Pianist Keith Jarrett was born May 8, 1945 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. His musical talent was evident from a very young age, and he began piano lessons before he was three years old. Jarrett performed in his first formal piano recital at the age of seven, playing works by Bach, Beethoven and Mozart and ending with two of his own compositions. Inspired by the playing of Dave Brubeck, Keith Jarrett began studying jazz in high school and matriculated at the Berklee College of Music after graduation.

At nineteen, Jarrett moved to New York City and began playing regularly at the Village Vanguard before being hired by Art Blakey as the pianist in The Jazz Messengers. That gig only lasted four months, though, as Blakey and Jarrett did not get along. Drummer Jack DeJohnette heard Jarrett at a show and recommended him to saxophonist Charles Lloyd who was putting together a quartet. That quartet would go on to great success, touring the world and producing records that achieved both popular acclaim and critical praise.

After Lloyd’s group broke up in 1968, Jarrett found himself playing with Miles Davis on several albums where he shared the keyboard duties with Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. In the early 1970s Jarrett worked on projects with Charlie Haden, Paul Motian and Dewey Redman before signing with the new ECM label and beginning to produce solo albums. His 1975 live album “The Koln Concert” is the best-selling piano recording in history. A 2025 feature film, Koln 75, tells the story of that concert at the Koln Opera House.

In 2018 Jarrett suffered two strokes that have left him partially paralyzed and unable to play with his left hand. Today Keith Jarrett lives in an old farmhouse in New Jersey. He tells the story of when Black jazz musician Ornette Coleman approached him backstage and said something like “Man, you've got to be Black. You just have to be Black.'" Jarrett replied, "I know. I know. I'm working on it."

Here is a link to the full recording of the Koln Concert:

"THE KOLN CONCERT"