Jasmine is the first duo album by pianist Keith Jarrett and bassist Charlie Haden, two musicians who had not recorded together for more than thirty years. Over eight love songs from the American songbook they play with a calm, unhurried intimacy. Jarrett's liner note calls it spontaneous music made without preparation, by players "trying, mostly, to keep the message intact".
Their association went back to 1967, when Haden joined Jarrett's first trio with Paul Motian, and continued through the 1970s in the American quartet with Dewey Redman. The reunion began in early 2007, when Jarrett was filmed for Reto Caduff's documentary on Haden, Rambling Boy. Some informal playing followed, and Jarrett invited Haden to his home in New Jersey for four days. They recorded in March 2007 at Cavelight Studio, Jarrett's small home studio, on an American Steinway he admits was not in the best condition. There was no rehearsal. The two then lived with the tapes for nearly three years before choosing the final sequence, produced by Jarrett with Manfred Eicher.
Most tracks follow a simple plan, a piano introduction, solos for each player and a return to the theme, yet each sounds freshly negotiated. Body and Soul, at over eleven minutes, gives Haden his most extended solo, with Jarrett adding sparse punctuation. Jarrett's own Intro leads into Cy Coleman's I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out of My Life, the longest piece. Beside the classic standards sits One Day I'll Fly Away by Joe Sample and Will Jennings, a hit for Randy Crawford in 1980. The short Don't Ever Leave Me closes the record almost in silence.
Critics responded to the restraint of the playing. Steve Futterman called it "as unashamedly expressive a recording as either man has ever made" in The New Yorker. Dave Gelly in The Observer noted that Jarrett creates "an aura of stillness around him", against which Haden's "intimate, woody tone" lays the groundwork. More music from the same 2007 sessions appeared in 2014 as Last Dance.
This is the CD edition, ECM 2165, first released in May 2010, with liner notes by Keith Jarrett.
