Fort Yawuh
Fort Yawuh | ||||
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Live album by Keith Jarrett | ||||
Released | 1973 [1] | |||
Recorded | February 24, 1973 | |||
Venue | Village Vanguard, New York City (USA) | |||
Genre | Jazz | |||
Length | 41:40 | |||
Label | Impulse! | |||
Producer | Ed Michel | |||
Keith Jarrett chronology | ||||
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Keith Jarrett American group chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Christgau's Record Guide | A−[3] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Fort Yawuh is a jazz album by American pianist and composer Keith Jarrett. Originally released in 1973 by Impulse! Records,[1] it marks the beginning of the label’s relationship with Jarrett. Recorded live at the Village Vanguard on February 24, 1973 by Jarrett's "American Quartet": Dewey Redman on tenor saxophone, Charlie Haden on acoustic bass, Paul Motian on drums, plus percussionist Danny Johnson. The title of the album is an anagram of "Fourth Way," a reference to George Gurdjieff's fourth path of self-awareness.[7]
Background
At the time the recording was made, Danny Johnson had never worked as a professional musician. In an interview led by Ethan Iverson, bassist Charlie Haden said that Johnson was "a great, great painter, and a great friend, and someone who was at EVERY gig, and one day he suddenly asked to sit in with us at the Village Vanguard. Keith asked, “What do you play?” “Triangle!” said Johnson. Keith said yes and Danny came down with a big oriental rug and sat like a sitar player with his triangle. And that was the night we recorded Fort Yawuh."[8] One year later, Johnson joined the group again on percussion (along with Guilherme Franco) - this time for the studio recording of Treasure Island.[9]
Critical reception
Reviewing for Creem in 1974, Robert Christgau said that, while side one sounds like cluttered free jazz at first, it is in fact highlighted by the Ornette Coleman-like playing of saxophonist Dewey Redman. He found side two more accessible because of drummer Paul Motian's performance during "De Drums" and the attractive composition of "Still Life Still Life".[10]
In a retrospective review, Allmusic's Qa'id Jacobs wrote, "Fans of Jarrett's avant-garde liberalism will find 'De Drums' to be the track most unlike the other four selections on this album. 'Still Life, Still Life' is more like a ballad in that it's very slow, but it still maintains the structural freedom featured in the 'Fort Yawuh,' '(If the) Misfits (Wear It),' and 'Roads Traveled, Roads Veiled.'"[2]
Writing for the former jazz magazine Jazz.com, in June 2008 Ted Gioia rated 90/100 the track (If The) Misfits (Wear It) stating that:[11]
"Here is a glimpse of Keith Jarrett the avant-garde experimentalist, the combo leader who built a band around former Ornette Coleman sidemen, the artist who constantly staked out new territory with every LP. No standards here, I'm afraid. Jarrett was a different cat completely back during the Nixon administration. He plays with ferocious pianism in the opening moments of this track. Instead of the typical comping chords and jazzy right-hand phrases that most keyboardists bring to work every day, Jarrett dishes out flurries of notes, a biting sandstorm of sound. Then midway through the performance, he stops playing the piano completely, and we might as well be back in Ornette's band. "Chord changes? We don't need no stinkin' chord changes!" Later, when Jarrett starts playing soprano, matching up with Redman in the front line, who can be surprised? Fans of this band were so used to the unexpected that nothing could shake them by this point."
Track listing
- All compositions by Keith Jarrett
Side One
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "(If the) Misfits (Wear It)" | 10:10 |
2. | "Fort Yawuh" | 10:55 |
Total length: | 21:05 |
Side Two
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "De Drums" | 11:57 |
2. | "Still Life, Still Life" | 8:38 |
Total length: | 20:35 |
Extended Release
The CD box set The Impulse Years: 1973-1974 expands Fort Yawuh to two CDs, including unedited versions of the takes chosen for the LP as well as additional tracks.[12]
Disc One
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "(If the) Misfits (Wear It)" (includes material not included in originally released version) | 12:58 |
2. | "Fort Yawuh" (includes material not included in originally released version) | 17:41 |
3. | "De Drums" | 11:53 |
4. | "Still Life, Still Life" | 8:37 |
5. | "(If The) Misfits (Wear It)" (previously unreleased) | 13:24 |
Total length: | 64:33 |
Disc Two
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Whistle Tune" (previously unreleased) | 2:29 |
2. | "Spoken Introduction" (previously unreleased) | 2:12 |
3. | "Angles (Without Edges)" (previously unreleased) | 14:17 |
4. | "Roads Traveled, Roads Veiled" (previously unreleased in this length; a shortened version of 9:30 has appeared in other reissues by Impulse!) | 20:25 |
5. | "De Drums (excerpt)" | 7:27 |
6. | "Melting The Ice" (previously unreleased) | 18:03 |
Total length: | 64:53 |
Personnel
- Keith Jarrett - piano, soprano saxophone, tambourine
- Dewey Redman - tenor saxophone, clarinet, musette, maracas
- Charlie Haden - bass
- Paul Motian - drums, percussion
- Danny Johnson - percussion
References
- ^ a b Discogs Keith Jarrett: Fort Yawuh accessed June 2020
- ^ a b Jacobs, Q. Allmusic Review accessed September 12, 2011
- ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: J". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved February 27, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
- ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780857125958. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
- ^ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 112. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
- ^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 769. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
- ^ Sandner, Wolfgang (2020). Keith Jarrett: A Biography. Translated by Jarrett, Chris. Equinox. pp. 102–103.
- ^ Ethan Iverson (March 2008). "Interview with Charlie Haden". Do The Math. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
- ^ Jazz Discography Project. "Keith Jarrett Discography". Jazzdisco.org. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
- ^ Christgau, Robert (April 1974). "The Christgau Consumer Guide". Creem. Retrieved December 17, 2013.
- ^ Gioia, Ted (June 2008) Keith Jarrett: (If The) Misfits (Wear It) by Ted Gioia at Jazz.com accessed September 2020
- ^ Fort Yawuh at Discogs
External links
- Fort Yawuh at Discogs (list of releases)
- v
- t
- e
- Life Between the Exit Signs (1968)
- Restoration Ruin (1968)
- Gary Burton & Keith Jarrett (1971)
- The Mourning of a Star (1971)
- Facing You (1972)
- Birth (1972)
- Expectations (1972)
- Ruta and Daitya (1973)
- Belonging (1974)
- Treasure Island (1974)
- In the Light (1974)
- El Juicio (The Judgement) (1975)
- Back Hand (1975)
- Death and the Flower (1975)
- Mysteries (1976)
- Shades (1976)
- Arbour Zena (1976)
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- Staircase (1977)
- Byablue (1977)
- The Survivors' Suite (1977)
- My Song (1978)
- Bop-Be (1978)
- The Celestial Hawk (1980)
- G.I. Gurdjieff: Sacred Hymns (1980)
- Invocations/The Moth and the Flame (1981)
- Standards, Vol. 1 (1983)
- Changes (1984)
- Standards, Vol. 2 (1985)
- Spirits (1986)
- Book of Ways (1987)
- Bridge of Light (1994)
- The Melody at Night, with You (1999)
- Jasmine (2010)
- No End (2013)
- Last Dance (2014)
- Somewhere Before (1969)
- Solo Concerts: Bremen/Lausanne (1973)
- Fort Yawuh (1973)
- The Köln Concert (1975)
- Sun Bear Concerts (1978)
- Eyes of the Heart (1979)
- Nude Ants (1980)
- Concerts (1982)
- Standards Live (1986)
- Still Live (1988)
- Dark Intervals (1988)
- Personal Mountains (1989)
- Changeless (1989)
- Paris Concert (1990)
- Tribute (1990)
- The Cure (1991)
- Vienna Concert (1992)
- At the Deer Head Inn (1994)
- Standards in Norway (1995)
- Keith Jarrett at the Blue Note (1995)
- La Scala (1997)
- Tokyo '96 (1998)
- Whisper Not (2000)
- Inside Out (2001)
- Always Let Me Go (2002)
- Up for It (2003)
- The Out-of-Towners (2004)
- Radiance (2005)
- The Carnegie Hall Concert (2006)
- My Foolish Heart (2007)
- Yesterdays (2009)
- Paris / London: Testament (2009)
- Rio (2011)
- Sleeper (2012)
- Somewhere (2013)
- Hamburg '72 (2014)
- Creation (2015)
- A Multitude of Angels (2016)
- After the Fall (2018)
- La Fenice (2018)
- Munich 2016 (2019)
- Budapest Concert (2020)
- Bordeaux Concert (2022)
- Mysteries: The Impulse Years 1975–1976 (1996)
- The Impulse Years: 1973–1974 (1997)