![]() It works sometimes, but it doesn’t work in the studio, when you don’t want to do a second take. When I realized I was going to record it, I had to say to myself, wait: I’ve got to find an edited version of this with fingerings! Because what I normally do is find different fingerings every time I play, probably. With the Shostakovich, I just played it and played it and played it. And even with the bass line, if you stop looking you think you know what it is, but he always thought it out so well that it’s not always not predictable, but his note is always better than yours.ĮI: Do you work out your fingerings early on, or keep experimenting? So you’ve changed harmonic center in the process of playing what you thought was a simple scale so you can’t take your eyes off the music. And Bach has this crazy ability to change key in the middle of a scale. And working on the fingering puts you in a hypnotic state, playing the same phrase down one half step at a time or down a scale, and you’re doing the same fingering but it isn’t the same fingering, depending on how many black keys are involved. The jazz player doesn’t ever play these patterns: they don’t come up certainly not in the left hand. Probably I’m in better shape than I was before, due to some of the patterns Bach forces upon you. But I’ve seen how it seems to work this time, and I’m just taking advantage of it. When I was getting ready to record Mozart I couldn’t have mixed both. I didn’t realize that it was helping me improvise until Gary Peacock looked at me between sets and said, “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.”ĮI: So, at one point, going between jazz and classical felt like more of an embouchure change than it does now? Is it beginning to even out? Because by the time I do the finger-work that Bach requires, and the control thing, my fingers are ready to be completely out-of-control and in-control at the same time. But! I thought I was going to shelve the Bach, but now I’m playing the Bach, and for the last twenty-five minutes I do the other thing and it works very well. I was just working on Bach over the last few months, and now I have to shelve that and pretend that I know how to do a solo concert, and while I’m pretending that, that’s practicing. Sometimes I have to slowly erase one thing and move towards another. It really depends on what I am working towards or away from or both. There was a long time in my life (when I was ill) when I didn’t practice really at all regularly, but now, yes, I do. Steve Weiss was the engineer and Bradley Farberman handled the transcription.)Įthan Iverson: Do you play the piano every day? Johnson's "Caroline Shout.(Reprinted from old DTM originally posted September 2009. Thanks to Peggy Sutton of BBC’s Jazz on 3 for arranging the interview. After a resounding standing ovation, Jarrett proceeded to play his encores, which included an unusually introspective rendition of Harold Arlen's " Somewhere Over the Rainbow," the melody of Cole Porter's tragicomic " Miss Otis Regrets," and an impressive display of ragtime virtuosity with James P. The highlight of the set was a piece that featured rolling tremolo chords, including a haunting improvised melody. ![]() There were seven pieces in the first set, including segments that ranged from aggressively funky and dissonant to slower and more melodic movements, expressive of a poignant lyricism. This opening piece, in particular, was practically without precedent. While often falsely characterized as "atonal," the pianist's harmonies are actually very complex in structure and his tonality and rhythm sophisticated in execution. The concert began with a typical, post-Chronic Fatigue Syndrome "big bang" exploration into musical harmony and rhythm. Jarrett's improvised music was unique in its achievement, touching base with nearly every aspect that has shaped his career. "This concert seemed to surpass many of Jarrett's previous shows in terms of the audience-performer connection, as Jarrett was pushed by a raucous and energetic crowd to new heights of melodic, harmonic, and virtuosic improvisation."
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