A year before his famous Cologne concert (1975), which became one of the best-selling records in jazz history and one of the most iconic improvisations for an entire generation, Keith Jarrett composed a work for solo piano that he would never perform. The piece was intended for the young pianist and conductor Dennis Russell Davies, who recorded it in 1977 but didn't release it until 1982 on the famous German label run by Manfred Eicher, the founder of ECM. On the occasion of the French premiere of this piece by Maki Namekawa (wife of D. R. Davies) at the Philharmonie de Paris on May 7, we take a look back at Keith Jarrett's forgotten masterpiece Ritual.

In October 2020, when Keith Jarrett announced to the media that he was definitively retiring from his career as a pianist following two strokes, it was a terrible thunderclap in the world of jazz, but also in the world of so-called "classical" music. From the 70s onwards, and for over twenty years, Keith Jarrett had been at the service of the "great" repertoire (is there a little one?), with recordings devoted to Bach, Mozart, Handel, Bartok, Shostakovich and Barber, as well as to contemporaries such as Alan Hovhaness (just after recording Ritual that D. R. Davies introduced Keith Jarrett to Hovhaness's music, which they recorded together), Lou Harrison, Arvo Pärt and composers Peggy Glanville-Hicks and Carla Bley. 

As Manfred Eicher confided to Jazz Magazine in 2015: "[Keith Jarrett] has shown himself to be a scrupulous interpreter, very faithful to the letter as well as the spirit of the compositions, and while some jazz fans may have been confused by this apparent classicism, he has gradually earned the respect of classical music specialists." A simple example: Jarrett won hands down in a blind listening session(Tribune des critiques du disque - 09/02/2020) in Bach's Sixième Suite Française, ahead of Ton Koopman, Gustav Leonhardt and Christophe Rousset combined. 

Of course, Keith Jarret's immense career is best remembered for his solo concerts, such as the Köln Concert or the Sun Bear Concerts in Japan, his various collaborations with Jan Garbarek, Paul Motion, Gary Peacock or Jack DeJohnnette etc., but among all his original, non-improvised compositions - often underestimated - (Arbour Zena, In the LightLuminessence ), one work generally slips under the radar of Jarrett admirers, even though it contains the very essence of the Jarrettian universe: Ritual. 

The genesis of this piece is clearly explained on the back cover of the 1982 CD by the performer himself, Dennis Russell Davies : "I first worked with Keith Jarrett when I conducted a program of new music with the Ensemble at Lincoln Center in New York in 1974. On that occasion, Keith played the solo part in Carla Bley's "3/4". In addition to his enormous talent as an improviser, I was very impressed by his love and playing of the piano [...] During one of the many intense rehearsal periods, Keith - who had heard on the piano - told me about a new work, "Ritual", which he wanted me to perform. While working on this piece, I felt an enormous satisfaction in being able to express, through Keith's music, my admiration for his artistic talent. [...] Those who know Keith will hear him in this music - it couldn't have been written by anyone else."

Unlike all Jarrett's piano works, this piece is entirely written out from beginning to end, with no freedom for the performer to improvise. Over thirty minutes long and in one piece Ritual develops a simple, highly repetitive initial melodic motif in a cyclical fashion reminiscent of Liszt and his Sonata in B minor - also half an hour long and in one piece. Although improvisation is banished and Jarrett's distinctive touch is absent, listening to the piece one finds all the hallmarks of the pianist's art: introspective melodies of great sensitivity, virtuoso flights of fancy, rhythmic motifs that seem to stall, and Jarrett's typical enormous energy that makes you want to stamp your feet, breathtakingly long ostinatos and a treatment of the piano that looks to the past (Elizabethan-style chorales) as much as to contemporaries (treating the piano like a gamelan or a xylophone, with both hands parallel in the treble) and jazzmen - harmony, of course - with phrasings à la Paul Bley or surges à la John Coates Junior.
When listened to in its entirety, one finds above all the fervor and mystical atmosphere of the musical universe of the controversial Greek-Armenian mystic Georges I. Gurdjieff, transcribed by Thomas de Hartmann. Keith Jarrett became closely acquainted with Gurdjieff's philosophy in the 60s through his encounter with saxophonist Charles Lloyd, who introduced him to Gurdjieff's writings. In 1980, Jarrett recorded an anthology of Gurdjieff/de Hartmann piano pieces for ECM; Sacred Hymns. 

Dennis Russell Davies, who spoke to Hémisphère Son for this article, says it best: " The character of the music in 'Ritual' certainly leaves plenty of scope for varied interpretations, and questions of phrasing, balance and dynamics can and should be resolved differently by each performer and each performance. Keith has always strictly separated his interpretations of notated music (Mozart, J.S. Bach, Shostakovich) from his work as an improviser. Indeed, in his wonderful recordings of six Mozart piano concertos for ECM, he invariably performed cadenzas composed by Mozart. His melodic playing of Mozart reveals his genius for singing with a sense of spontaneity. That was my aim with this work. "Ritual" is not a written improvisation, but listening to Keith's trio performances, solo improvisations and classical performances can serve as a guide to approaching this fully notated work that fully reveals his love for the modern piano."

But then, what does this piece lack in order to gain due recognition from music lovers and musicians alike? The touch of Keith Jarret himself? The almost magical "ambience" of live solo improvisations? The spontaneous, inexplicable sound poetry that emerges from the ineffability of an unprepared concert?

One answer to this lack of enthusiasm may lie in the musical misunderstanding that remains with Keith Jarrett. The jazz world denies that he is a true jazzman, because his improvisations draw on classical, rock, folk, minimalist and Indian music. Jazz aficionados also criticize him for his incredible sense of sound exploration, which is not rigorous or jazz-like enough. And the classical world refuses to give him credit for his interpretations of the great composers. Today, almost 45 years after its composition, Ritual 's rich inspiration, rigorous writing and ingenious hybridization of diverse styles should interest more than one pianist and charm all the music lovers of 2022. While we wait for this (pious) wish to come true, here's the second version of this piece by Richard Trythall, a pianist less well known than Davies but just as talented, who has grasped Keith Jarrett's world. He had the immense honor of obtaining the original score from Keith Jarrett himself. While we await the French premiere by Maki Namekawa, let's hope for a forthcoming edition of the piece to popularize it in the same way as the Köln Concert and its wonderful The Melody At Night With You.

François Mardirossian