Keith Jarrett - At the Deer Head Inn

The beginning of next month sees the release of the fifth and final recording from Keith Jarrett’s last European tour, Roma. In preparation for the occasion, we are taking a look back at another of Jarrett’s highly regarded live recordings in the 1994 release, At the Deer Head Inn.

Purported to be the oldest continually running jazz club in the United States, the Deer Head Inn is located in the Delaware Water Gap area of Pennsylvania at the foot of the Pocono Mountains. The club became a basecamp of sorts for musicians that found themselves performing in the Poconos resorts throughout the mid-to-late twentieth century, a list which included the likes of Zoo Sims, Stan Getz, and Dave Liebman.

Jarrett’s connection to the venue began in the infancy of his career: he writes in the liner notes “The Deer Head Inn was my first serious trio job on the piano”, in reference to an early 60s gig he played there. The Deer Head lies just 40 miles from Jarrett’s childhood home in Allentown, and he could regularly be seen sitting in on drums. This recording was arranged in 1992 to mark the club being under new management and saw Jarrett in a variation of his standards trio where Jack DeJohnette was replaced by Paul Motion. This was the pair's first recording together since Jarrett’s American Quartet disbanded after the release of Bop-Be in 1978.

The Miles Davis tune ‘Solar’ opens the album, and Jarrett plays an intro to begin the piece that sounds similar to the solo work he produced around the time of this recording. He then proceeds to take an extended solo that showcases the extent of his ability within a trio setting, playing off the other two musicians well. On 'Basin Street Blues', Jarrett brings the gospel inspired block chords he had become synonymous with to the main melody. Then while he’s soloing, Peacock and Motion keep the tune swinging throughout.

Compared to the previous tunes, Jarrett’s playing has a lighter touch on 'Chandra': the comping is more infrequent, and he uses single line melodies to propel the tune forward.  As the tune progresses though and the sound is filled out more, Peacock does an excellent job at matching the shades Jarrett is choosing. After another excellent Jarret intro, ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is’ settles in to quite an ambiguous time-feel that sees all members of the group playing freely around the rhythms. For the second half of the track though, Motion establishes a strong double-time feel, that is anything but ambiguous and the group begin playing around ideas of melodic and rhythmic repetition to create a trance-like sound.

The group come out of the blocks swinging on an up-tempo version of ‘You and the Night and the Music’, which sees Jarrett take a near five-minute solo: an impressive spectacle that shows the full extent of his virtuosic ability on the piano. A Jarrett favourite, ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’, follows on from this, and what is presented here is possibly the most swinging tune of the record. Jarrett plays on what is laid in front of him by Peacock and Motion with an expert quality that make this track a particularly enjoyable listen. The LP closes with the Richard Rodgers tune ‘ It’s Easy to Remember’ which features some beautiful melodic ideas; first from Jarrett in his handling of the melody, but then into a Gary Peacock solo. Peacock plays beautifully constructed lines that traverse the full scale of the bass and have wonderful, lyrical moments.

Overall, the content on this album may not be considered as elaborate or explorative as some of Keith Jarrett’s other work solo and with his Standards Trio, but what it does offer is a type of jazz that has universal appeal. At this point in his career, Jarrett’s usual gig venues were concert halls, but he returns to the scene of his first gig as a master of his instrument. He handles a well curated selection of standards perfectly for the venue and thoroughly entertains both the audience then, and listeners now.