{"id":69414,"date":"2021-01-18T11:16:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T10:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/keith-jarrett-la-retraite-en-lambeaux\/"},"modified":"2021-09-07T15:27:41","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T13:27:41","slug":"keith-jarrett-a-retirement-in-tatters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/keith-jarrett-a-retirement-in-tatters\/","title":{"rendered":"Keith Jarrett, a retirement in tatters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the age of 75, Keith Jarrett announced his own death. At the end of October, in a heart-wrenching confession to the New York Times, the legendary pianist revealed to the world that his life as an artist had come to an abrupt end in 2018, after a series of strokes that left him paralysed in his left hand and brought an end to his long sensory exploration of jazz. \u2018At the moment I don\u2019t really see myself as a pianist. That\u2019s all I can say,<\/em>\u2019 he announced, lucid, but also caustic and pained. \u2018All I can hope to get back from my left hand is to eventually be able to hold a cup. Don\u2019t bother saying \u201cDon\u2019t shoot the pianist\u201d because I\u2019ve already been shot<\/em>\u2019. The recording studios \u2013 which Keith Jarrett has long since deserted \u2013 may not miss him, but he will leave an immense void in the concert halls and festivals where the American pianist\u2019s legend was born; where he pushed the boundaries of the possible and elevated improvisational jazz to the rank of major art form. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Improvisation with a capital \u2018I\u2019 <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

If Herbie Hancock will be remembered for a few finely tuned hits (\u201cCantaloupe Island\u201d, \u201cWatermelon Man\u201d, etc), Keith Jarrett will leave to posterity a totally improvised concert recorded at the age of 29 in a small Cologne hall on a winter\u2019s evening in 1975, that have been divided into \u201cPart I\u201d and \u201cPart II\u201d. Despite the dry-sounding set-up (a man, a piano, an audience) and an opening number that lasts for more than 26 minutes, The K\u00f6ln Concert<\/a><\/em> has fascinated millions of listeners as it captures a virtuoso\u2019s meanderings between jazz, baroque, and sometimes even country. It\u2019s rather like a therapy session held in front of 1,300 people, where the unconscious takes over and dictates the soundtrack. \u2018It\u2019s as if my body, my left hand, just knows what to do. If I tell it what to play I get in its way, and I\u2019d stop it from doing something bigger than I could ever imagine<\/em>,\u2019 explained the man who started playing the piano at the age of 3 and gave his first solo recital at 8. Improvisation, he says, \u2018is like being inundated with possibilities that run through your body<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Embed from Getty Images<\/a>