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Precious is a new-style weepie but one that is much more bracing than depressing
Precious
Theatre
Ian McKellen is captivating throughout. He delights in the play’s gallows humour, yet is also maudlin and poignant
Waiting for Godot
Theatre
Slight quibbles notwithstanding, this will set the West End’s stock riding high
Enron
Utterly, utterly brilliant. You really are in for a treat
Though 'Trilogy' has won rave reviews, I personally found myself exasperated after about an hour
We went on a quiet sunday evening and the food was excellent, but the experience let down by the service and ambiance
London,
Jack Massarik's rating
Reader rating
Website: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/music/productions/kodo-46812
Email: jayne@thecogency.com
Drama being Keith Jarrett’s middle name, fans were laying bets on whether this most brilliant, irascible and hyper-sensitive pianist would fly into a mini-tantrum during the concert. He does have form, plus hackles that rise at the glimpse of a cameraphone, but all was sweetness and light on Saturday night. Well, almost. He was 10 minutes late and gave a curiously peevish reaction — “are you all done now?” — to the welcoming ovation.
He opened with Tonight, that lofty Leonard Bernstein anthem from West Side Story. Its strong melody line and unusual chord changes deter most jazz improvisers but not Jarrett. Half-rising from the bench and twisting into concentration pose, grimacing behind Lennon shades, he probed for illuminating new lines.
Similar calisthenics, plus some trademark involuntary moans, accompanied another neglected standard, I’ll See You Again, which highlighted Jarrett’s precise touch and selectivity at slower tempos. Not until the medium-up Autumn Leaves were bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette free at last to build their celebrated trio momentum but if Jarrett has a fault it is in overextending a groove, as he did here on a one-chord coda which lasted interminably.
Part Two featured further obscure ballads, You Belong to Me and the minor-key Golden Earrings, before a fast neo-bop blues line which took off like an Exocet and sustained a phenomenal level of fluency and creativity. Their encore, God Bless the Child, played with a funk beat and maximum blues inflection, had to be an anti-climax after that.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
He *was *10 minutes coming on-stage, but I imagine that this was a result not of any rudeness or laxity on his part, but was due to the fact that the (later packed to the rafters) auditorium was only 2/3 full by 20.00 - perhaps a feature of too many punters being there for a 'big event' than because they were true fans.
I (and many others, including national reviewers) characterised his initial comment not as 'peevish' but one of embarrassment at the adulation that was heaped on the trio before they had played a note.
What a curiously graceless review of a concert that elsewhere has been almost universally praised for both the musicianship and atmosphere.
- Pete, Leicester
