I'm listening to a double CD of solo piano improvisations - Staircase by Keith Jarrett/ECM Records/1977. This music has been part of the soundtrack of my life since the summer of 1978. I owned it first as an LP (anybody remember vinyl? & liner notes you could read without a magnifying glass?)/then, many years later, as a double CD. And earlier this year I found a single-CD reissue that I bought to play in my DiscMan. I quit playing the piano the day I first heard Keith Jarrett. I knew that's what a real musician sounded like & that I'd never be able to play that way. It amazes me that anyone can sit down & compose at the keyboard/pull music out of their head/without transcribing a single note... Jarrett's improvs are full of beautiful stories. And no matter when I listen to them/I always hear something new.
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