‘I told Keith Jarrett, If you don’t play I’m going to be f**ked. And you will be f**ked, too’
In 1975 Vera Brandes set up the jazz pianist’s legendary Köln Concert. It’s now the subject of an award-winning film
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett’s Köln Concert: An epic journey into the unknown
The pianists Maki Namekawa and Thomas Enhco are re-creating the jazz star’s fabled improvisation at the National Concert Hall in Dublin
In 1975, Dylan, Patti Smith, Bowie and Marley woke up a cosseted music culture. It’s a 50th anniversary worth celebrating
2025 marks the golden jubilee of some fine records, to be sure, but also of a time when punk came to sack rock’s citadel and popular music began to go in new directions
Björn Andrésen: ‘I was extremely uncomfortable’
The Most Beautiful Boy in the World is a new documentary about the pressures imposed on the young star of Death in Venice
Keith Jarrett: ‘I was paralysed. I don’t feel right now like I’m a pianist’
The world-renowned musician confronts a future without piano after suffering strokes
Gwilym Simcock: ‘I have always struggled with performance anxiety’
The classically trained Welsh jazz pianist is lauded for his fearless musical explorations, but recording his latest album at home freed the 38-year-old from pressure
Nicolas Roeg: the director who took the familiar and made it strange
Few directors have made so many films that touch on the status of masterpiece
In the Trump era, artists need to do more than make protest speeches
Steve Bannon – Trump’s brain – believes in a single US culture. His white-nationalist ideology gives that notion some sinister echoes
Fintan O’Toole's 2015: The importance of being inconclusive
I’m not sure we learn anything from the arts – except that we need them more than ever
Manfred Eicher: the man who made ECM on working with Keith Jarrett, Steve Reich and Arvo Part
Since 1969 Manfred Eicher has had a singular influence on jazz through his ECM label. So what happens in a recording session with the enigmatic producer?
Second Opinion: Jarrett concert gives gerontological food for thought
Concerts 30 years apart offer glimpses of changes age brings in oneself and others
Donald Clarke’s cultural highs and lows of 2014
The Irish films of 2014 were ’Out of Here’ and ’Frank’
Charles Lloyd’s tradition of jazz, truth and love
Lloyd’s grandfather, born the son of slaves, refused to be cowed in a time of deep racial tensions in the US, and something of that steely confidence was passed down to the Memphis great
Is jazz dead? It smells just fine to Brad Mehldau
The pianist doesn’t believe in fidelity to an ensemble or genre, having been influenced by classical, pop and rock, but jazz is the default lens through which he views his art
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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