Keith Jarrett – My Mother’s Favorite Jazz Pianist

My mother passed away on July 9, 2003. She was a classically trained pianist with not much interest in jazz. She taught music at PS 136 in Queens, New York, and she put up with my musical taste. She tolerated jazz pianists like Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, and Les McCann. My father, sister, and I did give her a copy of Scott Joplin's Treemonisha. She did hear Eubie Blake, but I do not think she ever heard Oscar Peterson or Art Tatum.

True family story. When learning how to play the trumpet, I got the sheet music to Thelonious Monk's classic "Round About Midnight." I give her credit—she did try to play it. Afterwards, my father and I used about a gallon of WD-40 and a few hours to untangle her fingers. Guess Monk's syncopation was a little too intense for her.



I got into Keith Jarrett's music when I went to the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The first Keith Jarrett album I purchased was My Song, on the ECM Records featuring his European Quartet, which consisted of saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Palle Danielsson, and drummer Jon Christensen. He even played it solo on Saturday Night Live. Brenda's favorite piece was the title tune, "My Song"—she forced me to play it periodically on my show on WUSB-FM. As her boyfriend and future husband, I humbly and dutifully obliged.

I later heard him on Miles Davis' album Live—Evil—I loved his soulful work on "What I Say." That introduction and solo was extremely intense despite the fact that Keith Jarrett hated playing electronic keyboards. I later saw the video "Call It Anything," when he and Chick Corea played keyboards at the Isle of Wight Festival in front of 600,000 people.

Ornette Coleman on Keith Jarrett

Ornette Coleman once questioned Keith Jarrett's heritage backstage at a concert saying, "Man, you've got to be Black. You just have to be black." Keith Jarrett replied, "I know. I know. I'm working on it." We got to get Dr. Henry Louis Gates on this case—I'm with Ornette Coleman on this one.

One of the classical disc jockeys at WUSB-FM introduced me to The Köln Concert, so I listened to it in the auxiliary studio. I was mesmerized by side 1. This was some soulful material. I immediately purchased it. It is one of the few albums that I have as an LP and CD. The CD does it justice since the LP broke the performance to fit on two records in my humble opinion.

Recorded in January 1975 and released in November 1975, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry. It became the best-selling solo piano recording of all time.

Brenda and I saw him perform solo at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. It was an unbelievable concert. It was truly a fusion concert—fusion between jazz and classical music.

Jazz Meets Classical

Sherri Anderson is the Director of the Stretto Youth Chamber Orchestra in Trenton, New Jersey. On a dare, I introduced her to McCoy Tyner's Fly With The Wind. She got somebody to arrange the piece. The orchestra performed it at Trinity Cathedral, proving once again that jazz and classical music can coexist.

Later on, I heard him play "Over The Rainbow. On YouTube, from this performance, I was able to learn how to play "Over The Rainbow" on the flugelhorn, with the goal of performing it at my sister's wedding. The piece is very optimistic—that things will get better despite the challenges life brings. I played his performance for my sister a few days before she died of cancer in 2017. It still haunts me after all these years.



So, what does all this have to do with my mother?

In May 1979, I graduated from Stony Brook with my bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. One afternoon, I decided to play side 1 of The Koln Concert with a glass of Yago Sangria, reliving the four years at Da Brook and wondering what will be next for me. Mom was in the kitchen. When Side 1 ended with applause, she did something that I never thought she would do on a jazz record. She asked me to play it again.

For 26:01 minutes, Mom and I sat and listened to this concert. While listening to it, as a classically trained musician, she described what Keith Jarrett was doing. It was the first and only time that we had a musical conversation. She never heard me play the trumpet or flugelhorn, though I think she would approve.



Later on in my jazz odyssey, I loved Keith Jarrett's work with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette. Specifically, their work on their Still Live album on "You And The Night And The Music / Extension / Some Day My Prince Will Come."



Another favorite was Keith's "Blackberry Winter," which NPR used between stories on All Things Considered back in the day. Sometimes, I wonder what Mom would say about Keith Jarrett and his music.

It's been over 50 years since The Köln Concert was released. Mom left us in 2003. Keith Jarrett stopped playing due to strokes that paralyzed his left side in February 2018. But for that afternoon in May 1979, they came together and for that I am eternally grateful.