Keith Jarrett has one of those artistic temperaments. After walking out on Miles Davis in the late '60s, he refused to ever touch an electric keyboard again. Throughout his own career, he rejected imperfectly tuned pianos, demanded smokeless environments long before they became a legal offense and disappeared from public view for long stretches of time. He also notoriously moaned, hummed and cried out while playing, a habit which marred some of his best trio recordings.

Jarrett was also famed for giving free Sunday concerts on the lawn of his European home. In concert, he would sometimes play for hours on a single piece without a break, his entire body writhing uncontrollably around the keyboard. These epic improvisations were captured on his brilliant mid-'70s solo works "The Koln Concert" and "Sun Bear Concerts," the latter a 10-LP-long set of improvised concerts recorded live in Japan.

Jarrett's latest release, "Up For It," finds his longtime trio reaching the heights of those solo works with even greater refinement. This trio, made up of Jarrett, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette, has had an unusually long and productive association. On their many recordings released steadily over the past two decades, they have enlivened a broad repertoire of jazz standards. Their new release, recorded live at last summer's jazz festival in Juan-les-Pins, France, shows the trio once again redefining these standards with exceptional fluidity and deep lyrical feeling.