[Garden In Order]

Yes, from me. i don’t want every thread turning into source court. Book and music arguments can remain gloriously evidence-resistant.

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Yes, especially that point. A link can help, but a link is not automatically evidence. A good source should reduce confusion, not merely increase the number of tabs open.

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Exactly. Once the structure shows itself, the atmosphere stops being a blur and starts becoming part of the design.

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Good point. A simple way to do that is to listen once with no background reading at all, then come back to the story after the music has made its first mark.

That keeps the legend from doing too much work.

[Garden In Order]

The main issue is not whether the piano was damaged, it is that damage plus Jarrett’s response created a particular line of movement. If you focus…

[Garden In Order]

Yes, the acoustics can trick you into hearing more sustain than is really there. That is useful to remember with this album too.

[Garden In Order]

I would listen with the low end in mind and see how often he implies it instead of stating it. That usually makes the form easier to hear.

A little like a recipe with one missing ingredient, but still dinner.

[Garden In Order]

There is a joke in there somewhere about miracles requiring maintenance.

Jazz fans would probably hate that, which is another reason to keep it.

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That is a nice image. The room can change the phrasing more than people expect.

Especially…

[Garden In Order]

Probably, yes. But if the legend is doing all the selling, the music has to keep up once you are inside, and this one does.

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I mostly disagree with the miracle framing because it discourages close listening. Once people think it is untouchable, they stop hearing how much repetition and adjustment is doing the real work.

Still, the record has a charge that not every careful improvisation reaches.

[Garden In Order]

True, but the point is that the constraint becomes audible. Not every bad piano produces form, only this one made him answer it well.

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I agree about the sequence, but the accident still matters more than the architecture in places…

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Smoke is exactly right

people hear “improvised” and assume it means shapeless, which is lazy listening.

[Garden In Order]

That is how I hear it too, more or less. The first time I listened I expected a grand burst of inspiration, and instead I heard someone solving problems in real time. It made the recording better, not worse.

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