Keith Jarrett - Roma [2LP]

Keith Jarrett's Roma is the fifth and final release drawn from his last European solo tour, a 2016 concert in Rome captured across two LPs.

That summer Jarrett played a run of solo concerts across Europe, and ECM has spent the years since issuing them one by one: Munich came first, then Budapest, Bordeaux and Vienna. Two strokes in 2018 ended his performing career, which gives every one of these recordings extra weight. Rome completes the series, and it stands apart even within this remarkable set, a concert full of surprises.

As always, Jarrett walked on stage with nothing planned. The ten-part improvisation, from Roma, Part I through Roma, Part X, moves through the shapes these late concerts were known for: knotty abstraction, hymn-like calm and rolling, gospel-tinged grooves that seem to arrive out of thin air. You can hear him listening to the room as much as to himself, chasing an idea until it opens up or letting it fall away. He returns for Somewhere Over The Rainbow, a song he loved to offer as an encore, and plays it with a tenderness that feels almost private.

For listeners who treasure The Köln Concert or his later solo nights, this is essential late Jarrett, recorded with ECM's usual clarity.