Loss has shrouded Mr. Jarretts musical circle of late. Mr. Peacock died last month, at 85. Jon Christensen, the drummer in Mr. Jarretts influential European quartet of the 1970s, died earlier this year. Mr. Jarrett also led a groundbreaking American quartet in the 70s, and its other members the saxophonist Dewey Redman, the bassist Charlie Haden, the drummer Paul Motian, all major figures in modern jazz have passed on, too.
Faced with these and other difficult truths, Mr. Jarrett hasnt exactly found solace in music, as he once would have. But he derives satisfaction from some recordings of his final European solo tour. He directed ECM to release the tours closing concert last year, as Munich 2016. Hes even more enthusiastic about the tour opener, Budapest Concert, which he briefly considered calling The Gold Standard.
AS HE BEGINS to come to terms with his body of work as a settled fact, Mr. Jarrett doesnt hesitate to plant a flag.
I feel like Im the John Coltrane of piano players, he said, citing the saxophonist who transformed the language and spirit of jazz in the 1960s. Everybody that played the horn after he did was showing how much they owed to him. But it wasnt their music. It was just an imitative thing.
Of course, imitation even of oneself is anathema to the pure, blank-slate invention Mr. Jarrett still claims as his method. I dont have an idea of what Im going to play, any time before a concert, he said. If I have a musical idea, I say no to it. (Describing this process, he still favors the present tense.)read more
Keith Jarrett Confronts a Future Without the Piano
