Piano playing made simple – Keith Jarret

The first time I heard the music of Keith Jarret I wasn’t sure if I was listening to classical music or jazz. It was in fact a completely improvised piano solo played live in concert. This first piece from the 1975 Koln concert in Germany was the first piece I ever heard from this artist and to this day it still remains one of my all time favorite piano pieces. The simplicity of the haunting melodies is deceptive and there are times when I would swear that this man sounds as if he has three hands. How can one man make such rich music on one piano? There are times when he is obviously hearing the music he wants to play and has run out of fingers to play it so he starts singing the missing parts joining in with percussive knocking on the piano with his feet. This artist has been a great inspiration for me and simply listening to him makes you feel that playing the piano can be a really simple and worthwhile task when it comes down to it.