Keith Jarrett: The Melody at Night, with You – sheet music transcriptions book is now available for download.
The 1999 recording The Melody At Night With You is one of Keith Jarrett’s most popular records. Originally created as a gift to his wife, his versions of songs from the Great American Songbook plus the traditional “Shenandoah” are permeated by a special atmosphere that makes the recording one of his most personal audio documents.
Keith Jarrett was in the midst of recovering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), and he made these recordings privately with no intention of sharing them with the public. They are fairly simple, pretty settings of well-known melodies, with almost none of the exploration for which he is famed.
Jarrett dispenses with the jazz soloist’s conventional emphasis on dexterity, the “clever” phrase and the virtuosic sleight-of-hand, and instead strips these songs to their melodic essence to gently lay bare their emotional core.
After many years of preparation, the sheet music for The Melody At Night With You has now been published by with Jarrett’s approval and the support of Jarrett’s label, ECM.
The Melody at Night, with You is a solo album by American pianist Keith Jarrett recorded at his home studio in 1998 and released by ECM Records in 1999. It was recorded during his bout with chronic fatigue syndrome and was dedicated to Jarrett’s second and then-wife, Rose Anne: “For Rose Anne, who heard the music, then gave it back to me”.
In an interview in Time magazine in November 1999, he explained
“I started taping it in December 1997, as a Christmas present for my wife. I’d just had my Hamburg Steinway overhauled and wanted to try it out, and I have my studio right next to the house, so if I woke up and had a half-decent day, I would turn on the tape recorder and play for a few minutes. I was too fatigued to do more. Then something started to click with the mike placement, the new action of the instrument,… I could play so soft,… and the internal dynamics of the melodies… of the songs… It was one of those little miracles that you have to be ready for, though part of it was that I just didn’t have the energy to be clever.”
The album contains eight jazz standards, two traditional songs, and, uncharacteristically for Jarrett, only one improvisation (“Meditation”, the second half of track six).
Track listing
All tracks are jazz standards or traditional songs (5 & 9), by other composers, except the second half of track 6 (“Meditation”), which is an improvisation by Jarrett:
- “I Loves You, Porgy” (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Dubose Heyward) – 5:50
- “I Got It Bad (and That Ain’t Good)” (Duke Ellington, Paul Francis Webster) – 7:10
- “Don’t Ever Leave Me” (Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern) – 2:47
- “Someone to Watch over Me” (Gershwin, Gershwin) – 5:05
- “My Wild Irish Rose” (Traditional) – 5:21
- “Blame It on My Youth/Meditation” (Edward Heyman, Oscar Levant/Jarrett) – 7:19
- “Something to Remember You By” (Howard Dietz, Arthur Schwartz) – 7:15
- “Be My Love” (Nicholas Brodszky, Sammy Cahn) – 5:38
- “Shenandoah” (Traditional) – 5:52
- “I’m Through With Love” (Gus Kahn, Fud Livingston, Matty Malneck) – 2:56
Personnel
- Keith Jarrett – piano, engineering, production
Sheet Music Download here.
I Loves You Porgy
Pianist, composer, and bandleader Keith Jarrett is one of the most prolific, innovative, and iconoclastic musicians to emerge from the late 20th century. As a pianist (though that is by no means the only instrument he plays), he literally changed the conversation in jazz by introducing an entirely new aesthetic regarding solo improvisation in concert.
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Though capable of playing in a wide variety of styles, Jarrett is grounded in the jazz tradition. He has recorded over 100 albums as a leader in jazz and classical music. He cut his 1967 debut, Life Between the Exit Signs, leading a trio with Paul Motian and Charlie Haden. He played in Miles Davis’ group for a time, and appears on several live recordings, including Live Evil.