@@gil-evens I am so terribly sad. But really, what a man. Because of the tragic news I definitely started rediscovering him, and realized how great he actually sounds
Yes, I used to be really annoyed by his whining along with his playing on records, until I saw him on video. He clearly has no control over anything, including his own genius. Apparently he has even destroyed his back and hands from all those contortions.
We don't need any contest to see his greatness from the last 50 years and for a long time yet. There isn't a composer and piano player who can make a shadow over his figure.
Jarrett's music, especially his two quartets was the reason i started listening to jazz back in 1980. The American Quartet's emotional, stylistic and dynamic range was enormous and a good example of how the collision of big personalities created great creative tension. Haden and particularly Motian gave Jarrett such a rough ride in comparison to the more deferential Danielsson and Christensen from the European group. Their 'Survivors Suite' is one of those records that can change your life such is its intensity and still stands today as one of the very best records on ECM's thousand plus catalogue. Although none of their other records quite reaches that collective peak there were many individual pieces throughout their discography which were essential such as the joyous 'Inflight' from the 'Backhand' album 'De Drums' from 'Fort Yawuh' to name just two. No other post-bop group of the time was able to combine the various cultural strands of the day; ethnic, rock and gospel influences and the jazz of Ornette, Coltrane and Miles and Bill Evans the way this band did.
Why wouldn't he want to stop if he could? Clearly, he takes a lot of grief for it. As for classical music, I saw a Jarrett interview where he stated very clearly that with classical music, he is simply interpreting what has been written by someone else (the composer); with jazz, he is improvising and the music is coming from within him, and that those "vocalizations" are part of it...
I think that his 'singing' is a part of the music at this stage and in the last 30 years of listening to him, if that singing was absent it would be weird! I saw this trio live 4 times and they were superb!
it is OK, you can keep your thoughts to yourself. We don't care whether you imagine super mario playing the piano or literally any and everything you imagine. Again, keep it to yourself.
He went there, where no jazz pianist had been before, Also he went back very quickly, because it was very Shadiness, colc and Fierce Outthere, the Unformed Matter, Pure Chaos, a Dangerous Undiscovered Spiecies!
When I bought the "Belongings" album in the early 70's it was OMGosh. Incredible. Appealing rhythms I never heard, and thought would could creep even into the Pop genres. But so quickly he moved into the self-indulgent solo performance mode, that the European's grabbed onto hook, line, and sinker. There was little recognizable. I think his huge ego thought everyone would love his self-meditations. They did. How much play to they have now? I can only imagine if he would have continued to progress from Belongings with his brilliant "soft avant garde" songs. But his decision then to move from group playing to solo resulted in a career of non-relevance, until later in life, he go figure, went back to standards like Herbie (miss his electro-funk days also).
There are gems in amongst all the over-documentation of that solo career however. I wouldnt be without the 'Koln Concert' for all its flaws. Listen to the way the dark vamp on side 3 gives way to the majestic closing theme. And there's the studio set from the next year which contains 'Hourglass ' 1 and 2 amongst other. Some of the shorter pieces from 'Facing You' are actually very good too. You could easily do a very judicious compilation of his best solo work that would fill maybe 3 cds I think.
Thank you for your well-chosen extracts from Jarret's music that always include the art of making music in the spur-of the-moment. Great that you have also chosen a recording where he plays soprano saxophone! Much can be said about his unusual talent as a improvisational musician. The strange thing here is that he had found the expression and his personal style already as a young musician, back to the mid-1960s. Allow me the comparison with Michael Jackson. Recordings (or pre-recordings) of him at Motown when he was a child says basically the same: Talent of such dimensions are wrapped in the bodies of those who are lucky to possess it. In jazz I will mention a few: Armstrong, Parker, Coleman, Miles - and lately Brad Mehldau. And in rock: Hendrix. My choose! Again: Thank you for this fine presentation!
Nina Simone once sang "Young Gifted and Black. Keith Jarrett, once young and always gifted...always reaching and definitely transporting..we his listeners..!!!
We don't need any contest to see his greatness from the last 50 years and for a long time yet. There isn't piano player who can make a shadow over his figure.
Correct me if wrong🙄 1. Oleo 2.Green Dolphin st. 3. Solo piano improvisation. 4. Have no idea.??? 5. On tour with Charles Lloyd mid 60s in France I bet. Young Keith Jarrett 6. All the Things You Are. 7. with Hayden and Paul Motion they played a lot. Often in a post Ornette style. Most pianists can't really play free in that Ornette way.
Jarrett remembered in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald in October 2011, "I would get music that would look too difficult, so occasionally I remember saying to my mother, 'I don't think I can play this piece.' And she would say, 'Can you play the first note?' I said, 'Yes.' 'Can you play the second note?' 'Yes.' 'Well, then you can probably play the piece.'" ~ that quote is golden. Thank you again.
His moaning , grunting, faces, noises, for me are an expression of the ecstasy, elation, that he feels as he creates in the moment , the incredible music that we are listening to. If you don’t get it, if you don’t like it , is alright, listen to someone else.
This time around, I hear either Kieth Emerson in Kieth Jarrett or Kieth Jarrett in Kieth Emerson. I love them both, though I must say that I prefer pianists who use fewer notes (Mozart is rumored to have said "the notes not played are as important as the notes played").
Joe once played my old Selmer Bundy alto in my SF apartment at 3 in the morning, getting the most amazing sounds out of it. In the morning, the upstairs opera singer met me on the stairs and said, "Nice concert last night."
I used to be really annoyed by his whining along with his playing on records, until I saw him on video having what looked like a seizure. I don’t know if he can control the contortions and the whining, but if you know Jarrett, he’s not about to try. He won’t let anything get in the way of the music coming out of him. At least he’s suffering along with us - Apparently he has even destroyed his back and hands from all those contortions. Like many temperamental geniuses, you just have to accept the packaging the gift comes in. Keith Jarrett doesn’t really play music, the music plays him. I’m going to brace myself, and keep watching. To be clear, I’m referring to Jarrett before his two strokes in 2018 that left his left hand paralyzed. I’m not trying to be witty about these terrible events. Something similar happened to the great Oscar Peterson. I truly wish him peace and perhaps some other means of using his enormous gift. BTW, we need to understand why men of color are more vulnerable to strokes, especially since Jarrett appeared to be taking excellent care of himself, though I don’t know if he had high blood pressure and/or was managing it, high BP being the main risk factor.
I wish he'd used a synth with a talk box, maybe above his piano, during some of his more vocaloid moments. Or if they could've figured out some way to vocoder, using his piano... a MIDI acoustic piano. That exists.
PETRUCCIANI E KEITH JARRET difficilmente posso ascoltarli seduto......il ritmo ti obbliga a muovere piedi mani testa, mi sento come posseduto ,,,,,,,,,eeeeeeee
