Keith Jarrett was born on May 8, 1945, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to parents of Slovenian and German descent. He displayed absolute pitch and began piano lessons before age three. His first formal recital came at age seven, featuring works by Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart alongside his own compositions. Jarrett studied classical piano under Eleanor Sokoloff at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. At fifteen, he attended a Dave Brubeck performance and shifted toward jazz. Though offered the chance to study composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, he declined to pursue jazz instead. After high school in 1963, Jarrett moved to Boston and attended Berklee College of Music for one year while playing cocktail piano in local clubs.
In 1964, Jarrett relocated to New York and participated in Monday jam sessions at the Village Vanguard. Art Blakey recruited him for the Jazz Messengers, though the tenure proved brief. Jack DeJohnette witnessed his talent and recommended him to saxophonist Charles Lloyd. In 1966, at age twenty-one, Jarrett joined Lloyd’s quartet, which became one of the most commercially successful small groups of the mid-to-late 1960s. The group featured Lloyd on tenor saxophone and flute, Jarrett on piano, Cecil McBee on bass, and DeJohnette on drums. Their album Forest Flower: Live at Monterey (1966) sold over one million copies and crossed over to rock audiences through FM radio play. Lloyd’s quartet toured extensively across America, Europe, and the Soviet Union beginning in 1967, becoming one of the first American jazz ensembles to perform there. Between 1966 and 1969, the group established Jarrett’s reputation as a virtuosic pianist. He also began recording as a leader: Life Between the Exit Signs (1967) with bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Paul Motian launched his solo discography.
After leaving Lloyd’s quartet in 1969, Jarrett was recruited by Miles Davis, who heard him in a New York club. From 1970 to 1971, he played electric organ and Rhodes electric piano in Davis’s fusion ensembles, alternating with and later playing simultaneously alongside Chick Corea. Jarrett harbored philosophical opposition to electric instruments and later described them as toys. In 1971, producer Manfred Eicher of ECM Records proposed he record a solo album. Facing You (1971) consisted of eight short solo pieces recorded in November 1971 and became hugely influential. This album marked the beginning of Jarrett’s exclusive thirty-year association with ECM. Between 1972 and 1975, he recorded Birth (1972) and formed his European Quartet with Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Palle Danielsson, and drummer Jon Christensen. Their album Belonging (1974) became foundational to ECM’s aesthetic.
The Köln Concert, recorded live on January 24, 1975, at Cologne Opera House, remains Jarrett’s most iconic work and one of the best-selling jazz recordings of all time. This double album of entirely improvised solo piano music established wholly spontaneous solo concerts as a commercially viable format. Over three million copies sold worldwide. During the 1980s and beyond, Jarrett pursued diverse projects. His Standards Trio with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette formed in 1983 and produced numerous ECM releases interpreting the American songbook. The trio remained active for over thirty years, with their final concert on November 30, 2014, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Parallel to his jazz career, he maintained a classical practice, recording masterworks by Bach and Mozart while composing for chamber ensembles and orchestras. In February 2018, Jarrett suffered a severe stroke, followed by another in May 2018, leaving him partially paralyzed and unable to perform professionally.
