Keith Jarrett

A virtuoso American composer and pianist, Keith Jarrett's repertoire embraces standards, fusion, improvisation, solo and small group playing, as well as baroque and contemporary music, making him the most eclectic of jazz musicians. Born in Allentown (Pennsylvania) on May 8, 1945, he was trained in classical music and graduated from Boston's Berklee College. He began a career as an accompanist with drummer and leader Art Blakey, then Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis, before establishing himself under his own name in a wide variety of styles and changing formulas, in solo, trio, quintet or with orchestra. An insatiable music lover and musician, he released as many albums as he toured. His concerts, always highly prized by purists of the genre, were the subject of legendary recordings such as The Köln Concert (1972) and Paris Concert (1988). After a long illness that kept him away from studios and concert halls between 1997 and 2005, Keith Jarrett returned to the trio format, then as a duo with Charlie Haden on Jasmine and Last Dance, recorded in 2007. 2011 sees the release of a double album of variations Rio, recorded in Brazil. In 2013, the trio formed by Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette celebrates its thirtieth anniversary with the release of the album Somewhere. In 2015, its 70th anniversary is marked by the release of an album of interpretations, Barber - Bartok - Jarrett, and another of compositions, Creation. The release of concert tapes by his label ECM (notably After the Fall in 2018), allows the musician diagnosed with chronic fatigue to take a break from his long career. In 2020, the death of his bassist partner Gary Peacock affects Keith Jarrett, who announces his definitive retirement from the stage at the time of the release of the album Budapest Concert, celebrating his 75th birthday. After two strokes, the musician is handicapped by paralysis in his left hand. The publications that have followed since come from previously unreleased sessions, such as Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach (a 1994 recording released in 2023), or from past concerts, such as The Old Country (the trio recorded in 1992 at the Deer Head Inn in Poconos).

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