Keith Jarrett: At The Deer Head Inn: The Complete Recordings

Pianist Keith Jarrett is the only artist with his own subheading on the main menu of ECM Records' new US website. That attests to his fruitful association, beginning in 1971 and continuing to the present day, with the independent German label known for its dedication to artistic freedom and beautiful sound. Though a series of strokes has sadly silenced Jarrett since 2018, ECM continues to enrich his discography with both new releases (a series of 2016 European concert recordings, including 2025's New Vienna) and archival reissues, some of them in the label's Luminessence series of audiophile vinyl (e.g., Jazz, Gnu and New: ECM Reissues To Excite Vinyl Fans). At The Deer Head Inn: The Complete Recordings is a stand-alone 4 LP vinyl set featuring everything Jarrett, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Paul Motian recorded on September 16, 1992 at the titular venue in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania. Originally released in two installments on CD (At The Deer Head Inn, 1994; The Old Country, 2024), the music appears on vinyl for the first time, presented as two double LPs in tip-on gatefold jackets housed in a sturdy slipcase. It is a beautiful presentation of a very special night in Jarrett's long career that repays multiple listening sessions.

"The Deer Head Inn was my first serious trio job on the piano," writes Jarrett of an early 1960s gig near his hometown of Allentown, Pennsylvania in the liner notes. The small club inside a functioning inn had already featured jazz continuously for 40 years before the daughter of the original owners took it over in 1992. To mark the Deer Head Inn's rededication to the music, Jarrett decided to play there again for the first time in 30 years (as a pianist, that is; he had often sat in on drums or guitar, once even being offered a six-string gig with Stan Getz after a set there!) Retaining Peacock from his long-running Standards Trio including Jack DeJohnette on drums, the pianist switched things up by playing with Motian for the first time since his American Quartet's albums Byablue and Bop-Be (Impulse!, 1977, 1978). Though the setlist remains full of jazz standards, it is intriguing to note the difference Motian makes: where DeJohnette propelled the band with a muscular, linear drive, Motian is a dancer, shaping the music with a floating, airy approach that nevertheless has the power to coalesce into a gale.

At The Deer Head Inn's highlights include two tunes associated with former Jarrett employer Miles Davis. Davis' own "Solar" opens the set with a typically pensive piano prelude that leads to the main theme, encouraging the entry of Motian and Peacock. Across the next 11 minutes, a trio masterclass is in session: Peacock alternates walking with upper-register runs that Motian decorates without once letting up his trademark swing, which somehow manages to feel lighter-than-air even as it pushes everyone forward. Jarrett, his constant singing and groaning evincing his joy in the music, maintains the structure of this altered minor blues while inserting beguiling melodic asides and rhythmic vamps. "Bye Bye Blackbird" is perhaps the best thing on the entire 4-LP set. Right from the off, the microphones capture laughter and whoops of joy from all three musicians, as if they quickly recognized what a perfect swinging groove they found themselves in. Jarrett's long solo elicits effusive applause from the audience, after which Peacock steps up, his lithe, sinewy sound ably outlining the tune. Motian and the pianist trade eights before bringing back the head for another lengthy excursion, the tune ending with a series of flourishes as if Jarrett was reluctant to stop. The remainder of this set is uniformly stellar, with a couple of blues ("Basin Street Blues" and Jaki Byard's groovy "Chandra"), a couple of ballads ("You Don't Know What Love Is," "It's Easy To Remember") and the always-swinging "You And The Night And the Music."

Though ECM sat on the remainder of the Deer Head Inn gig for 30 years, it was not for any lack of musical quality: The Old Country is just as strong of a set. In fact, two Cole Porter tunes inspire some of the best music on the entire set. Opener "Everything I Love" swings madly, and its chord structure leads Jarrett to develop the tune down some delightfully thorny paths before Peacock solos ably and another session of eight-trading rounds things out. The solo introduction to "All of You" is gorgeous, the tune playing peekaboo as the pianist improvises for several minutes before Motian, on brushes, establishes the pulse. "Someday My Prince Will Come" is strongly associated with both Miles Davis and pianists Dave Brubeck and Bill Evans (the latter having recorded the classic Trio '64 (Verve, 1964) with Peacock and Motian), but this trio has something new to say. This is perhaps Peacock's finest moment in the set: it is his bass that moves the song along, sounding bigger than ever and managing, in the middle section, to hint at 4/4 walking without losing the songs essential waltzing nature. The bassist is also very strong on a lengthy survey of Nat Adderly Jr's "The Old Country," a folk-tinged groover that features his guitar-like double-stops. The remainder of the set includes Monk's "Straight No Chaser," a lightly swinging "Golden Earrings," and the gorgeous ballads "I Fall In Love Too Easily" and "How Long Has This Been Going On."

This impeccably presented set provides vinyl lovers with a chance to hear this wonderful music in their preferred format for the first time. But even for those not obsessed with the finer points of styli, vertical tracking angles, and anti-static guns, At The Deer Head Inn: The Complete Recordings provides a reminder to seek out the original 1994 and 2024 sets so that everyone can enjoy a magical night of music making by three jazz masters.

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