ECM will release Keith Jarrett’s solo album Roma (ECM 2880) on November 6, 2026, in CD and 2-LP editions. The recording was made on July 12, 2016, at Sala Santa Cecilia in Rome’s Auditorium Parco della Musica. It is the fifth and final of five concert recordings from Jarrett’s last European solo tour in 2016, bringing the series to a close.
ECM says the four earlier recordings—from Budapest, Bordeaux, Munich and Vienna—each reveal a different musical landscape, while Roma offers one entirely its own. The improvisation follows a familiar yet independent inner logic: dense chromatic lines first clear the canvas; familiar touch and lyricism then give way to unexpected counterpoint, crystalline lyrical passages and insistent rhythmic motion, eventually forming a complete architectural structure. The label highlights several moments: the fifth part suddenly opens into a swinging gospel passage, the ninth is a rough-edged blues, the sixth builds a broad harmonic arc from arpeggios, and parts seven and eight recast early twentieth-century songwriting traditions as melodies created in the moment.
Running about 75 minutes, the album contains 12 tracks: ten improvisations titled “Roma, Part I–X,” followed by the encores “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (Harold Arlen / E.Y. Harburg) and “It’s A Lonesome Old Town” (Charles Kisco / Harry Tobias). The tenth part returns the musical canvas to its starting point, while the two encores bring the concert to a close.
The album notes quote a contemporaneous review in Italy’s La Repubblica: “Ultimately, Jarrett celebrates a ritual beyond time—one that is, in some ways, as old as humanity itself. He pays tribute to the act of creation, to composition through improvisation, and does so in front of an audience, sharing the excitement of discovery with listeners.”
In a November 2 review for UK Jazz News, Phil Johnson calls Roma “very special” among Jarrett’s many solo concert recordings. The first four improvisations are austere and connected; for almost the remaining two-thirds, the music turns more melodic and closer to his characteristic sound, including the two encores. The review also observes that Jarrett had by then reached the end of his performing career, lending the album an added poignancy.
Jarrett suffered two strokes in 2017 and has not performed in public since. The 2016 solo-tour recordings are therefore the final documents of his concert career, and the release of Roma brings that chapter to a close. See our artist profile for Keith Jarrett。
Sources:ECM Records: “Roma — Keith Jarrett” (ECM 2880, released November 6, 2026)；UK Jazz News: Phil Johnson, “Keith Jarrett – ‘Roma’” (November 2, 2026)。