Facing You

Facing You is the first solo piano album recorded by pianist Keith Jarrett, the first of his voluminous collection to be produced by Manfred Eicher and his first work to be released by ECM Records. It features eight solo piano pieces (improvised and/or composed by himself) and it was recorded in a studio.[1] It also marked the beginning of Jarrett's innovative and successful career in the solo piano spontaneous and improvised performance and it constitutes a landmark in his fruitful association with ECM Records.

Facing You
Studio album by Keith Jarrett
Released	1972, March [1]
Recorded	1971, November 10
Studio	Arne Bendiksen studio, Oslo
Length	47:37
Label	ECM [ECM 1017]
Producer	Manfred Eicher
Keith Jarrett chronology
Birth (1971) Facing You (1972) Expectations (1972)
Keith Jarrett solo piano chronology
Facing You (1971) Solo Concerts: Bremen/Lausanne (1973)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	[4]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[5]
Tom Hull	B+ ()[6]

The album was recorded in Oslo (Norway) on November 10, 1971, one day after a concert performance with the Miles Davis Septet in the same city.[7] It was released in 1972 and has been reissued many times in different formats, including vinyl.[8]

Critical reception

The Allmusic review by Michael G. Nastos awarded the album 4½ stars, stating, "A remarkable effort that reveals more and more with each listen, this recording has stood the test of time, and is unquestionably a Top Three recording in Keith Jarrett's long and storied career.".[2] The review also states that:

Facing You is one of the most important recordings in contemporary jazz for several reasons, aside from being beautifully conceived and executed by pianist Keith Jarrett. It is a hallmark recording of solo piano in any discipline, a signature piece in the early ECM label discography, a distinct departure from mainstream jazz, a breakthrough for Jarrett, and a studio prelude for his most famous solo project to follow, The Köln Concert.[2]

In October 2007 writing for jazz.com, Ted Gioia gave the track In Front a 100/100 rating and praised it:[9]

"Here on the opening track of his first solo piano recording, Keith Jarrett announces a new era of jazz keyboard music. Even today, decades later, we can hear the repercussions in contemporary piano stylings. Jarrett helped shape a new language for improvised music, demonstrated the marvels of his conception and touch, explored novel paths of thematic development, and recalibrated the roles of the left and right hands in piano jazz —all in the course of a 10-minute performance. My favorite moments: the funky ostinato groove that kicks in right before the four minute mark, and then the shimmering resolution that dawns two minutes later. Jarrett still had his first solo concert records —the edifices of Bremen, Lausanne and Köln— ahead of him, but here at age 26 he had arrived, no longer the young prodigy of jazz, but a mature artist charting the future."

Regarding In Front and writing for JazzTimes, in 2011 pianist Kenny Werner stated that:[10]

"There are so many things in this piece, starting with Jarrett's interactive left hand and subtle right-hand accompaniment. The harmonies are unquestioningly new; all the beautiful complexities of the head release into a hybrid boogie-woogie or barrelhouse style. In a period when jazz was hipper and unsentimental, Jarrett reintroduced early American elements that are taken for granted today-sort of inventing the country/gospel-style harmony employed by many contemporary artists. Similarly, in the '60s and '70s, the style of linear playing over chord changes tended to be more rhythmic than melodic and generally based on pentatonic scales. Jarrett reintroduced an element of ornamentation that had not been heard since the music of Liszt and Chopin.

Moreover, when it comes to the whole album, he adds:[10]

"(..) although his most famous solo recording, The Köln Concert, and all subsequent solo recordings, are much better known to the public, for me his first solo recording, Facing You, reigns supreme. Its innovative approach to composition and musical development was shocking at the time. Jarrett radiated as much warmth, heart and beauty in his playing as he did virtuosity and intellect. Jarrett’s playing represents new and innovative levels of harmonic, rhythmic and melodic development bundled with the vastest creativity imaginable. It was a new standard of playing in its time and still is today."

Aftermath and Legacy

In 2000, in an interview with Terry Gross, Keith Jarrett explained how the idea of long solo piano concerts began:[11]

"It started out maybe as a result of recording 'Facing You', I can’t remember. But it started out, I remember, at the Heidelberg Jazz Festival, where I was supposedly, I wasn’t very well-known, I guess. And I came out and did a solo thing. And it was tunes, but I started to connect them somehow. Like, I’d have these transitional parts that connected everything. And then that somehow just moved slowly into the expanded solo concert, where there are no songs whatsoever and everything is improvised on the spot."

Track listing

All compositions by Keith Jarrett

1. "In Front" – 10:09
2. "Ritooria" – 5:57
3. "Lalene" – 8:39
4. "My Lady, My Child" – 7:24
5. "Landscape for Future Earth" – 3:36
6. "Starbright" – 5:07
7. "Vapallia" – 3:57
8. "Semblence" – 3:02

Personnel

Keith Jarrett – piano

Technical Personnel

• Jan Erik Kongshaug - recording engineer
• Danny Michael - photography
• Barbara and Burkhart Wojirsch - cover design and layout
• Manfred Eicher - production

References

1. ECM Records Keith Jarrett: Facing you accessed May 2020
2. Nastos, M. Allmusic Review accessed September 9, 2011
3. Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780857125958. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
4. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 768. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
5. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. pp. 112. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
6. Hull, Tom (28 February 2018). "Streamnotes". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
7. keithjarrett.org Miles Davis Septet in Oslo (Norway), November 9, 1971 accessed May 2020.
8. Audiophile Audition (August 2018) Keith Jarrett – Facing You – ECM Records accessed May 2020
9. Gioia, Ted (October 2007) The Dozens: Essential Keith Jarrett by Ted Gioia at Jazz.com accessed September 2020
10. Werner, Kenny (August 2011, updated April 2019) Artist's Choice: Kenny Werner on Keith Jarrett at Jazztimes.com accessed September 2020
11. Terry Gross (September 2000) Jazz great Keith Jarrett discusses living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), accessed May 2020