Keith Jarrett on a Rant

[kenny weir]

Dammit, I want - nay, DEMAND - a "Keith Loses It" ECM box set!

[A Lark Ascending]

Dammit, I want - nay, DEMAND - a "Keith Loses It" ECM box set!

Would that include 10 minutes of audience slow hand-clapping?

[RDK]

Dammit, I want - nay, DEMAND - a "Keith Loses It" ECM box set!

Would that include 10 minutes of audience slow hand-clapping?

Better yet, all audience applause "encores" combined onto a bonus disc!

[thedwork]

You might want to check in with a "shrink" yourself...

I'll pass.

[AllenLowe]

at his next concert, I'm handing out air horns and New Years Eve noisemakers.

and making sure I eat a lot of beans before-hand.

funny thing is I haven't listened to Jarrett in years - though one of the first albums I ever owned was the Fillmore one with Charles Lloyd.

And one night I was driving near Hartford and heard the most exquisite version of Stella By Starlight ever. And it was Jarrett.

so one never knows..................................................

[RogerS]

I saw Mr. Jarrett play a solo concert in 1981 in Royal Oak, Michigan. Someone coughed partway through the show, he stopped playing, "conducted" the audience in a series of coughs, said something to the effect of now you've got that out of your system and I can focus on playing again. I was amused rather than offended, and the music was sublime. My question is, isn't this part of the show? You go to Durgin Park in Boston for the roast beef and the sarcastic waitstaff, you go hear Keith Jarrett for lovely piano music and the occasional rant. Still one of my favorite jazz concerts.

Roger

[A Lark Ascending]

Jarrett at the Village Vanguard must have been fun. You get shouted at by the performer and the waitresses!

[slide_advantage_redoux]

Jarrett is a whiny little bastard...it's my "privilege" to not buy any of his albums, pay for any of his concert tickets, give him any decent word of mouth or support him in any imaginable way. I'll reserve that right for people that deserve it.

I felt the same after reading some of Wynton's first interviews. (this is "our" music, blah blah blah)

[slide_advantage_redoux]

...if Jarrett was a commercially unsuccessful black jazz artist from "the glory years" and had displayed exactly the same bizarre behavior, I can guarantee you that the conversation would be a lot different, with all kinds of people defending his actions and making excuses for him.

Well, unless you specify an example it's rather moot point, ain't it?

I don't know if this was discussed in here already, but there is an infamous recording of Freddie Hubbard berating a european audience. He is heard screaming racial epithets at the audience ("you white m.... f.....s!!") but I paraphrase!

Edited November 23, 2010 by slide_advantage_redoux

[MartyJazz]

If you can find it or access it somehow, listen to the "Piano Jazz" program KJ did with Marian McPartland, She was gracious and effervescent as usual and he came across as a total a**hole. He refused to duet with her on a tune she "suggested" claiming unfamiliarity, even though these suggestions are discussed and agreed to in advance, etc. His whole attitude reeked of self-importance and condescension, rather nervy in terms of Marian's longevity and stature as the long time hostess of a terrific radio program. The man is insufferable. I'm glad that his vocal mannerisms when he plays turns me off so much, that I never have the urge to listen to his trio, much less his solo, recordings. (I do like quite a few of the Impulse '70s material with Redman & Haden however).

[jazzbo]

I think Jarrett is an amazing talent and his muttering and whoops don't bother me on recordings.

I've never seen him perform. I don't expect to. He's not been anywhere near my city this century.

I'll just continue to enjoy his recordings. Some phenomenal work.

[jazzbo]

I don't know if this was discussed in here already, but there is an infamous recording of Freddie Hubbard berating a european audience. He is heard screaming racial epithets at the audience ("you white m.... f.....s!!") but I paraphrase!

The only time I got to see Freddie was with the VSOP in Cleveland. I'd managed to score excellent seats at a place with a revolving stage, had a beautiful date, an expedition was planned with two other couples, waited for weeks for the night to come.

Freddie hadn't arrived when the show was to start; he had some sort of airline problem. After a long delay, the other four master musicians took the stage and played for twenty minutes. Finally it was announced that Freddie had arrived, he was weaving a bit when he took to the stage. After two solos, he got so bothered by a couple of hecklers (I think) that he turned on his heels and walked off the stage. After that, the quartet wrapped up the tune quickly, took some quick bows and sped off after him.

I was crestfallen. What a lost opportunity.

[Mark Stryker]

If you can find it or access it somehow, listen to the "Piano Jazz" program KJ did with Marian McPartland, She was gracious and effervescent as usual and he came across as a total a**hole. He refused to duet with her on a tune she "suggested" claiming unfamiliarity, even though these suggestions are discussed and agreed to in advance, etc. His whole attitude reeked of self-importance and condescension, rather nervy in terms of Marian's longevity and stature as the long time hostess of a terrific radio program. The man is insufferable. I'm glad that his vocal mannerisms when he plays turns me off so much, that I never have the urge to listen to his trio, much less his solo, recordings. (I do like quite a few of the Impulse '70s material with Redman & Haden however).

I listened to this at Marty's suggestion and my reading is very different. They have a nice rapport, lots of laughing, and while Jarrett's ego and self-importance are certainly on display (when are they not?) I don't find him the least bit disrespectful or condescending to McPartland. Also, he does not refuse to duet with her. In the course of conversation, Alec Wilder's tune "Blackberry Winter" comes up and McPartland asks Jarrett if he will play it for her, at which point he declines, saying "I don't know it well enough right now" and then, picking up an earlier thread in their conversation, he makes a lighthearted joke about not only not being able to remember his own material but other peoples' as well. McPartland then asks playfully he would be annoyed if she played it. He says "No, no, no. Why would I be annoyed?" The exchange sounds completely innocent to me, almost charming.

I certainly wouldn't defend Jarrett's jerkier moments, but this show hardly qualifies.

Edited November 23, 2010 by Mark Stryker

[jlhoots]

I think Jarrett is an amazing talent and his muttering and whoops don't bother me on recordings.

I've never seen him perform. I don't expect to. He's not been anywhere near my city this century.

I'll just continue to enjoy his recordings. Some phenomenal work.

I'm with Lon on this one.

I've only seen Jarrett live once in the trio setting.

His "behavior" was just fine.

[GregK]

If you can find it or access it somehow, listen to the "Piano Jazz" program KJ did with Marian McPartland, She was gracious and effervescent as usual and he came across as a total a**hole. He refused to duet with her on a tune she "suggested" claiming unfamiliarity, even though these suggestions are discussed and agreed to in advance, etc. His whole attitude reeked of self-importance and condescension, rather nervy in terms of Marian's longevity and stature as the long time hostess of a terrific radio program. The man is insufferable. I'm glad that his vocal mannerisms when he plays turns me off so much, that I never have the urge to listen to his trio, much less his solo, recordings. (I do like quite a few of the Impulse '70s material with Redman & Haden however).

I listened to this at Marty's suggestion and my reading is very different. They have a nice rapport, lots of laughing, and while Jarrett's ego and self-importance are certainly on display (when are they not?) I don't find him the least bit disrespectful or condescending to McPartland. Also, he does not refuse to duet with her. In the course of conversation, Alec Wilder's tune "Blackberry Winter" comes up and McPartland asks Jarrett if he will play it for her, at which point he declines, saying "I don't know it well enough right now" and then, picking up an earlier thread in their conversation, he makes a lighthearted joke about not only not being able to remember his own material but other peoples' as well. McPartland then asks playfully he would be annoyed if she played it. He says "No, no, no. Why would I be annoyed?" The exchange sounds completely innocent to me, almost charming.

I certainly wouldn't defend Jarrett's jerkier moments, but this show hardly qualifies.

That's about the way I remember hearing it at the time, too. He seemed almost shy in conversation, and caught off guard when asked to play the tune, like he didn't want to make a mistake.

[Chuck Nessa]

Let's let Keith be Keith and listen to some new music.

[MartyJazz]

Since there is a difference of perception regarding Jarrett's appearance on PIANO JAZZ, Here's perhaps a better example of the questionable behavior Jarret can exhibit:

[JSngry]

You'd rather have Scott?

[Ted O'Reilly]

He's sorta like that off-stage too, though. A couple of years back he made the producers of the Toronto Jazz Festival buy him a suitable mattress to replace the one in the 5 Star hotel for his overnight stay the day of his Opera House concert. Don't even mention what they had to go through to get him to agree to play the brand-new 9 foot concert Hamburg Steinway -- he wasn't sure he liked it, and wanted them to bring another one over from Massey Hall to see if he might like it better.

I remember him from his early days as a very young guy with Charles Lloyd, and he was a bit spacey even then. I wrote an article about him for a stereo-type magazine in the late '60s -- I don't know if I still have it (I'm no Christiern )

[GregK]

He's sorta like that off-stage too, though. A couple of years back he made the producers of the Toronto Jazz Festival buy him a suitable mattress to replace the one in the 5 Star hotel for his overnight stay the day of his Opera House concert. Don't even mention what they had to go through to get him to agree to play the brand-new 9 foot concert Hamburg Steinway -- he wasn't sure he liked it, and wanted them to bring another one over from Massey Hall to see if he might like it better.

Could that have been due to his back problems?

[bertrand]

Perhaps, but it's not the promoter's responsibility to help him resolve that.

Bertrand.

[AllenLowe]

if I was a promoter in a situation like that, and if it was NOT in the contract, I woulda told him to take a walk - there's too many enablers in the world.

on the other hand, the piano thing was probably in the contract.

[kh1958]

I think Jarrett is an amazing talent and his muttering and whoops don't bother me on recordings.

I've never seen him perform. I don't expect to. He's not been anywhere near my city this century.

I'll just continue to enjoy his recordings. Some phenomenal work.

He played at the Dallas Convention Center Theater in 1987, with the trio (part of the performance is on Changeless). No bad behavior was observed.

[Ted O'Reilly]

if I was a promoter in a situation like that, and if it was NOT in the contract, I woulda told him to take a walk - there's too many enablers in the world.

on the other hand, the piano thing was probably in the contract.

From my experience, "the piano thing" is usually just something like The producer agrees to supply a Steinway (Baldwin/Boesendorfer/Fisher Price) 9 foot concert grand piano tuned to A440. In this case, there was certainly nothing wrong with the supplied instrument, KJ wanted to see if he'd maybe like another one better. He wanted them to bring it over from another hall so he could try it out. He wouldn't take a limo ride to the other hall, they were to bring the piano to him.

Not only that, he apparently demanded that the piano bench be exactly 7-and-a-half inches from the edge of the keyboard, so they went out with a tape measure to make it so. At the concert, the first thing he did was move the bench around.

[Hardbopjazz]

I saw Jarrett once. It was around 1987 or so. Someone started coughing; nothing that I would say was excessive where you should get up and leave the area. Jarrett finished the tune and turned around and said, "Why the fuck did you come here? Your coughing is annoying. Why don't you get the fuck out of here?" I thought to myself, he's a real schmuck, I won't come see him again; and I haven't.