Two sides of a celebrity pianist


A recent post asked why is jazz so underrated? Perhaps one reason is because jazz, thankfully, does not have the media-friendly celebrities who dominate classical music. But that is not quite true. Jazz has Keith Jarrett, whose Koln Concert bankrolled ECM for years*. That publicity photo above was taken from Jarrett's good side. The video below taken on a concertgoer's phone camera at the 2007 Umbria Jazz Festival shows his other side.



* Keith Jarrett has also worked extensively in the classical field. For ECM his recordings include Bach, Barber and Bartók concertos, and a double CD of organ improvisations for ECM described by me in a 2012 post as Messiaen takes a trip, and he also made a pioneering recording of the Gurdjieff/de Hartmann piano music for the German label. Elsewhere he has recorded Lou Harrison's incomprehensibly overlooked Piano Concerto which was commissioned by Jarrett and premiered by him, and Alan Hovhaness' Lousadzak. Header photo is by Thierry Dudoit/Redux via The New Yorker. Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Also on Facebook and Twitter.

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Unknown said…
Mr. Personality Keith isn't, but he's a towering figure and the most influential and important jazz musician since Miles, Coltrane and Bill Evans.
12:32 pm
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