Keith Jarrett is widely recognized for his improvisational skills, solo piano concerts, and contributions to both the jazz and classical genres. He has released numerous albums over the years and has been a significant figure in the jazz world for over fifty years.
I’ve been a Jarrett fan since I heard Forest Flower on the Charles Lloyd recording of the same name in 1967. I’d never heard Keith before and his solo jumped out of my speakers. Who is that guy?
I heard him live with the Charles Lloyd Quartet three times after that and he quickly became one of my favorite pianists. In the late sixties in New York, there was a club called The Kitchen on Mercer Street where I heard his first solo piano performance, not long before he released his first solo piano recording, Facing You. His initial solo release was a series of original compositions, not the extended piano meditations that would bring him to international prominence after the Koln Concert was released on ECM Records.
On Thursday night, June 18, 1970, I went to hear Miles Davis at the Fillmore East and what happened that night totally blew my mind. I had been listening, with great interest, to how Miles was changing the music. When his band came out on the stage, Keith was one side playing the Farfisa Electric Organ, and Chick Corea was on the other side on Fender Rhodes. I heard the same band a couple of weeks later, before Chick left to form Return to Forever.
And then in November, the personnel changed again when I heard them at the Cafe Au Go Go, with Gary Bartz on saxophone and Michael Henderson on bass (Jack DeJohette was still on drums). Again, just an incredible experience.
After he left Miles the following year, Keith formed his American Quartet and played Slug’s in the East Village. I wish I had a recording of that! But, I do have this documentation of the group, from Jazztage, Berlin in 1973. Personnel: Keith Jarrett, piano; Charlie Haden, bass; Guilherme Franco, percussion; Paul Motian, drums and Dewey Redman, saxophone. Jazztage, Berlin, 1973.