The following conversation, which found Jarrett playful and receptive, has been edited for continuity. He reminisced about his nonpareil career as he donned a pair of reflective shades.

Jarrett’s uncanny touch, capable of eliciting extra groove juice and resonance from the piano, became evident as he raced through one of his favorite tunes, Oliver Nelson’s “Butch And Butch,” followed by an unabated surge of rococo ideas on “It’s Alright With Me.” A grand finale to this impromptu set, which also included “Sioux City Sue New,” involved Jarrett’s wife, Akiko, punctuating bass notes on the kind of rambunctious blues with which her husband would reward audiences around the world after challenging them with protracted bouts of invention.Įarlier in the afternoon, after taking a constitutional walk in the fall sunshine with a nurse’s assistance, Jarrett settled into a rocking chair on his porch in the company of Akiko and Fontanieu. That’s how ECM label manager Caroline Fontanieu and this writer were able to experience a rare concert during a visit to Jarrett’s Dutch colonial home in rural New Jersey, a home that has been headquarters for the 77-year-old musical genius for half a century. Since a couple of cataclysmic strokes in 2018, then returning from two years in rehab, Jarrett jams with his one functional hand in this room, about twice a month, he reckons. In the corner resides a vintage Gretsch drumset, one that has seen quite a bit of action at the hands of the piano maestro. Jarrett has recorded several classical music projects here, including Bach and Händel sonatas. In this low-ceilinged sanctuary, he and Charlie Haden shared their last musical dance, reuniting after 33 years - not so long before the bassist’s passing in 2014 - and it’s also where Jarrett gingerly returned, solo, for The Melody At Night With You, which he recorded after struggles with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in the 1990s. Tabla and other percussion Jarrett used on that solo release, which has served generations as a rite of passage during trying times, are still in situ, the gamut of recorders affixed to the wall like a museum exhibit. As he pulls the protective cloth from the Steinway B in his hallowed Cavelight home studio, you’re reminded that it was here that he confounded critics back in the spring of 1985 with Spirits - a double album of 26 multitracks played on an alphabet of instruments, not ostensibly his main forte, the piano. Keith Jarrett can do more with his right hand than most pianists can with two.

“Jumping off a cliff takes two hands and two feet.” (Photo: Michael Jackson) “There was a time I decided I was not a composer, only an improvisor, and I find that very difficult to do with one hand,” Jarrett says.

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