Jazz, soul & blues
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett (born 1945), American pianist, is one of the greatest improvisers in the history of jazz, author of “The Köln Concert”, the best-selling solo piano album of the genre. At twenty-two, he was at the piano of Charles Lloyd’s quartet that closed the very first edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival, in 1967.
Keith Jarrett: the pianist of the first festival
18 June 1967: closing the first edition
On 18 June 1967, at the Casino, Charles Lloyd’s quartet — the saxophonist, the young Keith Jarrett on piano, Jack DeJohnette on drums and Ron McClure on bass — closed the very first edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival. The long “Forest Flower” swept the room away.
Jarrett was only twenty-two. One of the pieces played that night, “Days and Nights Waiting”, was his own. The recording, long kept under wraps, was officially released in 2019 as “Charles Lloyd Quartet — Montreux Jazz Festival 1967”.
The absolute improviser
In the years that followed, Keith Jarrett invented a unique practice: the entirely improvised piano concert, of which “The Köln Concert” (1975) remains the summit. He also founded the Standards Trio with Jack DeJohnette and bassist Gary Peacock, one of the most enduring groups in jazz. But for him it had all begun on a small stage by Lake Geneva.