“Peacock and DeJohnette have the same kind of integrity as Jarrett in their life and their work, the same values and commitment. Above all, they followed their inner needs and instincts and were always scrupulously honest: they would never continue to work with Jarrett if they could not commit themselves to his music; in such a case , they would simply leave. There was also a mutual respect of a very high order." "Keith Jarrett: The Man and His Music”

“Talking of his relationship with Jarrett, DeJohnette says, “I love him because, as a pianist and drummer myself, I can identify with him … the concept of what to ignore, what to leave in, what to leave out… we intuitively understand that … that’s why when we play together… we never know what’s going to happen, but we always get something happening that turns us on.”

“Jan Garbarek about Keith Jarrett:“What people don’t consider is all his wonderful ways of accompanying his own melodies. That is only that version. But I’ve played with him so many nights and they were all different!... The way he voiced things and the inner lines he played behind the melody, and his own compositions were often radically different, but no less beautiful… It’s hard to believe!”

“The Rolling Stone magazine: ” Jarrett… demonstrated his strengths – his sure times, his far-ranging imagination, his sharply-honed technique and his particular inner fire, which is at once steady and vulnerable. When he plays alone, Jarrett pushes his creativity to its limits. It’s almost scary to hear someone who apparently relies so totally on the spirited, flowing, almost effusive directions of his muse, yet the muse seems to never let him down.”

“These solo concerts were without precedent, not only in jazz history, but also in the entire history of the piano. They were not renditions of composed music committed to memory, nor were they a series of variations on composed themes. They were attempts at very long stretches (up to an hour at a time) of total improvisation, the creation from scratch of everything: rhythms, themes, structures, harmonic sequences and textures. Before a concert, Jarrett would try to empty himself of all preconceived ideas, and then allow the music to flow through and out of him. He said that if he was not able to empty himself he would, almost invariably, have a concert that was not as good. There might be periods when he seemed to be marking time but and feeling his way into a new area, but this was also part of the total experience which delighted and enthralled audiences. The sustained intensity of Jarrett’s inspiration during these marathons was literally awesome and, almost in the sense of preacher and congregation, he seemed to want the audiences to be not only witnesses but also participators on the occasion...”

“The moral, I suppose, would be that the first requirements for a heroic career are the knightly virtues of loyalty, temperance, and courage. The loyalty in this case is of two degrees or commitments: first, to the chosen adventure, but then, also, to the ideals of the order of knighthood. Now, this second commitment seems to put Gawain's way in opposition to the way of the Buddha, who when ordered by the Lord of Duty to perform the social duties proper to his caste, simply ignored the command, and that night achieved illumination as well as release from rebirth. Gawain is a European and, like Odysseus, who remained true to the earth and returned from the Island of the Sun to his marriage with Penelope, he has accepted, as the commitment of his life, not release from but loyalty to the values of life in this world. And yet, as we have just seen, whether following the middle way of the Buddha or the middle way of Gawain, the passage to fulfillment lies between the perils of desire and fear.”