Chris Jarrett

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Chris Jarrett, 2010

Chris Jarrett (born June 16, 1956 in Allentown , Pennsylvania ) is an American pianist and composer . He has lived in Germany since 1985.

Life

Chris Jarrett was born the youngest of five sons to Daniel and Irma Jarrett. The parents divorced when Chris was a toddler. All of the family's children were musical, three became professional musicians, and his oldest brother is the pianist Keith Jarrett . At the age of 13 he received private lessons from Vincenz Ruzicka (a student of Rosina Lhevinnes). He then took up music studies at the renowned Oberlin Conservatory of Music ( Ohio ), where he saw himself restricted by the academic environment and dropped out. "Years of traveling" followed as factory workers, shrimp fishermen and office workers. He hitchhiked across the United States and Europe.

In 1985 he went to Germany and continued his studies at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg . From 1988 to 1989 he taught at the university. It was here that his career as a professional musician began. He initially composed smaller pieces for piano, later more extensive works were added. His publications include the early LPs "Tanz auf dem Vulkan" and "Call", as well as the later CDs "Fire" (Edition Collage), "Offshots" (with the quartet "Four Free" - released on the Juste une Trace label) and the solo CD "Tales of our Times" (Centaur Records, 2017). He composed theater, ballet and film music, an opera, an oratorio, chamber music, music for readings by Erich Fried and toured all over Europe. Concert tours have now taken him to Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Australia, Canada, Indonesia and Singapore. After his time in Oldenburg, he lived in Neuhäusel near Koblenz (Rhineland-Palatinate). In 2006 he moved to Paris, but soon returned to Germany and has lived in the southern Palatinate ever since. Since 2019 he has been teaching music history as a guest lecturer at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

Chris Jarrett is mainly active as a solo pianist, and he is caught between influences from classical music and jazz - improvisation moves. He also leads the Four Free quartet and plays in a duo with the jazz drummer Erwin Ditzner. Since 2014 Chris Jarrett has also performed regularly in churches and cathedrals with his organ improvisations.

Chris Jarrett is married to the Croatian-American pianist Martina Cukrov Jarrett, with whom he occasionally performs in duo formation.

Discographic notes

  • Tanz auf dem Vulkan (1985, LP, Edition Collage)
  • Appeal (1988, LP, Edition Collage)
  • Fire (1991, CD, Edition Collage)
  • Live in Tübingen (1995, CD, Edition Collage)
  • Scenes & Preludes (1999, CD, Level Green)
  • Short Stories for Piano (2001, CD, Edition Musikat)
  • Chris Jarrett Trio Plays New World Music (2002, CD, Edition Musikat)
  • Wax Cabinet (Four Free) (2009, CD, Edition Collage)
  • Russian horror stories (2012, CD, Edition Musikat)
  • New Journeys - Organ Improvisations (2014, CD & DVD, Atrius Records)
  • Four Free Offshots (Four Free) (2016, Juste une Trace, with Adrien Dennefeld, Jérôme Fohrer, Pascal Gully)
  • Tales of our Times (2017, CD, Centuar Records, USA)

literature

  • Wolfgang Sandner : Half person, half piano. The name guarantees quality: Chris Jarrett a brother of the great Keith. convinces as a pianist and composer. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. No. 57. March 9, 2015. p. 14

Web links

Commons : Chris Jarrett  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Kriest, Under the Radar. Eternal insider tip: The pianist Chris Jarrett at the M & R artists' conference on June 8 in Berlin, in: Junge Welt, June 1, 2019.
  2. ↑ Ulrich Kriest, Under the Radar. Eternal insider tip: The pianist Chris Jarrett at the M & R artists' conference on June 8 in Berlin, in: Junge Welt, June 1, 2019, p. 11, p. 11.
  3. ↑ Christ Jarrett, biography , accessed March 9, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Jarrett, Chris
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Allentown , Pennsylvania, USA