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I went to see Keith Jarrett play solo at Carnegie Hall last night. This may puzzle careful readers of this blog, who no doubt recall my <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/fredkaplan/081107">boycott</A&gt; of Jarrett in August 2007 after his disgraceful behavior at the Umbria Jazz Festival, on top of a career of disgraceful behavior. Well, I decided to call an end my own pique. First, I’m told that Jarrett apologized to the people of Umbria. Second, now that Barack Obama is president, the tantrums of a piano player are more likely to be seen as a mere random annoyance than “yet another example” of American brutishness. Finally, I figured, it’s a new era, I’ll give the guy another chance. He’s too good an artist—too great, really—to ignore just because he’s a jerk. (Jackson Pollock was much more unpleasant, yet that doesn’t stop me from gazing at <I>Number One (1950)</I> every time I visit the Museum of Modern Art.)

At its best, there’s a quiet majesty to the music of Abdullah Ibrahim, the South African pianist-composer once known as Dollar Brand, and his new solo CD, <I>Senzo</I> (on the German WDR label’s Cologne Broadcasts series), is his most stirring album in years. He was discovered in 1963, at the age of 30, by no less than Duke Ellington, who produced his first recording, then lured him to the States, where he played with Elvin Jones before going on to form his own bands. In the ‘70s, he found his full voice—a swaying pastiche of jazz, spiritual and Capetown rhythms—and, over the course of a few years, recorded a staggering number of great albums: <I>Live at Sweet Basil, Vol. 1</I> (there was no Vol. 2) and <I>Duke’s Memories</I> with the saxophonist Carlos Ward, Good <I>News from Africa</I> with the bassist Johnny Dyani, <I>Streams of Consciousness</I> with drummer Max Roach, <I>Duet</I> with saxophonist Archie Shepp (the most lyrical album Shepp ever made), and <I>African Marketplace</I>, <I>The Mountain</I>, and <I>Ekaya</I> with his octet known as Ekaya.

Al Stiefel, 66, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, died suddenly and unexpectedly in Denver on January 27. His wife of 22 years, RMAF mainstay Marjorie Baumert, was at his side.