Now here’s another piano transcription, the famous introduction of
“Stella by Starlight” with a trio It created a great buzz since musicians
considered it as a major classic, originally from a musical
like most jazz standards. Turns out that
Jarrett thought he would show what he could make out of this jazz standard And he played
a brilliant introduction, simply brilliant. First, he starts with three very
remote and surprising chords, a sort of call, like this... That was him quoting
the theme of “Stella by Starlight” Let me go back a bit,
“Stella by Starlight” goes like this... And it starts again... That is a theme, called “Stella”. If I only play the melody of the introduction,
we can really look at his phrasing, he begins... He pauses, listens to
what comes next...and finishes... He begins another one... Always emphasizing the highest tone,
and he starts again... Before playing the theme... And everyone thinks “Hey, that’s “Stella”!”... A short waltz... Before pick up another phrase... “Yes, that’s “Stella” for sure!”... And he improvises... Hard accent, and comes down again... You can tell that each phrase
is carefully organised, and that there is
a very smart harmonisation At the beginning for instance... A short waltz, like in Ravel’s music... End of the waltz... It sounds more Debussy-like... Now he starts singing,
putting in more energy... Earlier I have talked
about an allusion to Debussy... If I go on like this... We are in the world
of French impressionists. A totally unconscious allusion, which evokes the things he has listened to, such as this tiny single
measure waltz we heard earlier... Tiny things like those
that penetrate his speech... That is when he makes up
a funny melody that goes... It is funny in the way
the metric does: 1, 2... and the next one does three:
1, 2, 3..., then three again:
1, 2, 3..., 1, and he changes... And then he does a sort of
Rachmaninov-like chromatic... Those chords are just splendid! End of the phrase, descending chromatic, and his dynamic starts
again in the other direction... Suddenly Bach comes in with his recurrent motif... Again... We could have continued like this... See how these small cells are repeated? That is Johann Sebastian Bach’s signature! But the harmonies played below are fundamentally
taken from jazz and modern music... Then he gets out of tune... That's when... he repeats his phrases in other tonalities... Plunging again into very dark tonalities... Once again, he seeks for a culminating point... And here it is... He comes down again... Repeating his phrase lower on the keyboard
with beautiful harmonies supporting it. That really is his sense of the musical shape,
he is a melody architect, and all this is improvised... Then he plays a pretty phrase that he will
double, with two different harmonies... He repeats it... Now, he goes down again towards the bass,
in chromatics, just like with Rachmaninov He darkens the colour... Goes down in the cellar, pianissimo... And here we go again... This time, harmonies are dense, tortured... It takes off,
travels within the limbs, in between dreams... There is a sort of suspension,
a disintegration of harmonies... Before going back to the theme... Like in a dream... Between the lines... Playing with extremely pianissimo dynamics... Twilights... He stops there for good, and right away
goes on with a cadence of another style... A bit of variations to conclude... And he gives up, letting his trio come in... And here they go!
