Keith Jarrett Trio (Live)

Genova, Estate ‘86, from Archeologia Sonora

Set list:

(I’m Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over

You Don’t Know What Love Is

The Song Is You

Peace

Keith Jarrett (p.)

Gary Peacock (bs.)

Jack DeJohnette (dr.)

This is quite cool. Archeologia Sonora have collected many recordings of performances by a variety of artists and made them available for sale on Bandcamp.com. I am an admirer of pianist (and clavichord player) Keith Jarrett, and he and his long-time trio mates—percussionist Jack DeJohnette and bassist Gary Peacock—are captured well here. Jarrett is in top jazz trio form, playing flawlessly while doing his own, strange brand of scat singing or whatever—singing in vocalese, growling, laughing, sighing, gasping.

At 7:40 on “Lato A,” side A of an audio cassette tape, it sounds as if there is a dog fight, with one dog barking suddenly and wildly. Maybe a cat wandered by. This is a lovely touch and one I want to point out as a performance moment that had me thinking a dog was barking near me when I first heard it, which was through headphones. The recording has a liveness that I love in jazz recordings.

I love trying to imagine the exact circumstances under which this recording was made. Every appearance is that someone connected to Archeologia Sonora was an amateur field recording maker, and I picture a darkened performance venue, filled with people, which occasional voluminous applause gives evidence of, and a person from far away bringing a small tape recorder and stereo microphone in a travel bag. Maybe there was an agreement with the venue to make the recording, or maybe in Genova, in 1986, there was no question about a person bringing a tape recorder to a jazz concert.

I have made a field recording of a jazz performance, with my tiny Zoom Hn1 high-resolution digital recording device, which handily doubles as a microphone for Zoom-mediated music lessons. It was fun but isolating, since I couldn’t sit and chat with someone but stayed quiet. The sense of space, liveness and positionality of the performers is impressive for a device that coat about US$120 when I bought it at a big-box store. And considering my lack of knowledge of making such recordings!

Making music field recordings is something I would like to do more of, and overcoming the fear of making people angry by bringing a recorder to a concert venue, when there is no written prohibition on making recordings but simply the need to avoid conflict with the performers, the venue managers and staff, and other audience members—that is something that is a bit tough for me to do. Is it better in such a case to ask for forgiveness or to ask for permission?

I remember going to music performances of “jam bands” in the very late 1990s with classmates who regularly got the sound person at such performances to plug their DAT (digital) tape recorders into the soundboard. What exchanges went on for that favor I was not privvy to.

Most of the recording has the band in the left channel, as if the microphone were carelessly set up. Crowd sounds are audible in the left and right channels.

I mean to look more thoroughly through the selection of recordings at Archeologia Sonora, and listen to more of them.