Whisper Not (Live in Paris 1999)

Listening to the high-energy, florid runs, quirky twists, and trademark whines that tattoo "Bouncin' with Bud," the opening track of Whisper Not, it's hard to believe that Keith Jarrett was still in the throes of chronic fatigue syndrome when his trio recorded this date in Paris in July 1999. This isn't the Keith Jarrett of moody ruminations we heard on his solo CD The Melody at Night, with You, released in the fall of 1999. Whisper Not is closer to the Jarrett who launched the Standards Trio with drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Gary Peacock in 1983. The trio is still mining the songs of their youth, resurrecting "Poinciana," a signature song of Ahmad Jamal, an early Jarrett influence, and paying tribute to the bop masters with a rollicking take on Dizzy Gillespie's "Groovin' High" and a sophisticated excursion into Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight." The interplay between these three musicians has never been higher, operating at a level beyond intuition, playing inside each other's heads. --John Diliberto