Keith Jarrett at 80

Keith Jarrett:  Eighty on the 8^th

As Keith Jarrett turns 80 on May 8, we reflect with gratitude on an extraordinary musical journey, documented in a discography unprecedented in creative range.  At ECM the story began with 1971’s Facing You – the first of his many collaborations with producer Manfred Eicher – and it continues with the upcoming New Vienna, due in a few weeks. A relationship of more than half a century at one label, based on artistic affinity and friendship…

Beyond the legendary improvised solo piano recordings, where the perennially-popular Köln Concert is but one of very many highlights – including Bremen-Lausanne, Sun Bear Concerts,  La Scala, Radiance, Rio, Budapest Concert and more –  there are the great Jarrett bands to consider, each with its profound impact on jazz history.  The American quartet with Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian, and the European quartet with Jan Garbarek, Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen, were bands of strikingly different temperament. Jarrett’s writing for the groups underlined the individual and collective strengths of the players. And the mystery and intensity of The Survivors’ Suite remain as compelling as the lyricism and buoyancy of Belonging or My Song. The association with Jan Garbarek led to evocative music with string orchestra on Luminessence and Arbour Zena, the latter also featuring Charlie Haden. Jarrett and Haden’s closeness as jazz improvisers is in evidence, too, on the ‘reunion’ albums Jasmine and Last Dance.

For 30 years, Jarrett’s trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette set standards in multiple senses. Raising the bar for interpretive performances of music of the Great American Songbook, honouring the melodies of Broadway songwriters and bebop instrumentalists, but also playing standards with an exhilarating sense of freedom on numerous recordings including the definitive jazz club box set At The Blue Note. And sometimes, indeed,  setting standards aside – in albums of sustained group creativity such as Changeless, Inside Out and Always Let Me Go. Also of musical-historical significance: the night when Paul Motian substituted for DeJohnette, documented on At The Deer Head Inn and The Old Country.

Jarrett’s improvised projects outside of jazz have resolutely defied classification – from experiments with the mighty baroque organ of Ottobeuren Abbey (Hymn/Spheres) to intimate clavichord discoveries (Book of Ways), and multi-instrumental undertakings (Spirits, No End).

A recording of Sacred Hymns introduced the music of G. I. Gurdjieff to a new audience, and Jarrett’s contribution to Arvo Pärt’s Tabula Rasa, partnering Gidon Kremer in a realization of Fratres, was no less revelatory or crucial. From the 1980s onwards, in parallel with his jazz activities, he went on to establish himself as an insightful interpreter of music of classical tradition with performances of J.S. Bach and C.P.E. Bach, Händel, Mozart, Shostakovich, Bartók, and Samuel Barber.

Speaking of his thoughtful Bach renditions, Jarrett once said: “Correct playing has nothing to do with disputes over style.  The first thing to consider is if there is music being made.” Amen.  This has seldom been in question, of course, in any context with Keith Jarrett’s participation!