{"id":10895,"date":"2020-12-26T18:07:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-26T18:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pianostreet.com\/blog\/?p=10895"},"modified":"2020-12-29T17:01:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T17:01:36","slug":"keith-jarretts-final-live-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pianostreet.com\/blog\/piano-news\/keith-jarretts-final-live-concert-10895\/","title":{"rendered":"The End of an Era: Keith Jarrett’s Return to his Roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keith Jarrett, one of the greatest musicians and profilistic pianists of our time, has recently announced that he will no longer be able to hold up his career as a performer. Now 75, he suffered a pair of draining strokes two years ago that left his left side paralyzed and resulting in an unability to play the piano. The recently released “Budapest Concert” – a return to his grandparents’ native country Hungary – is likely one of Jarrett’s final recorded public solo piano recitals.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Jarrett said to New Your Times in October: \u201cI was paralyzed. My left side is still partially paralyzed. I\u2019m able to try to walk with a cane, but it took a long time for that\u2026 took a year or more. And I\u2019m not getting around this house at all, really.\u201d He goes on to reveal that despite efforts to play with just his right hand, \u201cI don\u2019t know what my future is supposed to be. I don\u2019t feel right now like I\u2019m a pianist. That\u2019s all I can say about that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Improvised Solo Recitals<\/h3>\n

As a performer, belonging to the global top segment of jazz pianists, Jarrett covered a multitude of genres throughout the years. He stands out as the inventor of the improvised solo recital with a series of unmatched recordings in this genre displaying wanderings in territories such as traditions of jazz and other genres like Western classical music, gospel, blues and ethnic folk music. In 1973 the ECM label organized an 18-concert European tour, consisting solely of Jarrett\u2019s solo improvisations. The result was the landmark recording, \u201cThe K\u00f6ln Concert\u201d (1975), a double album with worldwide sales estimated at 3.5 million copies. Even if \u201dThe K\u00f6ln Concert\u201d from 1975 has become a reference known by everybody it was actually precursed by the solo albums \u201cFacing You\u201d (1971), \u201cBremen\/Lausanne\u201d (1973).<\/p>\n

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Since his \u201cK\u00f6ln Concert\u201d in 1975, which is the most sold jazz record ever, the solo recital wizardry continued with albums such as \u201cSun Bear Concerts\u201d (1978), \u201c Dark Intervals\u201d (1988), \u201cParis Concert\u201d (1990), \u201cVienna Concert\u201d (1992), \u201cLa Scala\u201d (1997), \u201cTokyo ’96\u201d (1998), \u201cThe Carnegie Hall Concert\u201d (2006), \u201cParis\/London – Testament\u201d (2009), \u201c Rio\u201d (2011), \u201cCreation\u201d (2015) and \u201cA Multitude of Angels\u201d (2016).<\/p>\n

The European Tour 2016<\/h3>\n

His most recent tour took place in Europe in 2016 and included a concert in the Bela Bartok National Concert Hall, Budapest. He described the “Budapest Concert” (released in October 2020) as the “gold standard” by which all of his solo concerts to date would have to be measured. Together with the “Munich 2016” album, recorded at Munich’s Philharmonieon on the last night of the same tour, it will likely symbolize a final tribute to his outstanding capacity as a solo pianist in a genre which he created and which has become the trademark of his career. <\/p>\n