Keith Jarrett: Letting the Music In

Gary Peacock, Keith Jarrett, and Jack DeJohnette

"A master jazz musician goes out onto the stage hoping to have a rendezvous with music. He/she knows the music is there (it always is), but this meeting depends not only on knowledge but on openness. It must be let in, recognized, and revealed to the listener, the first of which is the musician him/herself. This recognition is the most misunderstood part of the process (even by musicians). It is a discrimination against mechanical pattern, for content, against habit, for surprise, against easy virtuosity, for saying more with less, against facile emotion, for a certain quality of energy, against stasis, for flow, against military precision, for tactile pulse. It is like an attempt, over and over again, to reveal the heart of things."

- Keith Jarrett, liner notes to "At the Blue Note: The Complete Recordings," 1994