tribal dance: classic Jarrett ritual music which would not have been out of place on the “Changeless” album. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung spoke of “kontrollierter Ekstase” – controlled ecstasy – to describe its ostinato-driven pulses. There is more Bernstein in a dancing version of “Tonight”, another song concerned with celestial signs, bright shining moons, and an absence of morning stars. The closing encore “I Thought About You” makes an arc back to the Miles Davis references at the beginning. Miles played this on “Someday My Prince Will Come”, and it was in the Davis band book for years. Keith, Gary and Jack recorded it previously when paying tribute to Miles on “Bye Bye Blackbird”. The tune’s lyrics, by Johnny Mercer, famously written on a Chicago-bound train itemize the view from a carriage window: “Two or three cars parked under the stars / A winding stream / Moon shining down on some little town...” The album “Somewhere” is issued in the thirtieth year of the “Standards” project. How do they keep it so fresh? Gary Peacock addressed the question in a Down Beat interview: “We don’t bother with concepts, or theory, or maintaining some image. That’s of no concern whatsoever. So what that leaves is everything. It leaves the music. Once you get to that point where you don’t feel like you have to make a statement anymore, you enter a space of enormous freedom.” A space where the music speaks for itself. Artists comments “When Jack, Gary and I recorded our first 'Standards' album back in 1983, I had no idea we were being enlisted (by some force-field around us?) to embark on a 30-year excursion into the heart of jazz and its many environments: standard song-form, abstract free music, vamps of many colors, etc. And since we started on the basis of not pre-arranging anything, we have remained free of the closed-in concept of 'our music.' There is no way to explain the depth that we've found together over the years in the 'traditional' jazz rhythm section format, but we have built a library of releases and played hundreds of concerts that represent the result better than anything I can say. But what I appreciate about the trio the most is the ease and grace with which we have accomplished this. I don't mean it was easy, but if you remember that every time we played we were doing our absolute best, our reward was compatible with the effort we made. And from the first note in 1983, our guiding principles have never changed. In this sense, I don't think we have any competition. Thank you, Jack and Gary for living it with me.” - Keith Jarrett - “A consistent and ever deepening journey into the heart of Jazz... truly authentic, inspiring. A genuine opportunity to surrender to the music at hand with boundless joy and enthusiasm. This continues to be my experience with the Trio.” - Gary Peacock - “When Keith, Gary and I came together as a trio, we never imagined we would still be playing this great music for 30 years. Every time we get together we learn something new about how to play a standard, ballads & open improvisations. There have been some truly amazing and magical moments over the years. Playing with Keith and Gary has been one of the highlights of my life and I am very grateful for this. Thank you Keith and Gary for this wonderful gift.” - Jack DeJohnette - This release by Keith Jarrett's celebrated Standards Trio in the group's 30th year was recorded live four years ago – so it's safe to say that the fastidious leader must now be happy with this set of improvisations on classics, including the West Side Story title track, Miles Davis's Solar, and two originals. The trio has demonstrated the ambiguities in its name by exploring standards as well as free improv over the years, but song-forms are dominant here – often developed with almost venomous relish by Jarrett and imaginative (if occasionally loosely pitched) regular rejoinders from bassist Gary Peacock, underpinned by drummer Jack DeJohnette's mix of stinging power and subtle support. Deep Space makes a seductively glimmering overture, before Solar comes in almost sleepwalkingly off the pulse – the trio constantly suggesting swing but subverting it, before Jarrett hurtles off into a blistering groove. He arrhythmically juggles the melody of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, before DeJohnette drives up the tempo; Somewhere segues into Jarrett's own Everywhere (on which he eventually gets funky over a rocking, Mehldau-like vamp); West Side Story's Tonight is played fast, and I Thought About You makes a sumptuously tender finale. It's not quite as varied as its predecessor Yesterdays, and Jarrett's groaning is alarmingly louder than ever, but it's still improvised piano-trio music of a standard few can touch. - John Fordham: The Guardian, Thursday 23 May 2013 - Keith Jarrett / Gary Peacock / Jack DeJohnette: Somewhere (2013) By JOHN KELMAN, Published: May 21, 2013 Keith Jarrett / Gary Peacock / Jack DeJohnette: Somewhere It's been four years since a recorded peep has been heard from pianist Keith Jarrett's Standards Trio, despite continuing to perform a few select dates each year. But even its last few ECM releases—2009's Yesterdays, 2007's My Foolish Heart and 2004's The Out-of-Towners—were all culled from a clearly fruitful 2001, making it well over a decade since a new recorded note has been heard from Jarrett's longest-lasting group. Fine albums all, the dearth of anything since that time has nevertheless begged the question, even amongst some of his most ardent fans, as to whether this undeniably fine trio had anything new to say. From Jarrett's a cappella opening to Somewhere's wonderfully coalescing take of trumpeter Miles Davis' "Solar," all doubts are laid to rest as the pianist delivers a performance to rival his classic introduction to "My Funny Valentine" on Still Live (ECM, 1988), one of the Standards Trio's strongest records. It's a terrific start to an album that, recorded in Switzerland during the summer of 2009, celebrates 30 years since Jarrett, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette first entered New York's Power Station studio for the fruitful sessions that yielded three recordings collected on Setting Standards: New York Sessions (ECM, 2008): Standards, Vol. 1 (1983), Changes (1984) and Standards, Vol. 2 (1985). It's been a long time since the trio has stepped into a studio, and the easiest explanation is that this really is a group best heard live—a point driven home by this 65-minute, six-song set. In addition to Davis, the trio works its way through a list of equally classic songwriters. A particularly lovely take of Frank Perkins and Mitchell Parish's "Stars Fell on Alabama," finds Peacock, combining pure taste and tone, remaining at the top of his game. A quirky rendition of Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" is largely constructed around this trio's remarkable ability to suggest swing without actually playing it—the entire structure ready to collapse at any moment like a house of cards—but never actually doing so—even as DeJohnette takes his only real solo of the set, while Jimmy van Heusen and Johnny Mercer's balladic "I Thought About You" closes the set on an irrepressibly romantic note predicated on the trio's egalitarian nature. But it's Leonard Bernstein's two classics from the 1957 musical West Side Story that form Somewhere's centerpiece. A profoundly beautiful take on "Somewhere" leads to Jarrett's lengthy coda, "Everywhere," building this nearly 20-minute workout to a powerful climax, ultimately winding down to a gospel-tinged conclusion, while "Tonight" is taken at an unexpectedly bright clip. Peacock and DeJohnette swing more directly this time, with Jarrett's effortless motivic invention keeping secure his position in the upper echelon of improvising pianists. Despite the 12-year gap since its last recorded work, Somewhere leaves no doubt that the special spark Jarrett, Peacock and DeJohnette first demonstrated on the bassist's Tales of Another (ECM, 1977) remains intact. If anything, Somewhere creates hope that another four years won't have to pass before this inimitable trio is heard from again. - Review from http://www.allaboutjazz.com/ - Track Listing 1. Deep Space / Solar - 15:09 2. Stars Fell On Alabama - 7:27 3. Between Devil And The Deep Blue Sea - 10:02 4. Somewhere / Everywhere - 19:37 5. Tonight - 6:49 6. I Thought About You - 6:29 Musicians Keith Jarrett - piano Gary Peacock - double bass Jack DeJohnette - drums Released: May 14, 2013 Producer: Keith Jarrett Recorded live July 11, 2009, at KKL Luzern Concert Hall Engineer: Martin Pearson Cover Photo: Mario Giacomelli Liner Photo: Daniela Yohannes Design: Sascha Kleis Executive Producer: Manfred Eicher Genre: Jazz Length: 65:34 Label: ECM (2200)