Improvisation
This piece (Part IIc is the track name) is the finale from Keith Jarrett’s famous solo improvisation concert in Köln, Germany. The album created from the live recording is still the best selling piano album in history.
Unlike the rest of the album, this piece was not wholly improvised in the moment it was played. The initial melody line and the chords underneath it were worked out in advance, as is KJ’s custom for encores. This information is sometimes disappointing to writers and fans who, thinking it was improvised, marvel at how this beautiful melody suddenly emerges unbidden, as if out of nowhere.
Actually, spontaneous improvisation is how the piece was created, the only difference being that it happened earlier and underwent some shaping and editing. It’s no less remarkable for that.
Then there is also the fact that improvisation is itself the product of years of preparation. You could even call it “pre-composition”. A jazz pianist of Keith Jarrett’s caliber can create music on the spot, as if out of nothing, precisely because he has already learned to play virtually everything. Every scale, pattern, progression, rhythm, etc. Music created in the moment comes from a mind and a muscle memory that have absorbed a million other such moments from the entire history of music.
All of that knowledge, practice and preparation does not eliminate the element of “magic” that occurs in improvisation, but enables it.
The artist himself feels the magic the most profoundly. It is, frankly, a bizarre and transforming feeling— to be surprised and dazzled by what you yourself are playing while you are playing it. It feels like a moment in time is playing you.
Improve your day by listening to this quick-paced melodic creation by one of America’s greatest living musicians, Keith Jarrett. The piece is entirely improvised.
Taken from the album ”The Köln Concert’ by Keith Jarrett, available on Amazon, Spotify and iTunes.
