JARRETT KEITH & BURTON GARY – GARY BURTON & KEITH JARRETT

When this album was released on 22 February 1971 it had ‘instant classic’ written all over it. Widely influential at the time, the opening track ‘Grow Your Own’ by Keith Jarrett was rearranged for big band by Mike Gibbs to provide the powerful opening to his double album Just Ahead (recorded live at Ronnie Scott’s in May/June 1972) while Jarrett’s ‘The Raven Speaks’ provided the title track for an album by bandleader Woody Herman (whose band was always stocked with hip young players), also from 1972. On the album Jarrett plays both acoustic and electric piano and soprano sax, which gives it tonal variety as well as a feeling of momentum and discovery. Jarrett shows no sign of inhibition using electric piano – indeed, he plays it with audible joy, contributing to the palpable empathy between him and Burton. A few months prior to the album Burton had asked Jarrett to join his group but as we all know, Jarrett eventually went with Miles Davis, so declined Burton, but he did contribute several originals to the group prompting Burton to say: “Well you may as well come and record some of them with us.” As Jarrett said later, “That was a good time for me, I liked the music on that album. Ensemble’s a little ragged sometimes, but I enjoyed the session – we enjoyed the session – and it shows.”