Keith Jarrett has always gone back and listened to his older concerts, often releasing live recordings several years after the event. Now it seems ECM Records label owner, Manfred Eicher, is doing the same thing. Over the last couple of years we have had unreleased recordings from Jan Garbarek’s Magico trio, with Charlie Haden and Egberto Gismonti (Magico: Carto De Amor) and Keith Jarrett’s European Quartet (Sleeper: Tokyo, April 16, 1979). Both releases were important, shedding some light on great bands that recorded infrequently.

Hamburg 72 captures Jarrett’s first great band, his trio with bass player Charlie Haden and drummer Paul Motian. They first recorded as a trio in 1968 (Life Between The Exit Signs), and by 1971 had morphed into a quartet featuring Dewey Redman – a band that became known as his American Quartet. The new-look band made its debut on Atlantic Records that year with Birth and El Juicio (The Judgement).

The new recording is significant in a number of respects. Firstly, it was not known this band had been recorded by ECM Records. The band had been recorded by Atlantic, Columbia, and later by Impulse! – where they released classic recordings such as Fort Yawuh (1973) and Treasure Island (1974). Secondly, it captures the band at an unusual time in its history. When the band embarked on a European tour in 1972, they did so without Redman – reverting to a trio format. This allows us to hear how the trio had developed over the years, with Jarrett given plenty of freedom to experiment. Indeed, he plays both flute and soprano saxophone on this recording, both to good effect. Finally, we get to hear some tunes that were recorded infrequently, like Take Me Back, which appeared on Expectations (1972) and Rainbow, making an appearance here four years before it was eventually recorded on Byablue (1976). 

The set opens with Rainbow. As with the later studio recording, Jarrett begins on his own, but when the band come in, Motian sounds less restrained, giving his cymbals given free rein, the sound captured superbly by the recording engineer. You can hear the joy in Jarrett, too, singing and whooping as he plays. Everything That Lives Laments is also transformed here. It first appeared on the trio’s The Mourning Of A Star in 1971, Jarrett’s delicate introduction giving way to a solo by Haden, accompanied by Motian’s percussion. Jarett’s piano returns at the end, the tune lasting a little over two minutes. The tune is far more exploratory here, Jarrett playing an extended solo on flute, before returning to the piano, the tune stretched out to almost ten minutes.

Piece For Ornette is nothing short of a revelation. Whilst Redman played on the original studio recording, Jarrett plays soprano saxophone here. His playing is unfettered and free, as is Motian’s drumming, and the contrast with Jarrett’s current trio could not be more marked. Take Me Back, which originally featured Samuel Brown on guitar, is more stripped back here, but maintains the gospel vibe of the original. Life, Dance is the only new track here, and is somewhat inconsequential by contrast, sounding like little more than a work in progress. The set concludes with a lengthy read of Charlie Haden’s Song For Che from Liberation Music Orchestra, on which the bass player plays a more prominent role, and Jarrett again plays saxophone

To my mind, it has long felt as though Jarrett’s current trio, featuring Jack DeJohnette and Gary Peacock, have been treading water from a creative perspective. The chemistry between the musicians cannot be called into question, and Jarrett himself claims that he is still excited by playing with them, even after all these years. But they are known as the Standards Trio for a reason, and listening to this set, with the sheer variety of its original compositions and the exuberance and risk-taking of the playing, makes one yearn for the dynamism of Jarrett in the 1970s. It also makes you wonder what might have been, had Jarrett been less distracted by his classical work in the 1980s, and continued to focus on composition and experimentation. Sure, we still get occasional glimpses, such as No End (2013), which was recorded at Jarrett’s home studio in 1986, but that pales into comparison with the work he did with great musicians like Haden and Motian. This is vital recording from the ECM vaults, and one of the albums of the year. Essential.