Counterpunch has a profile on jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. If his last name wasn’t enough to make me like him, he’s also from Allentown, PA and I’ve played his new album, Rio dozens of times since it released earlier this year. I especially liked this part where Jarrett discusses the limitations of the piano:

Rio opens with a squall of dark chords, pounding against each other, like a contrapuntal storm sweeping over the Amazon forest. The turbulent swirl eases, giving way to a luminous sheen of blues melodies, warm and sinuous. Jarrett’s touch is light and assured, with distinctive resonances of two of his heroes: Bill Evans and Bud Powell. Still the chromatic shadings of Rio have a horn-like quality, something akin to Wayne Shorter’s soprano sax. Indeed, Jarrett has often said that he is frustrated with the limitations of the piano, that he’d like to transform it into a more expressive instrument, such as a guitar or sax.

“Saxophone players have influenced me more than pianists,” Jarrett said. “And if you think about Sonny Rollins or Ornette Coleman or Coltrane, they’ve got a voice, they have this freedom, and they’re not percussive. They can play a river of notes and it doesn’t matter what the number is. So when I’m playing piano I don’t want to hear the attack as a percussive attack. I’m listening to this flow. That’s one reason the piano can make me mad.”