Pianist Keith Jarrett signed with ECM in 1974, where label manager Manfred Eicher helped him put together a new quartet. With Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, Swedish bassist Palle Danielsson (1946 – 2024) and Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen (1943 – 2020), Jarrett recorded the impressive album Belonging. The group called itself The Belonging Quartet because Jarrett’s other employer Impulse had claimed the name Keith Jarrett Quartet. An alternative name became The European Quartet.
In retrospect, Belonging can be seen as a turning point in jazz history. Experimental free-jazz had alienated the general public and the electronic direction Miles Davis had taken seemed like an unnecessary adaptation to dominant pop music. Thanks to Belonging (and a whole series of successors), well-played acoustic jazz regained a foothold.
Years later saxophonist Branford Marsalis heard the album and was so impressed by it that he bought Keith Jarrett’s quartet’s entire record oeuvre the next day. The energetic track “The Windup” has been in his own repertoire for some time. In 2019, it landed on his live album The Secret between the Shadow and the Soul.
When Marsalis was contracted by Blue Note last year, he decided to fulfil a long-held wish. Just as he had paid homage to John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme in 2003 (live at the Amsterdam Bimhuis), he is now doing so with Keith Jarrett’s Belonging. The Branford Marsalis Quartet has found an ideal middle ground between meticulous reproduction and completely their own interpretations. The four musicians do not try to imitate their predecessors but give their album at least as much energy, musicality and playing pleasure as the original.
Besides the bandleader’s inimitably powerful saxophone sound, Joey Calderazzo’s contribution is worth a special mention. The pianist, who recently performed in the Netherlands with his own band, continues to develop and forces both emotion and admiration with his playing. Bassist Eric Revis not only shows his lyrical and melodic skills on this album, together with drummer Justin Faulknerhe also gives the songs exactly the right dose of blues and gospel grooves.
The Branford Marsalis Quartet has succeeded in bringing this 50-year-old masterpiece back into the limelight. The fact that Keith Jarrett himself is no longer able to play does not mean that his music has to remain silent.
