Amid rumored tension within the band,
Keith Jarrett's American Quartet met for one last marathon recording date before disbanding, and Impulse made the most of it by spreading the music out over two separate releases. From the evidence of this the band certainly doesn't sound as if it was ready to break up; the interplay is telepathic, the musical ideas are still fresh, and there is a willingness to experiment. "Rainbow," credited to
Margot Jarrett, is top-flight lyrical
Keith, while "Trieste" evokes the mood and some of the language of the spiritual
Coltrane. There is adventure, too; with
Dewey Redman and
Jarrett wailing on tenor and soprano respectively, "Konya" sounds almost like a muezzin call to prayer, and "Yahllah" is a rare, brave, moving merger of jazz and the Middle East. Highly recommended.