The Melody at Night, With You

1	I Loves You, Porgy 5:50
2	I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) 7:10
3	Don't Ever Leave Me 2:47
4	Someone to Watch over Me 5:05
5	My Wild Irish Rose 5:21
6	Blame It On My Youth/Meditation 7:19
7	Something to Remember You By 7:15
8	Be My Love 5:38
9	Shenandoah 5:52
10	I'm Through With Love 2:56

Barnes & Noble

Pianist Keith Jarrett has certainly done his share of solo recordings and also pledged his allegiance to the standards that make up the Great American Songbook. Only now though has he brought these two passions together. THE MELODY AT NIGHT, WITH YOU may have been a long time in coming, but it was worth the wait. Jarrett's touch remains unparalleled. Each note he plays has a vocal quality, a singing tone that imparts depths of direct expression. Chestnuts take on new finery. "I Loves You, Porgy," "Blame It on My Youth," "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good," " Someone to Watch Over Me" and even "My Wild Irish Rose" are given considered and intelligent yet strikingly emotional performances that rekindle their original charm. The ravishing pianistic sound draws you in to a private world where Jarrett's readings of a song's melody and his own considered improvisation become one. In middle age, Jarrett has attained the mature grandeur that every true musical artist dreams of achieving. The grandstanding of yore is a thing of the past -- Jarrett now offers jewellike performances that ask only to be accepted for their own perfectly calibrated beauty. Steve Futterman

All Music Guide

This is a strangely moving and disturbing document in the long discography of Keith Jarrett: a solo piano album recorded in his rural New Jersey home studio in late 1997 at a time when he was reportedly suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome. In stark contrast to his other solo albums, this one consists of short, simple, straightforward interpretations of ballads, songs in the public domain, and one very pretty original ("Meditation"), all taken at funereal tempi with hardly any virtuoso flourishes. Scattered amidst the assortment of standards like "Someone to Watch Over Me," "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good," and "I Loves You Porgy" are nostalgic throwbacks like the hoary old "My Wild Irish Rose" (he plays the tune absolutely straight) and even the Mario Lanza hit "Be My Love." Sad as it is to say under the circumstances, these performances lack color, contrast and life; and while you pull for Jarrett to summon the energy to make music again, the results are touching for awhile but soon pall. Also in contrast to Manfred Eicher's usual sonic standard at ECM, the sound is dull and lacking in luster, though some listeners might find that it gives the album a certain homey charm. Richard S. Ginell