8. Keith JarrettThe Köln Concert
I was probably around 19 when I started playing piano. I just really wanted to learn and was trying to find players that I could emulate. A friend of mine was like, ‘You should listen to this, bro.’
I was big on all the jazz players, like Art Tatum and Thelonious Monk; I loved it, but it was a little too complex. There wasn’t enough sugar in there and not enough sweetness. Also, it wasn’t of the time anymore. That kind of playing wasn’t in the zeitgeist of the early 2010s. Having someone like Keith, it was like, oh my God. It melds the classical world with the jazz world so well, and this pop mentality of a strong melodic pattern. It was exactly what I would love to sound like on piano. I’m very far away from that still, but that’s something to work towards.
It was sheer marvel at someone being so brilliant on piano for an hour. Again, what I say about ‘sonic debris’ is that a lot of the things that make that record are his groans and little huffs and puffs as he’s playing until he’s so into it. There’s other players that do that for me too. But that record, once it catches me, I lean in and I feel lighter after the experience of it. It’s magic.
