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Music CD - Keith Jarrett: La Scala
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Music CD: La Scala
Artist: Keith Jarrett
List Price: $17.98
Our Price: $12.26
Your Save: $ 5.72 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Ecm Records
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. La Scala, Part I
2. La Scala, Part II
3. Over The Rainbow
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0731453726826
Format: Live
Label: Ecm Records
Manufacturer: Ecm Records
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Ecm Records
Release Date: 2000-01-25
Studio: Ecm Records
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Live Jarrett
Comment: Ok, shoot me---Koln Concert isn't my favorite solo concert. To me, this just shoots Koln in the foot! Why?
Koln Concert is a masterpiece, full of development and extreme detail to development. However, La Scala is romance in his language. To me, the first 7 minutes musically define love--and God, "....for God is Love (Christian theology)". IMHO, this is the best music to make, hands down!
However, this was recorded right before he got sick; not very easy to find and many do not know about it. Sad--this is what started me listening to Keith Jarrett.
Overall, this is awesome. Just listen--and open yourself. Take it in completely--as a Wagner or Verdi Opera. It will probably break your emotions--let it. At that point, you now have heard KJ.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Astoundingly gorgeous piano music
Comment: This is, I believe, one of keith jarrett's final released recordings of his longer form improvisations. Since then on Radiance, etc. he has been giving concerts with a stream of shorter pieces.
Anyway, with the exception of some rather long repetitive sections such as in the middle 20 minutes or so of part 1, and the atonal stuff on part 2 (which is interesting but perhaps not all that listenable), this has some of Jarrett's most gorgeous improvised piano music.
If you're like me, your favorite Jarrett material sounds almost like Romantic era piano music, such as the latter half of Koln: Part II B, or Radiance Part XV as examples. The first bit of Part 1 of La Scala and the last bit of Part 1 are incredibly melodic, gorgeous passages in this style as well.
If you're patient with Part 2, you're also in for a treat as he plays one of his best tremolo style improvs in the latter half or so. I think I enjoy this tremolo style improv more than Vienna: Part 2, it seems to move around more and have more lyrical melodies.
In short, this is Jarrett at his most melodic and his most lyrical. Just be patient with the repetitive sections...fast forward if you need to..that's what I do, lol! Sometimes its great to just let him take you for a ride though. Anyway, definitely buy this album, highly reccommended for any true lover of complex, beautiful piano music.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Ticklish Ivories, Indeed!
Comment: Twenty years after his famed KOLN CONCERT, pianist Keith Jarrett delivered another outstanding solo fantasia onstage in Milan. While I can't quite agree with the numerous earlier reviews favoring LA SCALA over its legendary predecessor, neither can I offer any evidence in support of my own preference aside from pure personal taste - which, in the realm of true music, is of course the only limitation which can or should apply.
The album-length "La Scala, Part I" seems to have scored top points with most prior reviewers, and it is indeed a phenomenal musical and - at three nonstop quarters of an hour - physical achievement. I myself, however, prefer the comparatively brief (at twenty-six minutes) "Part II," which showcases the full range of Jarrett's playing from extreme abstraction to sublime classicism and back again and suffers only from a louder and more substantial than usual dose of the master keyboardist's trademark grunting and gasping. He certainly hasn't lost his touch!
For those not particularly into Keith Jarrett, a single solo album may well suffice. I'd still recommend KOLN for such listeners, but not without mentioning this similarly thrilling performance from one of modern music's truly unique talents. A fine show, to say the very least.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Comment: It's quite funny how some things happen in life. Firstly, the concept of Jarrett's solo concerts. The amount of masterpieces that have been spontaneously improvised and influenced so many musicians and non-musicians, but also the amount of them that may not have happened due to show cancellations and/or illness. These performances are thus not only a wonderful work by a master musician, but a small miracle in that everything worked out in order to allow this creative process to occur, spontaneously.
The second curious thing is that 'La Scala' was in a pile of CDs my dad wanted to sell, because neither of us enjoyed it. I decided to give it one last try, and I have barely stopped listening to it since. Now you ask, 'what has this got to do with buying La Scala?', since this review is technically supposed to influence your decision to buy this CD rather than one of 10 or 15 you are considering buying instead. Quite simply, 'La Scala' is not only a great piece of music, it's a lesson that will change your perspective on approaching the listening experience; learning not to behold what happened previously, or expect what will happen in the future. You are hence not only listening to what Mr Jarrett offers the listener, you are learning to offer the same to him as he offered to you: embracing the next step.
Unlike the two most famous, Köln and Vienna, each moment of 'La Scala' is as important as the next. There are no individual moments, apart from maybe the end. 'La Scala Part One' is a 44 minute build to a climax. It's the greatest known example of Jarrett's ability to build tension, and keep building it. The last 9 minutes of 'La Scala' are worth the 35 minutes before it, that will, on first listen, seem a little pointless without the climax that fuses everything together.
Better yet, hear for yourself!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece
Comment: Not too long ago I wrote that Koln had a special character that put it on a league of its own. Somehow, I've started to change my mind and slowly began to understand Keith's subsequent solo concerts much better. La Scala is a disc that deserves repeated listens, it takes you to the depths of Jarrett in his more mature solo playing, and with time you come to understand what it is that he was trying to do.
La Scala, much like Vienna, is a deeply disturbing album. The music goes to places of indescribable intensity, at times so powerful and overwhelming that it defies what can be considered 'good music'. The opening movement 'Part I' is the epitome of Jarrett's introspective playing. Even if it doesn't sound as constantly ingenious as Koln's first movement, the introspective effect of the music goes far beyond it. The first 15 minutes begin the piece with very beautiful romantic playing, slow and heartwarming. Towards minute 11 the music begins to acquire profoundness that almost scares in its beauty and honesty.
Jarrett's darker moments go on for the next 25 or so minutes, where the improvisation lurks in a primitive, crude fashion. The music is not accessible, the same smashing keys on the piano are repeated unendlessly and the music rarely gives you an uplifting note. It goes, on the other hand, to a completely dark place, conflictive, unresolved. Keith seems to be struggling with his inner self and the music, fighting aggressively in an incredible dialog with the piano that is everything but 'listener-friendly'. It is not surprising to have a lot of people dislike the prolonged monotony of this section, but when internalized, its a completely unique experience. Keith alienates the listener, goes completely inwards into a world of musical forces that rage in a very powerful manner, perhaps the most powerful i've heard ever. Vienna and Paris share this same character in that they dwell deep into the more troubled side of Jarrett's soul.
The beauty of this dialog, however, is truly understood when the last 10 minutes or so bring closure and resolution to the piece. Jarrett lands after this battle in a gorgeous lyrical conclusion that defies any skepticism towards his ability to improvise immediately heart moving music. The resolution brought forth by this last part unveils the deep meaning that underlies from the first minute for the piece as a whole. The conflict rests, and Jarrett is once again at peace. By the time this part has ended, you truly feel you've undergone a spiritual voyage that no 'composition', in the strict sense of the word, could possibly deliver. The contrast of darkness and light, conflict and resolution, angst and peace, is not only remarkable, but transcendental. It truly delivers the insight into Jarrett's soul he's been striving to accomplish since Bremen/Lausanne.
Part two is a different dialog; abrupt, dissonant and chaotic. Whereas part one is a slow movement towards very definite spots, part 2 is an all out raging discussion. Delicate melodic lines are intertwined with chaotic, fast and atonal darker structures. Fast melodic tones then are put against dark, slow shades. There's a sense of fragility in this piece that makes it particularly interesting. The music at times moves and shifts from place to place so fast one feels the coherence of the whole dialog and the link between the music and the player is hanging from a very thin thread. Jarrett seems to do this deliberately, and amazes by never losing the grip of the dialog in its daring 25 or so minutes of duration. Its, again, a very intense and beautiful piece that requires our preconceptions of what is expected as music to be thrown and rather to embark on an undefined journey. Jarrett's music moves much like the spirit, in unpredictable ways than ultimately make absolute sense in their oscillating nature between tones, emotions and impressions. Part II shows the sense of the spirit's extremes, where the whole elastic structure of human sentiment and sense becomes pulled to its limit.
The closing of 'Over the rainbow' is a soft, and beautiful landing into the world of the earthly, where we fail to acknowledge the depth that resides within the spirit. Its a beautiful, gentle landing that deserves praise in bringing closure to the journey.
Overall, 'La Scala' proceeds in a very similar way to Vienna, and both concerts now stand firmly to me as the pinnacle of what sound, as a introspective experience, can teach you. It is a wonderful disc from a true genius that has an enormous gift. This disc deserves all the praise in the world.
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