Keith Jarrett An American Musician - 2332 Words

Keith Jarrett is an American pianist whose personality, philosophy, and music emerge as a force; not only within a jazz context, but within any contemporary American musical style. The width of Jarretts musical ability, crossing all genres of music, including, but not limited to: jazz, classical, and â€Å"world† music, is unmatched by most. But, for some reason his name, or playing is very rarely mentioned outside of the jazz idiom. Keith Jarrett’s profound and philosophical explanations for his music give us a rare example of an immensely talented musician, who is unafraid to contend with the public eye. Keith Jarrett was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania on the 8th of May, 1945. There was a musical background on both sides of his†¦show more content†¦His father was supportive in this endeavour as well. He was more into popular styles of music and would help Keith learn the sounds of the saxophone and the clarinet. Keith was reading full novels before he entere d Kindergarten and his parents realized that they needed to find somewhere to send him to school, because the public school wouldn’t treat him with enough attention. So, they enrolled him in private school where his IQ was tested. It was found to be at a genius level and the six year old boy was then enrolled in third grade instead of first, where his age would have normally placed him. Keith Jarrett began to give public performances at a very young age. The famous bandleader, Paul Whiteman, had a talent searching program on television and when Keith was only five years old he was taken to Philadelphia to appear on Whiteman’s show. Keith was given an award for his performance on this TV program. When Jarrett was fifteen years old, the piano lessons stopped. This was due to his parents divorce the year before. Now that Jarrett wasn’t spending hours a day working on classical repertoire he was free to make his own music and develop his own sound. He started playin g dance music, popular music, and most importantly, Jazz. He then got a fake book as a gift from a friend and this was the first time he put together a group of jazz musicians. This little group consisted of friends from around town. â€Å"They