“Keith Jarrett is a pianist who was born in Pennsylvania in 1945. I think I was stoned at [Cinematic Orchestra drummer] Luke Flowers’ flat the first time I heard him. I must have been about 19. It was Standards Vol 2, the piano trio with [drummer] Jack DeJohnette and [double bassist] Gary Peacock. I think it’s always been about the interplay between the musicians for me. There’s no leader. It’s just three people making the whole thing together, beautifully. That’s why I’ve always played in trios, because it seems like the perfect formula to do that.

Jarrett’s an inspiration in terms of his musicality and his dedication to improvisation. He’s like a force of nature. He was a child prodigy and classically trained. He started writing stuff very young, won competitions. But he’s just got an amazing ability to connect with the spiritual side of things. He’s quite a contradictory person because he can come across as having a massive ego. He shouts at audiences and tells them they’re dicks.

Jarrett’s like a force of nature. He can come across as having a massive ego; he shouts at audiences and tells them they’re dicks.

To watch him play, though, he just trips right out. Coltrane practised and practised and the theory was that he was trying to remove any physical limitations, so that the spirit could go through him freely, and I think Jarrett is an embodiment of that. It’s his ability to be so creative. Endlessly creative.

He got famous with [saxophonist] Charles Lloyd’s band in the ‘60s. Lloyd originally booked him as a drummer, but then he heard him on a sound check and he was, like: ‘Woah!’ So then they had him as a pianist. Then there was the American Quartet in the ‘70s. [Double bassist] Charlie Haden and [drummer] Paul Motian were both smack-heads, Dewey Redman [sax] was an alcoholic, while Jarrett was completely straight. He was driving the van, doing all the tour managing, dealing with these nutters. He loved the way those guys played so he put up with them.

More recently there’s the trio with DeJohnette and Peacock. They play standards from the American songbook but it’s the most refined way of playing in terms of western harmony and improvisation. Either Jarrett will do a long introduction or they’ll do a 20 or 30 minute improvisation. It’s beautiful.

If I’m listening to guitarists – Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Bill Frisell – it’s very easy to start sounding like them. So I made a conscious decision to stop because I wanted to find my own thing. In terms of someone who can simply sit down at an instrument… you can just orchestrate what Jarrett plays and you have a symphony. He’s the nearest thing we have to a Mozart or Beethoven.”

www.stuartmcallum.com

Manchester Jazz Festival July 23-31

Images: Stuart McCallum (second left) with The Cinematic Orchestra; Keith Jarrett Trio (Jarrett centre)