ECM Records Keith Jarrett - Solo Concerts - Bremen / Lausanne ( LUMINESSENCE )

Released in a facsimile edition in ECM’s critically lauded Luminessence series, this vinyl triple album conveys the sound of history-in-the-making. Bremen-Lausanne documents two mesmerizing Keith Jarrett solo piano concerts from March and July 1973. These are concerts from the very beginning of Jarrett’s solo odyssey and they repay close listening today. In a shared booklet note Keith Jarrett and Manfred Eicher write, “We feel that this album is true to itself and the audience from every angle and that our care will provide us with more than equal benefits in our knowledge that we have given you the closest thing to being there.”

Fifty years ago reception for the Solo-Concerts music – more than two hours of solo piano improvisations – was overwhelmingly positive around the world: the set was showered in awards and hailed as Album of the Year in Time magazine, the New York Times, Down Beat and Stereo Review in the US, Jazz Forum in Poland, and Swing Journal in Japan. In Germany, it won the Großer Deutsche Schallplattenpreis. The enthusiasm hasn’t dimmed – in a recent survey of Jarrett’s complete oeuvre in the UK’s Mojo magazine, the Bremen-Lausanne box set was voted #1: “This is the ne plus ultra of the solo live Jarrett concert in all its improvisational glory.”



Luminessence, ECM’s new audiophile vinyl-reissue series, is a kaleidoscope, shedding light on the jewels of the label’s deep catalogue in elegant, high-quality editions. The hallmarks of the series: original and evocative music, imaginatively played and sensitively produced. The recordings underline the scope and variety of ECM’s world of sound and the LPs are presented in different formats.

The series features albums that have changed perceptions of creative music making, albums now heralded as classics. Some are offered in exclusive facsimile editions, others framed in high-grade gatefolds that include new liner notes offering historical context and fresh perspectives, while again others have been long out of print or even never before released on vinyl. Many of the re-issues are cut from the original analog master tapes and all Luminessence releases incorporate the striking cover art which has contributed to ECM’s renown.