I fell in love with Keith, dissonance and improvisational jazz about the same time I discovered Phrygian and Dorian modes as a music student: Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, in 1982.
And yesterday, in Thailand where I have lived for 17 years, I fell in love with Keith and all of those things, all over again.
I woke after a deep sleep with the lilting Irish song, Danny Boy, in my head, for what seemed no particular reason at all. I laid in bed for a bit, humming and mulling over that timeless line, "I'll be there, in sunshine and in shadow..." And then, over an early, silent pot of Japanese green tea, I opened my messages to find a youtube link from my dear, dear friend, Ken.
Ken is Head of School at an Australian University and has sustained me throughout our Covid Confinement in Thailand with almost daily music surprises. His staff have buoyed each other's moods and vibe by sharing music links daily and, knowing me as well as he does after a more than 20 year close friendship, he sends me what he knows will resonate, nudge and move me. Music had always been one of the hallmarks of my wonderful friendship with Ken; he introduced me to Patricia Barber and acid jazz over wine one lazy christmas afternoon, knows who Jaco Pastorius IS 😆 and always seeks out people and music that speak to a poetic soul well hidden under his more traditional professorial facacde.
He has never disappointed me. And neither has Keith.
I SAT and completely listened and felt his stunning ever-so-slightly-dissonant rendition of Danny Boy on a silent Thai Sunday morning like I have never felt that tune before.
And then the rest of Sunday was cast: MANDATORY quiet afternoon time with the Köln Konzert - my very fist kiss, if you will, with Keith and something I still savour very occasionally. If you've never heard the Köln Konzert, it is a music-must for piano, jazz fiends and lovers of people who push at the edges.
The Köln Concert is a concert recording of solo piano improvisations performed by Keith Jarrett at the Opera House in Cologne (German: Köln) on January 24, 1975. The double-vinyl album was released in 1975 by ECM. Source: wikipedia
And yes, I used to own it on vinyl in my other life. 😍
Life is calling me to revisit some things, not the least of which is buying a piano again after 18 years without one. It feels like time.
Enjoy the music moments - they are so precious.
Thank you, Ken. 😘
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