Keith Jarrett – författare

Keith Jarrett is one of the most acclaimed pianists in the world. Over the course of his career, he has collaborated with many jazz and classical luminaries, and worked in many musical forms, but he is perhaps best known for his ground-breaking solo work. In the 1970s, Jarrett pioneered a new genre -- the concert-length improvisation – within which he has created some of the most distinctive, beautiful and enduring records of the past century. His Köln Concert (1975) is the bestselling solo piano album of all time.Jarrett’s intense relationship with music began early: he was two years old when he began to play drums with celery sticks on the kitchen table; three when it was discovered that he had perfect pitch; seven at the time of his first public recital – during which he included a piece of his own invention. As Jarrett’s extraordinary career took wing, his emotional and intellectual connection to his art only intensified. For decades, his virtuosic, deeply felt performances enthralled audiences around the world, lifting ‘piano improvisation as an art form to new, unimaginable heights’ (Polar Music Prize Committee).On the Edge represents the first and only time that Jarrett will tell the story of his life in music, illuminating his unique approach to composition, improvisation, practice, technique, collaboration, and creativity. It allows us to step into the mind of a genius and experience his extraordinary relationship with, and philosophy of, music.

The Hebrew-derived word Selah appears as a musical interlude in the Psalms, often meaning ‘stop and consider’, and is used in other contexts, religious and secular. This collection brings together poems that combine musical intrigue with history and desire, from organ recitals (‘Resonances’ and ‘When the Roll is Called’) to teenage gospel hip-hop (‘Hip-hop Salvation’). Humour and sex punctuate social commentary (‘Gay Poem’ and ‘No Timewasters’) throughout. Above all, Selah asks the reader to stop and consider, pausing at the fault lines in relationships and intimacy (‘Making Light’) and transgression (‘Transfiguration’), asking difficult questions and holding them to the light.‘In Selah, Jarrett interrogates what is lost when one seeks to shape something new – namely his Black British Identity – from disparate ingredients such as migrant parents, a religious upbringing and living in inner city London. His poetry dances an awkward shuffle as he negotiates and seeks to reconcile what he inherits from his Caribbean roots, what he has lost and who he is becoming on this British Island. The poems are all fraught with relationships shaped by a severe severing that creates a limbo state where Jarrett states:My body is a boulder, I try to sound out my new / national anthem: I am forever blowing bubbles – I remain stateless.Here the poems are songs that testify, praise, lament and pray, drawing heavily on biblical imagery, mythology and language to score the relevant notes for his compositions. His elegiac pieces are epigraphic whether written for a diabetic dying grandfather or about the breakdown of a long-term relationship. This new Black British voice is relevant and necessary.’ – Malika Booker

Mainstream brings thirty authors in from the margins to occupy centre-page. Queer storytellers. Working class wordsmiths. Chroniclers of colour. Writers whose life experiences give unique perspectives on universal challenges, whose voices must be heard. And read.‘In these locked down and unfocused times the short story is a much needed respite from the current Covid-19 bleakness. With Mainstream, Inkandescent has gathered together a wonderful collection of fascinating and eclectic stories. Sad, funny, horrifying and demystifying, the unique voices within take us on an open minded journey around the world. Loved it.’ — KATHY BURKE‘A riveting collection of stories, deftly articulated. Every voice entirely captivating: page to page, tale to tale. These are stories told with real heart from writers emerging from the margins in style.’ — ASHLEY HICKSON-LOVENCE, author of The 392 and Your ShowEmerging writers are placed alongside established authors. Contributors are: Aisha Phoenix, Alex Hopkins, Bidisha, Chris Simpson, DJ Connell, Elizabeth Baines, Gaylene Gould, Giselle Leeb, Golnoosh Nour, Hedy Hume, Iqbal Hussain, Jonathan Kemp, Julia Bell, Juliet Jacques, Justin David, Kathy Hoyle, Keith Jarrett, Kerry Hudson, Kit de Waal, Lisa Goldman, Lui Sit, Nathan Evans, Neil Bartlett, Neil Lawrence, Neil McKenna, Ollie Charles, Padrika Tarrant, Paul McVeigh, Philip Ridley, Polis Loizou.

Shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best CollectionPoetry Book Society RecommendationKeith Jarrett's dazzlingly lyrical new collection asks how we process violence when it's lionised in our language, on city street signs, in the edicts of a vengeful god. Its title borrowed from an unknown songwriter, this book is a palimpsest, layering known and unknown verses: those sung in Pentecostal churches or whispered in silent worship, texted to a 3am suitor or redacted from a eulogy. These poems are requiem and carnival: for the dead, the buried, the erased, the forgotten. They are magnetic, musical, scorched in glitter, skanking on the offbeat. With courage, insight and mischief, Jarrett invites the reader to look sideways, to consider the absurd, messy and problematic with a playfulness that feels, in itself, slyly revolutionary."A virtuosic collection in which Jarrett tests and revivifies language, willing to bend and even break it in search of something new." Victoria Adukwei Bulley"There is an erotics, a rage, a prayer, a love, a figuring-out, a making-up, a throw-down, a challenge, a confession and a summons. Delicious." Padraig O Tuama"Keith Jarrett is one of London's most radiantly living bards, the embodied poet as storyteller, historian and one-man archive. In Hide Me Under the Blood and I Shall Be Satisfied, Jarrett channels a voice and a chant of "the undocumented history of this Empire" where spirits, saints and literary ancestors are summoned to carnivals and holy communions. There is much defiance, queering and inquiry in these poems, a "reckoning with sorrow" as only a poet can put it. As well as formal inventiveness, there is playful bilingual lyricism and humour. I love this poet. He is important. To know why, you must hear his hymns." Raymond Antrobus