Musicians - Keith Jarrett

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	Musicians - Keith Jarrett

Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945 in Allentown, Pennsylvania) is an American pianist and composer. He is considered one of the most important jazz pianists.

His career started with Art Blakey, Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has enjoyed a great deal of success in both classical and jazz music, as a group leader and a solo performer. His improvisation technique combines not only jazz, but also other forms of music, especially classical, gospel, blues, and various ethnic-folk musics.

Early years

Born on "Victory in Europe Day" (the day the Allies celebrated victory in Europe following World War II), Jarrett grew up in Allentown with significant exposure to music. In his teens, he learned jazz, quickly becoming proficient. (His younger brother, Chris Jarrett, is also a pianist.)

Following his graduation from high school, he moved from Allentown to Boston, where he attended the Berklee School of Music and played cocktail piano. After about a year in Boston, Jarrett moved to New York City, where he played at the renowned Village Vanguard club.

While in New York, Art Blakey hired him to play with his Jazz Messengers band, and he subsequently became a member of the Charles Lloyd Quartet (a group which included Jack DeJohnette, a frequent musical partner throughout Jarrett's career). The Lloyd quartet's 1966 album Forest Flower was one of the most successful jazz recordings of the late 1960s. Jarrett also started to record as a leader at this time, in a trio with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian. Jarrett's first album as a leader, Life Between The Exit Signs (1967), appeared around this time on the Vortex label, to be followed by Restoration Ruin (1968), which is easily the most bizarre entry in the Jarrett catalog. Not only does Jarrett barely touch the piano, he plays all the other instruments on what is essentially a folk-rock album, and even does all the singing. Jarrett soon recorded another trio album with Haden and Motian followed later in 1968, this one recorded live for the Atlantic label and called Somewhere Before.

When the Charles Lloyd quartet came to an end, Jarrett was asked to join the Miles Davis group after Miles heard Jarrett in a New York City club. First, Jarrett played electric organ and, after Chick Corea left the group, he played the electric piano. Despite Jarrett's dislike of amplified music and electric instruments, he stayed on out of his respect for Davis and his wish to work again with DeJohnette. Jarrett can be heard on three of Davis's albums, At Fillmore, The Cellar Door Sessions - 1970 (recorded December 16-19, 1970 at a club in Washington, DC) and Live-Evil, which was largely composed of heavily-edited Cellar Door recordings. The extended sessions from these recordings can be heard on the recently released boxset "The Complete Cellar Door Sessions."

1970s quartets

From 1971 to 1976, Jarrett added saxophonist Dewey Redman to the existing trio with Haden and Motian. The "American Quartet" was often supplemented by an extra percussionist, such as Danny Johnson, Guilherme Franco, or Airto Moreira, and occasionally by guitarist Sam Brown. The members would also play a variety of instruments, with Jarrett often being heard on soprano saxophone and percussion as well as piano, Redman on musette, a Chinese double-reed instrument, and Motian and Haden on a variety of percussion. Haden also produces a variety of unusual plucked and percussive sounds with his acoustic bass, even running it through a wah-wah pedal for one track ("Mortgage On My Soul," on the album Birth). The group recorded for Atlantic Records, Columbia Records, Impulse! Records and ECM.

The group's recordings include the following:

Birth, El Juicio and The Mourning of a Star (all 1971), recorded at the same sessions, though Redman does not appear on the latter
Expectations (1972), Jarrett's only album for Columbia, an ambitious, wide-ranging session that included rock-influenced guitar as well as string and brass arrangements, and which got his contract with Columbia immediately terminated
Fort Yawuh (1973), recorded live at the Village Vanguard in New York City
Backhand (1974)
Treasure Island (1974)
Death and the Flower (1974)
Shades (1975)
Mysteries (1975)
Eyes of the Heart (1976), a live recording originally released as a three-sided LP by ECM, with the fourth side containing blank grooves
The Survivor's Suite (1976)
Byablue and Bop-Be (both 1977), both recorded at what was to be the band's final session, and featuring primarily the compositions of the other band members, as opposed to Jarrett's own, which dominate the previous albums

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Musicians - Keith Jarrett

Early years

1970s quartets

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