Keith Jarrett

If I’m not a jazz player all the time, I’ve at least been cued in to what I do by jazz.

Music always turns into music. As soon as I play a key, push a key down, there’s no theory any more. When I go and I hear a sound on the keyboard, all theories go out the window.

The way I think about the practicing, it is my undercover work.

I cannot say what I think is right about Music. I only know the rightness of it.

If music is sound and came from silence, then silence is potentially greater than sound.

Jazz is there and gone. It happens. You have to be present for it. That simple.

Look for the one who’s not smiling and play to that person. Once you’ve got that person, you’ve got the whole club.

But I have always suspected that one could substitute the Minuet of Haydn’s 98th symphony for the Minuet in Haydn’s 99th symphony without sensing a serious lack of coherence in either work.

What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.

Jazz is like wine. When it is new it’s only for the experts, but when it gets older everybody wants it.

People always ask, “Why jazz?” and I’m like “Why not?” It’s kind of like asking Seurat, “Why so many dots?” I imagine if you asked Bjork, “Why the Tibetan bells?” She’d probably be like “That’s just what I heard.” It’s the same thing. This is just the way I see music.

It’s the group sound that’s important, even when you’re playing a solo. You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That’s jazz.

I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water.

I like what I hear other guys doing, but the thing that really attracts me is melodic playing.

Music is emotional, and you may catch a musician in a very unemotional mood or you may not be in the same frame of mind as the musician. So a critic will often say a musician is slipping.

Jazz can only enhance the Classical side and Classical can only enhance the Jazz side.

If a player is pushing their ability, a certain amount of failure is inevitable. Maybe even desirable.

I wrote “Pilot of My Destiny” because of my love of flying. The fact that my brother is a pilot inspired me to write it. I call him pilot. He calls me copilot.

I’ve said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed.

It’s a matter of who would be right for each song. Mickey Hart for ‘All We Need is An Island’ – he’s the only guy I know who has Tahitian drums and every kind of drum on the planet.

It’s difficult for me to dislike an artist, no matter what he’s creating.