Keith Jarrett: Hamburg ’72 review – an invaluable memento

This release is quite an event – a whole, beautifully recorded, largely unreleased live concert by Jarrett’s first trio. In 1972 Jarrett, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Paul Motian had been together for five years, and had reached a pitch of togetherness that sounds quite miraculous here. There was always a special kind of intimacy between Jarrett and Haden, the airy piano inventions contrasting with the woody earthiness of the bass. Motian’s response was often unexpected yet always somehow right. Motian died in 2011, Haden in July this year, making this an invaluable memento of an unrepeatable group.