A biography for Keith Jarretthasn’t been written yet.
“When you're up against an electric band like that, it's like you're on two separate planets.”
“I cannot say what I think is right about music. I only know the rightness of it.”
“We accept so many things that come through the media; we get used to them, however vigilant we are. But for any creative art, you have to remain 110% conscious, and in a world that's losing consciousness, that's getting harder.”
“Your own music comes out of your head and emotions, but it's not etched in your system.”
“The way I think about the practicing, it is my undercover work.”
“Musicians are always gigging and never have a chance to stop for a minute.”
“If I'm not a jazz player all the time, I've at least been cued in to what I do by jazz.”
“If a person plays dissonance long enough, it will sound like consonance. It's a language that was alien and then it's less and less alien as it continues to live.”
“I actually get a metallic taste in my mouth when I think about electric music.”
“I grew up with the piano. I learned its language as I learned to speak.”
“When you're on stage you have a very strange knowledge of what the audience is. It isn't exactly a sound - it's a hum, like the streets.”
“Once we're inside a tune, we can do anything with it.”
“One thing you learn: if you want to reveal yourself, you also have to know where to stop.”
“I'm not talking ideas, or even presentation. It's like in politics: You have to sell something to become an electric player - like your skin or your heart.”
“I don't like recording studios - except my own, which is just a little room above the garage.”
“You know, when people look at a tree, they look at the leaves; they don't look at the spaces between the leaves. They're focused on the tree. I think there's an awareness of spaces or it wouldn't look like a tree to them.”
“I realized that improvisers should probably always have time off. But musicians are always gigging and never have a chance to stop for a minute - unless something drastic occurs.”
“Jazz is there and gone. It happens. You have to be present for it. That simple.”
“I am a romantic, I admit it.”
“I'm my own most merciless critic onstage.”