Tír Na HiFi

Christian Wallumrød Ensemble

The Zoo Is Far

dhyantyke wrote:

I love it!

markof wrote:

First bought the double LP in 1977 and played the hell out of it on my Fidelity player.

This version is a digital 24 bit/96 kHz download from Gubemusic - wonderful quality.

Still my favourite improvised piece by Jarrett.

The Koln concert was about the ONLY jazz record owned for quite some time and if I were heading to that desert island would probably still be my first pick. I Later got to know the quartet and trio recordings(not the whole truck load) which opened up other possibilities. Of the solo concerts This one also gets a regular play:

dhyantyke wrote:

markof wrote:

First bought the double LP in 1977 and played the hell out of it on my Fidelity player.

This version is a digital 24 bit/96 kHz download from Gubemusic - wonderful quality.

Still my favourite improvised piece by Jarrett.

The Koln concert was about the ONLY jazz record owned for quite some time and if I were heading to that desert island would probably still be my first pick. I Later got to know the quartet and trio recordings(not the whole truck load) which opened up other possibilities. Of the solo concerts This one also gets a regular play:

Have you ever heard the Sun Bear Concerts?

cybot wrote:

dhyantyke wrote:

markof wrote:

First bought the double LP in 1977 and played the hell out of it on my Fidelity player.

This version is a digital 24 bit/96 kHz download from Gubemusic - wonderful quality.

Still my favourite improvised piece by Jarrett.

The Koln concert was about the ONLY jazz record owned for quite some time and if I were heading to that desert island would probably still be my first pick. I Later got to know the quartet and trio recordings(not the whole truck load) which opened up other possibilities. Of the solo concerts This one also gets a regular play:

Have you ever heard the Sun Bear Concerts?

I don't know those at all I'm afraid. At one point I felt I had to control the OCDish urge and decided to stop buying Keith Jarrett recordings.....there are a lot!

And something of contrast:

dhyantyke wrote:

cybot wrote:

Have you ever heard the Sun Bear Concerts?

I don't know those at all I'm afraid. At one point I felt I had to control the OCDish urge and decided to stop buying Keith Jarrett recordings.....there are a lot!

It's a fantastic (and expensive!) set that comes highly recommended! I'm not going to bombard you with 5 star reviews but I have a Stereophile review that I cherish (and which I typed out word for word on the old Cloney forum - took me ages!). I remember the reviewer saying, in conclusion, that it was worth going without lunches for this? I have the 10 Lp set (!) which I was lucky to pick up for a reasonable price aeons ago. It certainly sounds much better than the Köln set but then that wouldn't have been hard as the piano used wasn't the best. I'll leave Séan to give you the full details ;) As recommended as they come....

Thanks to dhyantyke for reminding me :)







Customer review:


The Sun Bear Concerts is a lovely boxed set featuring over six and a half hours of solo piano improvisation. Jarrett is not the only pianist who has produced these long spontaneous compositions, but his characteristically lyrical and meditative approach means that they have become a genre uniquely associated with him. For many Jarrett fans these are the most important things that he has ever recorded and - while hard-core jazz fans may shy away from their occasional lapses into New Age noodling - it is tempting to regard The Koln Concert (at least!) as a disc that everyone should own.

Having said all that, while everyone who loves Jarrett's solo-concerts will eventually, inevitably pick up this wonderful set, I would advise anyone new to Jarrett to buy other albums first. Because they were recorded across a single tour, there is a similarity of approach here that means you are really not seeing the full range of what Jarrett has to offer. Musically, The Sun Bear Concerts are reminiscent of Koln and also of Bremen, from the Bremen/Lausanne boxed set. Later solo-concerts either have more classical elements (as in The Vienna Concert, Paris Concert and La Scala) or are more harmonically adventurous (Radiance, Dark Intervals). Someone coming to Sun Bear after Koln will almost certainly going away thinking "it's great, but it's all very similar."

This is one of the best boxed sets I've ever heard. Much as I like the trio's Live at the Blue Note: The Complete Recordings, it cannot compare with this set for how much enjoyment it gives. Nevertheless, there's a lot of music here and it will probably suit a committed fan better than it will someone looking for a way into Jarrett's enormous discography.