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Subscribe to the Artwell newsletter: ⁠https://jacobkelly.substack.com/⁠About Keith JarrettBecoming one of the greatest jazz pianists, classical interpreters, or composers of your generation is an incredible feat… Keith Jarrett is considered all three.A prodigious talent, Keith was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1945, and began learning the piano at age three, two years later — at the age of 5, he had his first TV appearance, by seven he played a two-hour classical solo concert in his home town, and by nine he performed solo at Madison Square Garden as part of a Lion’s Club Convention.In his teens, Keith was personally invited to train in France under legendary composition teacher Nadia Boulanger, who trained many of the greatest classical musicians of the 20th century. However, he declined the invitation and instead opted to attend Berklee School of Music in Boston to learn Jazz.His stint at the renowned music school was short lived as he was thrown out after a year, which led him to New York City, there he scraped by until he found consistent work in the jazz world — briefly joining Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, becoming a mainstay in Charles Lloyd’s innovative quartet, and eventually playing in Miles Davis’ electric band, before striking out on his own.The 1970s was a busy period for Jarrett, in addition to leading two popular jazz bands, known respectively as the “American Quartet” comprised of Dewey Redman on sax, Charlie Haden on bass, and Paul Motian on drums, and the “European Quartet” with Jan Garbarek on sax, Palle Danielsson on bass, and Jon Christensen on drums — Keith also pioneered a new kind of performance, the improvised solo piano concert.Each concert was completely unique, with Jarrett composing new material for each show, live and on the spot, never to repeat that music again. His 1975 Koln concert has gone to become both the best-selling piano recording and the best selling solo jazz album in history with around 4 million sales. In 2025 the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry.With both his quartets disbanding by the end of the decade, the 1980s was an adventurous period for Jarrett. While continuing to perform his popular solo concerts, Keith formed a new trio known as the “Standards Trio” with Jack DeJohnette on drums and Gary Peacock on bass — which would go on to become one of the longest lasting and most celebrated jazz trios in history, he would record the experimental multi-track record Spirits where he played more than a dozen instruments, and he would return to the classical piano world with notable interpretations of Bach, Mozart, and Shostakovich.In 1996 Jarrett was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which resulted in him stepping away from performing entirely. Thanks to experimental treatment, he was able to record the 1999 album The Melody at Night With You in his home studio, before returning to the stage with the Standards Trio later that year.Keith Jarrett continued to perform solo, with the trio, and with orchestras until suffering two major strokes in 2018, which left him unable to use his left hand — effectively bringing the seventy year long career of one of the most innovative and prolific musicians this world has ever known to a close.Dig DeeperRead: ⁠Keith Jarrett: The Man and his Music by Ian Carr⁠Watch: ⁠Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation ⁠

Subscribe to the Artwell newsletter: https://jacobkelly.substack.com/About Keith JarrettBecoming one of the greatest jazz pianists, classical interpreters, or composers of your generation is an incredible feat… Keith Jarrett is considered all three.A prodigious talent, Keith was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1945, and began learning the piano at age three, two years later — at the age of 5, he had his first TV appearance, by seven he played a two-hour classical solo concert in his home town, and by nine he performed solo at Madison Square Garden as part of a Lion’s Club Convention.In his teens, Keith was personally invited to train in France under legendary composition teacher Nadia Boulanger, who trained many of the greatest classical musicians of the 20th century. However, he declined the invitation and instead opted to attend Berklee School of Music in Boston to learn Jazz.His stint at the renowned music school was short lived as he was thrown out after a year, which led him to New York City, there he scraped by until he found consistent work in the jazz world — briefly joining Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, becoming a mainstay in Charles Lloyd’s innovative quartet, and eventually playing in Miles Davis’ electric band, before striking out on his own.The 1970s was a busy period for Jarrett, in addition to leading two popular jazz bands, known respectively as the “American Quartet” comprised of Dewey Redman on sax, Charlie Haden on bass, and Paul Motian on drums, and the “European Quartet” with Jan Garbarek on sax, Palle Danielsson on bass, and Jon Christensen on drums — Keith also pioneered a new kind of performance, the improvised solo piano concert.Each concert was completely unique, with Jarrett composing new material for each show, live and on the spot, never to repeat that music again. His 1975 Koln concert has gone to become both the best-selling piano recording and the best selling solo jazz album in history with around 4 million sales. In 2025 the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry.With both his quartets disbanding by the end of the decade, the 1980s was an adventurous period for Jarrett. While continuing to perform his popular solo concerts, Keith formed a new trio known as the “Standards Trio” with Jack DeJohnette on drums and Gary Peacock on bass — which would go on to become one of the longest lasting and most celebrated jazz trios in history, he would record the experimental multi-track record Spirits where he played more than a dozen instruments, and he would return to the classical piano world with notable interpretations of Bach, Mozart, and Shostakovich.In 1996 Jarrett was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which resulted in him stepping away from performing entirely. Thanks to experimental treatment, he was able to record the 1999 album The Melody at Night With You in his home studio, before returning to the stage with the Standards Trio later that year.Keith Jarrett continued to perform solo, with the trio, and with orchestras until suffering two major strokes in 2018, which left him unable to use his left hand — effectively bringing the seventy year long career of one of the most innovative and prolific musicians this world has ever known to a close.Dig DeeperRead: Keith Jarrett: The Man and his Music by Ian CarrWatch: Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation

In 1989 Tom Schulman won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Dead Poets Society.He followed this up with screenplays for two hit comedies, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and What About Bob?.In 1997 he made his directorial debut with the Joe Pesci led, Eight Heads in a Duffel Bag. He recently returned to the director’s chair for his 2022 film, Double Down South.Subscribe to the Artwell newsletter: https://jacobkelly.substack.com/

More lessons and stories I cut from the Robin Williams deep dive.Subscribe to the Artwell newsletter: https://jacobkelly.substack.com/

Robin Williams is an Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy award winning actor and comedian. He first rose to prominence for his breakout role as Mork in the hit '70s sitcom, Mork and Mindy. Following Mork, Robin received praise for his dramatic turn in films such as Dead Poets Society, Awakenings, and The Fisher King. In the '90s, Williams became one of the highest-paid movie stars in the world thanks to films like Hook, Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Jumanji. In 1998, after three prior nominations, he finally won an Oscar for his performance as Dr. Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting. Despite a slowdown at the box office into the 2000s, Williams received Best Comedy Album nominations at the Grammys for his final two standup specials, Robin Williams Live (2002) and Weapons of Self-Destruction (2009), with a win for the former. In 2011, Robin starred in a Broadway production of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo to much praise. However, many consider his exclusion from the Tony Awards to be a snub, denying him the opportunity to achieve an EGOT before his passing in 2014.In part two of our deep dive into his career, we will discuss his time as a movie star, his final two standup specials, and his passing.Subscribe to the Artwell newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://jacobkelly.substack.com/

Robin Williams is an Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy award winning actor and comedian. He first rose to prominence for his breakout role as Mork in the hit '70s sitcom, Mork and Mindy. Following Mork, Robin received praise for his dramatic turn in films such as Dead Poets Society, Awakenings, and The Fisher King. In the '90s, Williams became one of the highest-paid movie stars in the world thanks to films like Hook, Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Jumanji. In 1998, after three prior nominations, he finally won an Oscar for his performance as Dr. Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting. Despite a slowdown at the box office into the 2000s, Williams received Best Comedy Album nominations at the Grammys for his final two standup specials, Robin Williams Live (2002) and Weapons of Self-Destruction (2009), with a win for the former. In 2011, Robin starred in a Broadway production of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo to much praise. However, many consider his exclusion from the Tony Awards to be a snub, denying him the opportunity to achieve an EGOT before his passing in 2014.In part one of our deep dive into his career, we will focus on his rise to fame with Mork and Mindy, and his first three comedy specials.Subscribe to the Artwell newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://jacobkelly.substack.com/

My guest today is Howard Bloom, as a music publicist in the 1970s and ‘80s he worked with talent like Michael Jackson, Prince, Bob Marley, Queen, Joan Jett, and more. In 1979, New York Magazine put him in their "Hot 100 plus" list as one of its "Big Dealmakers"This is Howard’s second appearance on this podcast, in our first interview back in 2023, we discussed his time in the music industry as I tried to understand what made someone a star.When I reached out to Howard for this interview, it was with the intention of continuing our conversation about the music industry, however, he told me his new book, The Case of the Sexual Cosmos: Everything You Know About Nature Is Wrong was set to release and he was only taking interviews about that.That may seem like an odd book for a former music publicist to release, but one thing you have to know about Howard is you can’t put him in a box. You see, Howard left the music industry in the late 80s after suffering a debilitating illness, and after overcoming it in the early 2000s, he returned to his first love of science.And Howard believes, as Einstein believed, that in order to be an original scientific thinker, one must be a writer, and not just a good writer, but a great one. And so while an in-depth conversation around Howard’s scientific theories would not make sense for this podcast, I was interested in exploring the process of a polarizing writer who is striving for greatness.And so now without further ado, I am very excited to present to you, my second interview with Howard Bloom.Get a copy of Howard's book: https://www.amazon.com/Case-Sexual-Cosmos-Everything-Nature-ebook/dp/B0F92TTVND/Subscribe to the Artwell newsletter: https://jacobkelly.substack.com/

What I learned interviewing writer and filmmaker Baron Ryan.Get a copy of Baron's short story collection, A Comedy of NobodiesWatch Baron's debut feature film, Two Sleep People: Coming Soon

Baron Ryan, also known as @americanbaron on ⁠TikTok⁠ (2.9M) and ⁠Instagram⁠ (1.3M) is a writer and filmmaker who rose to prominence making short films on the internet that wrestle with life, love, and the meaning of it all.At the end of 2024 Baron released a collection of short stories called ⁠A Comedy of Nobodies⁠, his fiction debut that traces a fall semester in the lives of four typical but unforgettable university students.This interview was recorded on Saturday, April 19th, 2025, exactly one week before Baron premiered his debut feature film, Two Sleepy People, at the Camp Film Festival in Austin Texas.---⁠Subscribe to the Artwell newsletter

What I learned interviewing Veronica Cartwright, actor, The Birds, Alien, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and The Witches of Eastwick.Subscribe to the Artwell newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠https://jacobkelly.substack.com/