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Keith Jarrett
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Over the past 40 years, Keith Jarrett has come to be recognized as one of the most creative musicians of our times - universally acclaimed as an improviser of unsurpassed genius; a master of jazz piano; a classical keyboardist of great depth; and as a composer who has written hundreds of pieces for his various jazz groups, plus extended works for orchestra, soloist, and chamber ensemble. Born May 8, 1945 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Keith Jarrett began playing the piano at age 3 and undertook classical music studies throughout his youth; performing as a child in programs at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia and at Madison Square Garden.
He undertook formal composition studies at age 15, before moving to Boston to briefly study at the Berklee College of Music. While still in his late teens, arrangements were made to study composition in Paris with the great pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, but then canceled at the last moment in favor of moving to New York in 1964 to play jazz.
After a tentative period sitting in at the Village Vanguard and other New York jazz spots, Jarrett toured first with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. From 1966 to 1968 he was the pianist with the Charles Lloyd Quartet which quickly became one of the most popular groups on the changing late-Sixties jazz scene with best-selling records and worldwide tours. He soon led his own trio with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian (which in 1972 expanded to a quartet with the addition of tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman). Then in 1970/71, Jarrett became a featured member in Miles Davis' electric fusion group, playing electric piano and organ - his last stint as a sideman, thereafter, dedicating himself exclusively to performing acoustic music as a solo artist and as a leader.
In 1971, Keith Jarrett began his recording collaboration with German producer Manfred Eicher and ECM Records (Editions of Contemporary Music). This fruitful collaboration has produced over 60 recordings to date, unparalleled in their scope, diversity, and quality. The foundation of the Jarrett/ECM discography is made up of the landmark solo piano recordings which have helped redefine the role of the piano in contemporary music. The piano improvisations on Facing You, Solo Concerts, The Köln Concert, Staircase, Sun Bear Concerts, Moth and The Flame, Concerts, Paris Concert, Dark Intervals, Vienna Concert, and La Scala incorporate a broad spectrum of musical idioms and languages - classical, jazz, ethnic, gospel, folk, blues and pure sound - revealing a creative process based on a deeply conscious state of awakeness and listening in the moment, producing music both deeply personal, yet universal. This body of solo piano work is without precedent with the Köln Concert being the best selling piano recording in history.
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Keith Jarrett's European Quartet: Innocence
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by Scott Lichtman
It just so happens that two of the most poignant jazz ballads--in my opinion--were released in the same year. I'm not talking about throw-back masterpieces, such as Thelonious Monk's Round Midnight" or Horace Silver's Lonely Woman." Rather, they are Keith Jarrett's Innocence" and Egberto Gismonti's Palhaço," both originally issued in 1980. What makes these pieces stand out are their simple melodies; harmonic progressions with pop, not bebop, sensibilities; unexpected key modulations; and the nuanced musicianship of the supporting bands. Norwegian ...
read moreThe Keith Jarrett Trio: Ten Essential Recordings
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by Karl Ackermann
The Keith Jarrett Trio, or The Standards Trio, as it later became known, with Gary Peacock on double bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums, is one of the most celebrated and influential jazz trios of all time. The group was formed in 1983 but Jarrett and DeJohnette had been collaborating since the late 1960s when they performed together in Miles Davis' band. The early version of the Jarrett trio featured Charlie Haden on bass, with Peacock coming in at the ...
read moreKeith Jarrett: Solo-Concerts Bremen Lausanne
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by Chris May
Here, in all its 2023 audiophile detail, and cut from the original analogue masters, is the 3xLP set which launched the extraordinary tale of Keith Jarrett's in-the-moment- improvised, in-concert solo albums. Arguably the most momentous of all the reissues in ECM's estimable Luminessence series, the Bremen and Lausanne concerts were recorded in March and July 1973 and released as a set in November that year, a synchronous fifty years precisely before this edition. The 2xLP The Köln ...
read moreKeith Jarrett: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
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by Karl Ackermann
Keith Jarrett's affinity for the classics is well known. His solo piano and keyboard recordings in the genre include the music of Mozart, Shostakovich, Barber, Gurdjieff, Handel, Bartók, and others. The music of Johann Sebastian Bach is Jarrett's sweet spot with eight recordings--mostly two-disc sets--dominating his classical portfolio. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, features the work of another Bach, Johann's son. ECM issues this previously unreleased 1994 material, consisting of eighteen sonatas, as part of an ongoing deep-dive into ...
read moreThe Keith Jarrett / Charlie Haden Duo Revisited
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by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Keith Jarrett has enjoyed a long and productive career which eventually became dominated by his monumental improvised solo performances and his work with his Standards Trio, with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette. Along the way, he released albums by his now sometimes overlooked but excellent American and European Quartets. Revisiting almost everything in Jarrett's discography is rewarding, but his duo sessions with bassist Charlie Haden, recorded in 2007, especially so. These albums are Jasmine (ECM, ...
read moreKenny Wheeler: Gnu High
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by Chris May
Trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer Kenny Wheeler's exalted Gnu High, first released in 1976, is one of two albums with which ECM launches its audiophile vinyl reissue series, Luminessence, on April 28, 2023. The Luminessence mission statement is to showcase albums that have changed perceptions of creative music making." And few would dispute this summation of the first batch of releases (listed below). Some of the albums will be presented in facsimile editions, others--such as Gnu High--in gatefold ...
read moreECM Records Touchstones: Part 2
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by Dan McClenaghan
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 This second edition of ECM Touchstones" explores more of the label's early recordings, repackaged and offered up as a way to present music that had perhaps slipped through time's cracks, into the hard-to-find category. Of these, four were re-released in 2019, one in 2008--32 to 43 years after their original releases. The music on these albums is stylistically diverse and uniformly excellent. All of it has stood the test of ...
read moreJazz Musician of the Day: Keith Jarrett
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Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Keith Jarrett's birthday today!
Over the past 40 years, Keith Jarrett has come to be recognized as one of the most creative musicians of our times- universally acclaimed as an improviser of unsurpassed genius; a master of jazz piano; a classical keyboardist of great depth; and as a composer who has written hundreds of pieces for his various jazz groups, plus extended works for orchestra, soloist, and chamber ensemble. Born May 8, 1945 in Allentown, ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Keith Jarrett
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Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Keith Jarrett's birthday today!
Over the past 40 years, Keith Jarrett has come to be recognized as one of the most creative musicians of our times- universally acclaimed as an improviser of unsurpassed genius; a master of jazz piano; a classical keyboardist of great depth; and as a composer who has written hundreds of pieces for his various jazz groups, plus extended works for orchestra, soloist, and chamber ensemble. Born May 8, 1945 in Allentown, ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Keith Jarrett
![Jazz Musician of the Day: Keith Jarrett](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/musician/93be608e00eafd2b57d64a1267fef75b.jpg)
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Keith Jarrett's birthday today!
Over the past 40 years, Keith Jarrett has come to be recognized as one of the most creative musicians of our times- universally acclaimed as an improviser of unsurpassed genius; a master of jazz piano; a classical keyboardist of great depth; and as a composer who has written hundreds of pieces for his various jazz groups, plus extended works for orchestra, soloist, and chamber ensemble. Born May 8, 1945 in Allentown, ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Keith Jarrett
![Jazz Musician of the Day: Keith Jarrett](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/musician/93be608e00eafd2b57d64a1267fef75b.jpg)
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Keith Jarrett's birthday today!
Over the past 40 years, Keith Jarrett has come to be recognized as one of the most creative musicians of our times- universally acclaimed as an improviser of unsurpassed genius; a master of jazz piano; a classical keyboardist of great depth; and as a composer who has written hundreds of pieces for his various jazz groups, plus extended works for orchestra, soloist, and chamber ensemble. Born May 8, 1945 in Allentown, ...
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All About Jazz Contributor Tyran Grillo's book Between Sound and Space: An ECM Records Primer, Available Now
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Source:
All About Jazz
A printed compilation of some of ECM’s finest albums to be released over its 50-year history, recorded by musicians from the USA, Norway, Brazil, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, and many other countries. As an independent publisher, we are very happy to present our third English-language book and the first music book in our catalog: Between Sound and Space: An ECM Records Primer. Written by Tyran Grillo, it includes reviews of albums released by composers and performers such as Keith Jarrett, Chick ...
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Keith Jarrett: Munich 2016
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Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Among pianist Keith Jarrett’s succession of solo concert albums going back more than four decades, Munich 2016 is remarkable even by his standards. The depth and variety of his improvisations make it so. Except for three standard songs here, he invented all of the music that he made three years ago in performance at Philharmonic Hall in Munich, Germany. It is heard as seven parts under the overall title “Munich.” Into those spontaneous compositions Jarrett integrates layer upon layer of ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Keith Jarrett
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Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Keith Jarrett's birthday today!
Over the past 40 years, Keith Jarrett has come to be recognized as one of the most creative musicians of our times- universally acclaimed as an improviser of unsurpassed genius; a master of jazz piano; a classical keyboardist of great depth; and as a composer who has written hundreds of pieces for his various jazz groups, plus extended works for orchestra, soloist, and chamber ensemble. Born May 8, 1945 in Allentown, ...
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Keith Jarrett’s Famed Composition “last Solo Final Impromptu” Launches The Frost School Of Music’s New Teaching Video Series Frost Music Masters
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Source:
EastWest Media
The Frost School of Music at the University of Miami is proud to announce the launch of a new video series Frost Music Masters. This exciting project explores intricate musical conundrums, featuring members of our award-winning Frost School of Music faculty, giving tips and showing techniques for those wanting to take on challenging works. The first video of the series, which officially launches, January 15, 2019 takes on legendary jazz pianist Keith Jarrett’s famed composition “Last Solo Final Impromptu,” a ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Keith Jarrett
![Jazz Musician of the Day: Keith Jarrett](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/musician/93be608e00eafd2b57d64a1267fef75b.jpg)
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Keith Jarrett's birthday today!
Over the past 40 years, Keith Jarrett has come to be recognized as one of the most creative musicians of our times- universally acclaimed as an improviser of unsurpassed genius; a master of jazz piano; a classical keyboardist of great depth; and as a composer who has written hundreds of pieces for his various jazz groups, plus extended works for orchestra, soloist, and chamber ensemble. Born May 8, 1945 in Allentown, ...
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Miles Davis is not Mozart: The brains of jazz and classical pianists work differently
![Miles Davis is not Mozart: The brains of jazz and classical pianists work differently](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/musician/93be608e00eafd2b57d64a1267fef75b.jpg)
Source:
All About Jazz
This article first appeared on The Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences website. A musician’s brain is different to that of a non-musician. Making music requires a complex interplay of various abilities which are also reflected in more strongly developed brain structures. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (MPI CBS) in Leipzig have recently discovered that these capabilities are embedded in a much more finely-tuned way than previously assumed—and even differ ...
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