Keith Jarrett - The art of improvisation

[presto agitato]

Keith Jarrett is one of the best (if not the best) jazz pianist ever and he is classically trained.

He began piano lessons just before his third birthday and he gave his first formal piano recital at the age of seven, playing works by composers including Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and Saint-Saëns, and ending with two of his own compositions.Encouraged especially by his mother, Jarrett took intensive classical piano lessons with a series of teachers, including Eleanor Sokoloff of the Curtis Institute.

He has recorded major classical works by Bach, Handel and Mozart and he has been the only pianist who has won The Polar Music Prize (Nobel Prize in music).

Do you know him?
What 's your opinion about him?

I suggest that you see this video:

[lostinidlewonder]

A fine pianist, I studied his Bach pieces extensively for a student of mine who was obsessed with his music. Rhythmically rich with just the right amount of notes, I really love that.

[john11inc]

No.

[sashaco]

I first heard him almost 30 years ago performing at my college.  Oddly enough my strongest recollection from the concert remains the opening chord.  He raised his shoulders and dropped his arms as a single unit onto the keyboard.  I can't really recall if it produced an exceptional sound, or if the visual impression influenced the way we heard it- for weeks all the piano players were trying it out in the practice rooms.  I do remember also a long period when he seemed to become focussed entirely around a single note- my friends with perfect pitch told me it was G below middle C.  I have his Goldberg Variations somewhere, and enjoyed them very much when I first heard them, although I would prefer to hear him perform them on the piano.  Since college I've only heard him live on the radio, and a few recordings.

Sasha

[brogers70]

I love his Handel Suites.

[Derek]

Keith Jarrett's an inspiration to me. I have most of his solo improvisation recordings. The only one I find kind of weird is Spheres, his organ improv. It's really really REALLY slow in most parts. Very strange. Still kinda interesting.

His piano improvisations are really good, though he can really grind on one idea for a long time occasionally.

I also enjoy his handel recording, it is very beautiful. It inspired me to pick up some sheet music of some of the suites.

The "Book of Ways" album, all clavichord improvisations, is also really good.

I listen to Jarrett and often wonder why there aren't more well known pianists who improvise as robustly and in as many varied idioms. As far as I know he is literally *the only* well-known one. I've been pointed to numerous other jazz pianists upon saying this in the past, but every one I've checked out leaves me cold with the same, wandering and aimless "floaty" modern jazz sound. Jarrett's own music with his trio leaves me cold, as well. It's really only his solo improvisations that I like.

Here's my absolute favorite section of any Jarrett improvisation:

[clavichord]

what is the Keith jarret Bach pieces?

[pianobuff88]

Keith Jarrett is incredible - he is truly a wonderful musician.

[ted]

For me, Jarrett's great gift to the world, through his solo improvised concerts, was to say, "It's okay to improvise freely, it's real music after all."

It's rather regrettable, but I find myself having to pay the utmost attention to his actual playing, his music, while ignoring his behaviour and almost everything he says. Truth and beauty are not always correlated to the human beings who perceive and create these qualities. It doesn't matter in the larger scheme of things.