Keith Jarrett Rails Against Photographers At Umbria Jazz Festival
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The most anticipated event of this year’s Umbria festival in Italy was the performance by Keith Jarrett. Most tickets had sold out when it was announced that he was on the festival bill and at £56 a seat it shows that his popularity in Italy is a strong as ever. But rather than welcoming the audience to the concert he chose to unleash a torrent of abuse at those in the audience foolish enough to bring cameras or phones with them. "I don't speak Italian, but get someone who speaks English to tell you - turn those fucking cameras off now," were his comments to the 2,500 in the crowd, and better still "I reserve the right to walk off stage at any time if I see anyone taking pictures, and that goes for Jack and Gary too. If you see anyone with a camera, you have the right to take it off them."
This was not well received by the crowd but after this rather abrupt start to the evening Jarrett, Gary Peacock on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums played brilliantly all evening from the opening 'Green Dolphin Street' and 'Last Night When We Were Young' to the sublime version of Paul Desmond's 'Late Lament' and 'I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life' that closed the first set. The shorter second half started with 'A Raggy Waltz', 'Django' and ended with 'Joy Spring', it was noticeable how as the performance progressed the applause from the audience grew as the invective of the opening was soon forgotten in the glory of the music. It was obviously too good to last and as the trio took the stage for what should have been a triumphal encore the temptation proved just too much for someone in row three who took a flash picture of Jarrett as he stood at the microphone to acknowledge the applause. Jarrett simply said: "Thank you very much, but after that there is now no encore" and the band walked off.
Report: Tim Dickeson