Keith Jarrett on music

[Stevyn]

"Art Exists as a reminder. All true art is a reminder of forgotten, or soon-to-be-forgotten, relationships, whether it be God and man, man and woman, earth and humanity, color and form, etc. The reason I say "forgotten" is that all future relationships are inherent in what we see now; and in this way we can "forget" the future.
Silence is the potential from which music can arise. Music is the "activity-of-meaning" that is able to be actualized only because of silence. Technique is the ability to manipulate this "activity" to the greatest effect. This "effect" can obliterate the feeling of original potential and replace it with "interesting" activity (thus devoid of meaning because meaning can only exist in the balance between active and potential; and technique is only activity.).
Musicians can and do fool themselves every day when they say they are "making music". They mean they are playing their instrument very well. This can be done by computers. What computers cannot deal with is value: meaning.
Thus: Spirits
There is a fine line between what we like and what affects us. There is a fine line between what we can manipulate and what is close to us. There is a fine line between using technique and making music. We must open to the spaces (silence) in order to fill them just right. We must see the spaces, inhabit them, live them. Then, the next note, the next move, becomes apparent because it is needed. Until it is apparent, nothing should be played. Until it is known, nothing should be anticipated. Until the whole appears, the parts should not be criticized. Until you are participating in this, you cannot hear. Until you hear, you cannot play. Until you listen, you cannot make music. Music is part of life. It is not a separate, controlled event where a musician presents something to a passive audience. It is in the blood. A musician should be able to reveal this. Music should not remind us of the control we seem to have over our lives. It should remind us of the necessity of surrender, the capacity in man for understanding the reason for this surrender, the conditions that are necessary for it, the Being necessary for it.
We need to find the strength to feel what we feel: to be what we are. There's a small sacrifice involved: we must give up what we thought we knew. That "giving up" is the state of surrender (or possession) in which positive, creative music can be made. Anything else is a continuation of our conditioned assumptions. When you drop your attitude towards something, you can see what that thing is. But, first, you must know it in every possible aspect. "Knowing" and "SEEING" (understanding) are totally different in quality. Then, you may enter and drop your pile of goods, separate no more, vital to the core; like the earth; like the cosmos.
I cannot say what I think is right about this music; I only know the "rightness" of it. I know it when I hear it. There is a release, a flowing out, a fullness to it that is not the same as richness or musicality. I can talk about it in this way because I do not feel that I "created" this music as much as allowed it to "emerge". It is this emergence that is inexplicable and incapable of being made solid, and feel (or felt) as though not only do you never step in the same river twice, but you are never the same when stepping in the river. The river has always been there, despite our polluting it. This is a miracle, and in this day and age we need it. At least I do."

Keith Jarrett