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He got his wish: rarely has a jazz album come so directly from the heart. The opening cut, George Gershwin's I Loves You, Porgy, is exquisitely tranquil and songful, and the 10 tracks that follow are no less tender. Even Be My Love, Mario Lanza's high-C jukebox hit, is transmuted into a limpid cameo. The result is a record made to be played late at night, when the streets are empty, the air is still, and you feel like thinking about what might have been or could be.
The mystically minded Jarrett suspects there was more to his latest CD than the right piano at the right time. "There was something deep going on," he says matter-of-factly, and he might be onto something. Sometimes a great artist does everything right and nothing happens; sometimes a sick man sits down carefully at the piano and suddenly finds himself 10 ft. off the ground. The trick, as Jarrett says, and the pleasure for listeners to this recording, is to be ready for anything, even a little miracle.