Jarrett’s trio brings a burst of swing to American standards

Pianist Keith Jarrett, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette have been examining and reexamining material from the Great American Songbook for more than two decades.

The group, often described as Jarrett’s “Standards” trio for its dedication to the songs of Gershwin, Kern, Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Ellington, etc., continued on the same path Saturday in a sterling appearance at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

The first Standards album was released in 1983, and one might expect the franchise to have become somewhat shopworn after so many years. Fortunately, the balance of the performance affirmed the extraordinary breadth of material present in American song as well as the capacity of these three players to continually employ that material as the foundation for emotion-gripping improvisations.

In songs ranging from Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s “Somewhere” and Victor Young’s “When I Fall in Love” to jazz items such as John Lewis’ “Django” and Thelonious Monk’s “Straight, No Chaser,” Jarrett was in rare form.

Ballad tunes such as “I’m a Fool to Want You” and “When I Fall in Love” were gorgeous examples of this intimate musical creativity.

Alternately, faster pieces such as “You Go to My Head” and especially “Straight, No Chaser” produced fiery displays of trio togetherness, led by Jarrett’s propulsive, breathtaking bursts of finger-busting swing.

No wonder the capacity audience was so reluctant to allow the trio to leave the stage, insisting on a pair of encores.

Music of this quality deserves to be fully savored.