Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Paul Motian
Biographie Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Paul Motian
Keith Jarrett
"Although only music excites me, and awards and ceremonies do not, I feel honored to receive this NEA Jazz Masters Award, due to the many players on the list since 1982 that have been influential in my life. I'm honored to be in their company, and am reminded that the true nature of jazz has always relied on the individual players making their mark on the music of the future. Jazz is not dead as long as someone is playing with true inspiration."
Keith Jarrett's talent for playing both abstractly and lyrically, sometimes during the same song, continues to astound and delight audiences around the world. His ability to work in both the jazz and classical fields as both performer and composer demonstrates the breadth of his creativity. A master of many instruments, Jarrett also plays harpsichord, clavichord, organ, soprano saxophone, and drums. However, during the last 20 years, he has performed and recorded mainly on the acoustic piano.
Jarrett began playing the piano at age three, and studied classical music throughout his youth. Moving to New York City in 1964 after a short time in Boston, Jarrett hooked up with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and then joined the Charles Lloyd Quartet from 1966-68, becoming part of a stellar cast with Cecil McBee on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. Playing electric piano with Miles Davis' fusion band in 1970-71, Jarrett then went on to lead his own group--assembling a dynamic quartet with Charlie Haden on bass, Paul Motian on drums, and Dewey Redman on saxophone--which released 13 albums together.
In 1971, Jarrett began a relationship with the record label ECM that continues to this day, producing more than 60 recordings ranging in diversity from solo piano to full orchestras. Perhaps Jarrett's best known work is 1975's The Köln Concert, a meditative, lyrical solo piano performance that captivated audiences, making it the bestselling solo piano recording in history. ECM celebrated the artist's four decades with the label with its 2011 release Rio, an hour-and-a-half solo piano performance demonstrating Jarrett's continuing exploration of new musical directions.
In 1983, Jarrett invited bassist Gary Peacock and DeJohnette to record an album of jazz standards. The session ended up producing three albums and marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration that has lasted 30 years; the trio will celebrate the anniversary with a 2013 world tour that includes Japan, Korea, Europe, and the U.S.
Jarrett has released numerous classical recordings as well, including Bach's "Goldberg Variations," Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, Handel's Suites for Keyboard, and two volumes of Mozart Piano Concertos.
Jarrett's numerous honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Prix du President de la Republique and Grand Prix du Disque awards from the Academie Charles Cros (France), seven Deutscher Schallplattenpreis awards (Germany) and two of the world's most prestigious music awards: the Polar Music Prize (Sweden) and the Leonie Sonning Prize (Denmark). In 2008, he was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame, and in 2010, his recording The Köln Concert was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, a select list of recordings of lasting quality and historical significance that are at least 25 years old.
Paul Motian
Born in Philadelphia, PA, Paul Motian grew up with Armenian and Turkish music and dumbeg rhythms. He started to study drumming at 13. His early professional career started in New York City, accompanying Bill Evans, Charles Lloyd, Arlo Guthrie, Thelonius Monk, Charlie Haden and Keith Jarrett.
In 1977 he formed his own group, recording initially for ECM Records in the 1970s and early 1980s and then for Soul Note, JMT, and Winter & Winter before returning to ECM in 2005. From the early 1980s he led a trio featuring guitarist Bill Frisell and saxophonist Joe Lovano, occasionally joined by bassists Ed Schuller, Charlie Haden, or Marc Johnson, and other musicians, including Jim Pepper, Lee Konitz, Dewey Redman and Geri Allen. In addition to playing Motian's compositions, the group recorded tributes to Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans, and a series of Paul Motian on Broadway albums, featuring original interpretations of jazz standards.
Despite his important associations with pianists, Motian's work as a leader since the 1970s rarely included a pianist in his ensembles and relied heavily on guitarists. Motian's first instrument was the guitar, and he apparently retained an affinity for the instrument: in addition to his groups with Frisell, his first two solo albums on ECM featured Sam Brown, and his Electric Bebop Band featured two and occasionally three electric guitars. The group was founded in the early 1990s, and featured a variety of young guitar and saxophone players, in addition to electric bass and Motian's drums.
In 2005, Motian moved to the ECM label, releasing I Have the Room Above Her that same year, followed by Garden of Eden in 2006 and Time and Time Again in 2007. In 2009, he released his fifth in his series of standards albums with On Broadway, Vol. 5 and returned in 2010 with the trio album Lost in a Dream on ECM. The following year, Motian released several albums including Consort in Motion, his exploration of Renaissance and Baroque composers on Kind of Blue, the concert album Live at Birdland on ECM, and Windmills of Your Mind featuring guitarist Bill Frisell on Winter & Winter. A hugely influential drummer, bandleader, composer, and a journeyman live performer, Motian died from complications of myelodysplastic syndrome, a bone marrow disorder, early in the morning on November 22, 2011 in New York City. He was 80 years old. The album Further Explorations featuring pianist Chick Corea and bassist Eddie Gomez appeared posthumously on Concord in January, 2012.
Gary Peacock
A subtle but adventurous bassist, Gary Peacock’s flexibility and consistently creative ideas have been an asset to several important groups. He was originally a pianist, playing in an Army band while stationed in Germany in the late ’50s. Peacock switched to bass in 1956, staying on in Germany after his discharge to play with Hans Koller, Attila Zoller, Tony Scott, and Bud Shank. In 1958 he moved to Los Angeles where he performed with Barney Kessel, Don Ellis, Terry Gibbs, Shorty Rogers, and (most importantly) Paul Bley, among others. After moving to New York in 1962, Peacock worked with Bill Evans (1962-1963), the Paul Bley trio, Jimmy Giuffre, Roland Kirk, and George Russell. In 1964, after a brief stint with Miles Davis, Peacock started an association with Albert Ayler in Europe, also playing with Roswell Rudd and Steve Lacy. Peacock alternated between Ayler and Paul Bley for a time and returned briefly to Miles Davis in the late ’60s. After a period in Japan (1969-1972), Peacock studied biology (1972-1976), worked with Bley, and off and on from the late ’70s has played (and recorded) in a trio with Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette.
