Album: Keith Jarrett, Rio (ECM)

The latest of Jarrett's solo concerts opens with an urgent hesitancy, as if the pianist is eager to set some-thing down, not sure it's going in the right direction, but never uncertain about its drive.

Not that he should worry: these 15 pieces sketch an entire world of music, coloured by the locale, and shifting between the smoothly lyrical and the propulsively rhythmic, with Jarrett's familiar, pulsing left-hand figures providing a stolid foundation anchoring the serpentine runs of his right hand.

The results range from the blues-boogie of "Part XII" and the Latin spice of "Part VIII" to the flamenco-flavoured "Part VI", punctuated with his characteristic grunts and moans, and the babbling-brook torrent of notes tumbling through "Part X". But perhaps most effective is "Part V", where the throbbing rhythm gradually resolves into an exultant, lyrical conclusion.

DOWNLOAD THIS Part V; Part VI; Part VIII; Part X