Keith Jarrett

Few musicians have made a greater contribution to the wider development of jazz than Keith Jarrett whose interest in fusion music has involved folk, blues and classical. From a Hungarian/Scottish background he was playing piano by the age of three, appeared on a TV talent show whem he was five and played his first classical piano recital at seven.

Part-inspired by Dave Brubeck, Jarrett got into jazz in his teens and abandoned classical music to join Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. He moved on to a more improvisational group formed by Charles Lloyd, recording one of the most influential jazz albums of the 1960s with them, 'Forest Flower', which was flavoured by psychedelia and appealed to rock as well as jazz audiences. He went on to lead his own group, releasing the acclaimed albums 'Life Between the Exit Signs' in 1967 and 'Restoration Ruin' in 1968 while also joining Miles Davis to play organ and electric piano. He continued to experiment through the 1970s drawing on rock, gospel, avant-garde and world music in a free jazz style and formed a new European combo with saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Palle Danielsson and drummer Jon Christensen. He also released a series of well-received solo albums like 'Staircase' (1976), 'The Moth & the Flame' (1981) and 'The Melody at Night With You' (1999), the latter of jazz standards free of the improvisation for which he was renowned.

He returned to his classical roots in 1980 working with an orchestra on 'The Celestial Hawk' and 'Bridge of Light' in 1993 and continued to tour through the 2000s and enjoyed further success in 2005 with the live double album 'The Carnegie Hall Concert'. In March 2018 Jarrett was scheduled to perform at Carnegie Hall but the show was cancelled just a few weeks before due to ill health.