Latest Release
- MAY 8, 2024
- 42 Songs
- Last Dance · 2014
- The Melody At Night, With You · 1999
- The Melody At Night, With You · 1999
- The Melody At Night, With You · 1999
- Bordeaux Concert (Live) · 2022
- Bop-Be · 1977
- Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach · 2023
- J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (Live in Troy, NY / 1987) · 2019
- The Köln Concert (Live) · 1975
- Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach · 2023
Essential Albums
- Pianist Keith Jarrett is famous for his landmark The Koln Concert album, which documented a transcendent concert-length improvisation from 1975. He went on to become one of jazz’s most prolific, notable, and demanding solo musicians (both of himself and his audience), but he suffered a debilitating case of chronic fatigue syndrome in the late ‘90s. Recorded at his home studio as a Christmas present for his wife in late 1997, this will be remembered as the first steps of his return. We get a subtlety of touch, phrasing, and lyricism here. He digs deep into the melodies for tender readings of “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “I Loves You, Porgy,” and “Something to Remember You By.” Also included here are remarkably straight readings of the folk standards “My Wild Irish Rose” and “Shenandoah.”
- Improvization at the keyboard was an essential condition of Handel’s musical life, just as it has been for Keith Jarrett. The latter’s feeling for subtle shifts of expression and ability to get under the hood of whatever he plays, whether jazz or classical, bring countless insights to these captivating interpretations of seven of Handel’s Keyboard Suites. Jarrett projects the composer’s contrapuntal lines with tremendous clarity, allowing each to speak freely without overpowering its companions. Every piece sings and dances under his fingers, at times with supreme grace, as in the “Sarabande” from the Suite in D minor and the “Adagio” from the Suite in F major. Others, such as the “Gigue” from the Suite in A major and the “Allemande” from the Suite in B flat major possess an irresistible charm.
- Bach’s music has long fascinated jazz musicians, and Keith Jarrett has gone further than most in exploring the keyboard works. For Book 1, he plays a piano (for Book 2, he chose a harpsichord) and proves a respectful champion of this great score, offering a straightforward approach that is totally convincing. Not overtly pianistic, he presents the music with clarity, an evident feel for its structure, and a sensitive choice of tempos.
- Inspired by Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony, and plainsong, the so-called “mystic minimalism” of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt forever changed the landscape of contemporary classical music. Pärt found a broad audience with this groundbreaking 1984 release, which was overseen by visionary classical and jazz producer Manfred Eicher and released on the newly formed ECM New Series label. Combining the stark beauty of early music with contemporary minimalism, the recording brings "Fratres" in two forms—a haunting piano and violin duet performed by Keith Jarrett and Gidon Kremer and a swirling arrangement played by 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic. The sorrowful "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten” is set against the distant tolling bells; their ghostly, nautical sound bidding a somber farewell to the British composer known for his love of the sea. The double concerto "Tabula Rasa" is both mathematically precise and profoundly moving, with Kremer and fellow violinist Tatjana Grindenko developing exquisite melodic patterns over Alfred Schnittke's prepared piano and a subtle—yet thunderously powerful—string chamber orchestra. In the words of Eicher, the recording marks “a truly electrifying encounter between the most unconventional stylists and protagonists of contemporary classical music and jazz.”
Artist Playlists
- These elegant recordings exude balanced, colorful ease.
- This pianist has been jamming with the greats since he was a teenager.
- Lean back and relax with some of their mellowest cuts.
Singles & EPs
About Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett is one of the most idiosyncratic and innovative pianists to have emerged from the post-bop jazz world. Born in 1945 in Allentown, PA, he was a classically trained child prodigy. By his teenage years he developed a love of jazz, and he played with Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers and Charles Lloyd in the mid-’60s before temporarily going electric with Miles Davis in the latter’s pioneering jazz-rock period. His solo debut having appeared in 1967, by the early ’70s his vision was both fully realized and broadly embraced. Jarrett’s wildly original sound tapped into blues, ragtime, bebop, classical, and more, transcending jazz to create a reflective, impressionistic style. His live 1975 solo piano improv album The Köln Concert became a cultural phenomenon. Whether Jarrett was wailing without boundaries, rebooting bop with his revered Standards Trio alongside Jack DeJohnette and Gary Peacock, or playing classical music, his imprint was indelible. Strokes left him unable to perform from 2018 on, but the light of his artistry cannot wane.
- HOMETOWN
- Allentown, PA, United States
- BORN
- May 8, 1945
- GENRE
- Jazz