Probably the most interesting moment in the excellent DVD entitled, Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation (2005), is the following exchange between the subject and the director, Mike Dibb:

"How important are other things than music in influencing the way you think?"

"More important than music."

"Like writing, philosophy."

"More important than music."

"Really?"

"Yes. You know, one of the biggest fallacies in art circles, and in music circles maybe when people talk about it, is that music comes from music. It's like saying babies come from babies. It's not true. That isn't what happens. Music is the result of a process the musician is going through, especially if he's creating it on the spot."

I found this simply astonishing, and I've been thinking about it at length since seeing the video the other day. As I mentioned above, it's thought-provoking to say the least. We find out shortly thereafter that one of Jarrett's biggest extra-musical inspirations is the philosophy of George Gurdjieff, and that he recorded an album of Gurdjieff's music called Sacred Hymns in 1980. Here is the only link that I could find for one of the tracks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYNyZ1iKbOA. And here's a link to one of Jarrett's clavichord improvisations from his 1986 recording, Book of Ways: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5RfzrztvaA&feature=related. More on Jarrett in posts to come.