In the Light (Keith Jarrett album)

In 1984, in an interview with Art Lange for DownBeat Jarrett remarked how he conceived these pieces:[2]

"In The Light was a collection of pieces I wrote with no outlet at all. But we all have youthful flows of ideas at a certain stage of our lives, and whatever happens, happens in that period of time. What happened in that period for me was I was not working, I didn’t have a good instrument, I didn’t have a suitable place to live, and writing certainly made some sense. It was a way of expressing something."

In 1974, interviewed by Bob Palmer for DownBeat Jarrett emphasized the production process and how it felt working with Manfred Eicher:[3]

"I imagine I'm much more demanding in the studio than the average group leader, and compared to me, Manfred is a fanatic. When we were recording the solo piano pieces for In The Light, he spent an hour and a half moving the microphone millimeters in different directions. Manfred knows what he wants to hear and he will spend hours, days fixing a microphone, or go out and buy a new one. When we were doing In The Light, he went out and bought some small home speakers and put them in the next room, and during playbacks we individually would go in the other room to see how it would sound on somebody's home record player. Plus, he's working with Deutsche Grammophon engineers who… you heard the brass quintet on that album? There are over a hundred splices in that, all of them done just once, and you can't hear any splices."

In the lengthy original notes by Keith Jarrett he states that:

This is a collection of pieces written over a period of six years. It represents my more personal, perhaps even secret, until now, intentions in music. I will explain briefly about each piece (..):

From this point on, in the ECM-Jarrett relationship, the austere and minimalist ECM albums' layouts (a label's trademark) would be sometimes filled with Keith Jarrett's notes, poems, philosophical thoughts, quotes or even ruminations and justifications. In the original 1974 ECM LP and CD issues, aside from writing long explanations regarding the individual compositions, Jarrett states:

An artist is many times (tough uncounsciously) viewed as a one-dimensional being in a three-dimensional world. It's not hard to understand as applied to a sort of fanaticism which is the result of the cause of what I would call "Style". An artist "stylizes" something by viewing it in his way and immediately this view becomes a "law" by which an audience recognizes an artist. If this "law" changes at any time the audience must justify its lack of recognition by such things as "He's lost his touch" or "He's gone commercial" or "Well, he's getting old" or "He's trying to be mysterious" or "above our heads" etc. etc.; but never "He's discovering and utilizing all the aspects of himself that he finds" and, of course, those aspects are numberless.

Perhaps evolution would never happen at all if people were not constantly shown that it does. This is the task of the Artist, yet is rarely shown.

Western Society is so hung up on the great god "Opinion" that they are beginning to forget that there is such a ting as Truth. This is a direct parallel to the fact of their being also hung up on "Style" and forgetting that there is such a thing as Music and, whereas something is either True or not, something either Music or not.

The Allmusic review by Richard S. Ginell awarded the album 3 stars, noting, "In this compendium of eight works for all kinds of ensembles, the then 28-year-old Jarrett adamantly refuses to be classified, flitting back and forth through the centuries from the baroque to contemporary dissonance, from exuberant counterpoint for brass quintet to homophonic writing for a string section".[4]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[4]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[5]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	[6]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[7]

All compositions by Keith Jarrett

Disc One

1. Metamorphosis - 19:24
   Willi Freivogel: flute
   String Section of the Südfunk Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart
   conducted by Mladen Gutesha
2. Fughata for Harpsichord - 5:29
   Keith Jarrett: piano
3. Brass Quintet - 20:53
   The American Brass Quintet

Disc Two

1. A Pagan Hymn - 7:32
   Keith Jarrett: piano
2. String Quartet - 16:41
   The Fritz Sonnleitner Quartet: Fritz Sonnleitner, Günter Klein, Siegfried Meinecke, Fritza Kiskalt
3. Short Piece for Guitar and Strings - 3:56
   Ralph Towner: guitar
   String Section of the Südfunk Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart
   conducted by Keith Jarrett
4. Crystal Moment - 4:58
   Piece for four Celli and two Trombones
5. In the Cave, in the Light - 12:18
   Keith Jarrett: piano, gong and percussion
   String Section of the Südfunk Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart
   conducted by Keith Jarrett

• Keith Jarrett* – Piano, gong, percussion, Conduction, Production
• Willi Freivogel - Flute
• Ralph Towner - Guitar
• The Fritz Sonnleitner Quartet
• The American Brass Quintet
• The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (Südfunk Symphony Orchestra)
• Mladen Gutesha - Conductor

*As stated in the original notes: "Mr. Keith Jarrett plays (of course) PAISTE cymbals and a 38'' Symphony Gong"

• Kurt Rapp, Martin Wieland and M. Scheuermann - Recording Engineers
• R Truckenmüller - Photography
• Georgesyves Braunschweig - Photography
• Barbara and Burkhart Wojirsch - Cover Design and Layout
• Manfred Eicher - Production