Hi-Res Downloads

96kHz/24-bit ALAC/FLAC, ECM2200 276 6370 (supplied by www.highresaudio.com)

It is 30 years since Jarrett’s mesmerising Standards Trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette took its first try at taking known tunes to unknown places, but there’s nothing remotely stale in this 2009 performance recorded live in Switzerland. From the start the trio’s familial empathy allows a spectacular rise from an unpromising intro into Miles Davis’ ‘Solar’, while the big J’s melodic modifications of ‘Stars Fell On Alabama’ are as entrancing as the bastard rhythm slices of ‘Devil And The Deep Blue Sea’ are baffling. The grail here is the central 20-minute coupling of Bernstein’s ‘Somewhere’ with Jarrett’s own complementary composition ‘Everywhere’, the former’s bluesy sequences yielding rich plateaus of improvisation. All is enhanced by engineer Martin Pearson’s delivery of both ambient soundstaging and close stereo-miked piano clarity; you’ll never miss a moan. JF

Sound Quality: 95%

Hi-Fi News Lab Report

While this is a true 96kHz rendering with good dynamic range, almost all the energy from 10kHz-40kHz is related more to the accompanying percussion than piano. There is also a clutch of spurious tones from 30kHz-45kHz. PM