Here are a some informative quotes on the process
and sensibility of Improvising by one of the musical masters of
the form. Listening and reading the work of Jarret has inpired and
reaffirmed my own experiences about what it can mean to give
over to an unknown space, in my case through dance, into creation.
Inside out: Thoughts on free playing
by Keith Jarrett
"It really depends on whether a player ‘conceives of
nothing’ as the ‘lack of something’, or pregnant with
‘everything’. Then, further, it depends on what
‘everything’ means to that player. If it means something
limiting, if it scares him his ability as a free player will be
stunted also. We all have a structure to our bodies.
The only limit, it would seem to me, is what the body
cannot do."
"There were at least 3 people involved at a solo concert
(which was always improvised from scratch): the improviser,
the spontaneous composer, and the listener at the keyboard.
The improviser is the easiest to explain (though none in their
right mind would try to). He sits there confident in his ability
to find some musical way from a - b (although he has no idea
what b is). The spontaneous composer is a little harder to
explain, though his position is slightly above the improviser.
He ‘sends down’ material (sorry, it’s the only way I know to
say it) at the spur of the moment whenever the improviser calls
for it. He might have to create out of thin air. His job is harder
because he has to supply substantialcontent on the spur of the
moment, in case the improviser gets stuck or lost or just plain
looses his connection to ‘the zone’. The composer eggs on the
improviser (and visa versa), while the man at the key board -
monitoring the proceedings and trying not to judge too quickly
or intervene, even when he disapproves - attempts to pay attention
to it all, simultaneously (all of this is simultaneous) checking his
vital functions for any abnormalities, making sure he has no finger
or body cramps and than he has drawn a breath recently, etc."
Scattered Words
by Keith Jarrett
"All of these pieces are born of a desire to praise and contemplate
rather than a desire to “make” or “show” or “demonstrate” something
unique. they are, in a certain way, prayers that beauty will be made
acceptable despite fashions, intellect, analysis, progress, technology,
distraction, “burning issues” of the day, the un-hipness of belief or
faith, concert programming, and the unnatural “scene’” of “art”, the
market, lifestyles etc., etc... I am not attempting to be a composer,
I am trying to reveal a state I think is missing in today's world (accept,
perhaps in private): a certain state of surrender."
