Jarrett, Keith ,
1945- , American jazz pianist and composer, b. Allentown, Pa. A child
prodigy on the piano, Jarrett was exposed to contemporary jazz during high
school. After graduation, he attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston
in 1963, and then moved to New York a year later. He was hired by
bandleader/drummer Art Blakey to play with his Jazz Messengers, but he soon
clashed with the elder leader, and left to play with saxophonist Charles
Lloyd, appearing on his album, Forest Flower (1966), a
highly influential recording among jazz and rock audiences; he remained with
Lloyd until 1968. During this period, Jarrett made his first recordings
under his own name, leading a trio including bassist Charlie Haden and
drummer Paul Motian. In 1969-71, he played with Miles Davis’s jazz-rock group, playing
both electric piano and organ with them. After leaving Davis, Jarrett
reunited with Haden and Motian, adding saxophone player Dewey Redman,
forming his so-called “American quartet”; they recorded and
toured through the mid-‘70s. He formed a complementary
“European quartet” during this period.
Jarrett is best-known for his improvised solo piano recordings, often
recorded in live concert settings. The most successful were released as
Solo Concerts: Bremen/Lausanne (1973;
Time’s “Jazz Album of the Year”),
The Koln Concert (1975; a staple in college dorm rooms
for the rest of the decade and the bestselling piano recording in history),
and the 10-record set, Sun Bear Concerts (1976). He
continued to make solo recordings over the following decades, with his
improvisations increasingly showing the influence of classical music i. In
1983, Jarrett formed The Standards Trio along with bassist Gary Peacock and
drummer Jack DeJohnette to record his favorites among the jazz repertory,
and they recorded and toured together for over 25 years. Diagnosed with
chronic fatigue syndrome in 1999, Jarrett’s performances became less
frequent and his solo performances shorter than in the past in the 2000s. In
2018, he suffered two major strokes, and is not expected to be able to
perform again.
See biographies by I. Carr (1992) and W. Sandner and C. Jarrett (2020); studies
P. Elsdon, Keith Jarrett: The Koln Concert (2012)
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