Last month, the brilliant and cerebral jazz musician Keith Jarrett, once a member of Miles Davis' inner circle, was permanently banned from Umbria's annual jazz festival after calling several amateur photographers "assholes". Watch his on stage outburst here.
In the field of rock'n'roll, Jarrett's outburst would have passed entirely unnoticed. But then to be truly, memorably rude to your audience in rock'n'roll, you need to make that exponential jump: industrial metal bangers SPK dismantling London's ICA with power tools springs uneasily to mind, as does Kevin Rowland's extraordinary habit of slapping spectators for talking during his songs. And of course there was Sid Vicious, who enjoyed bludgeoning the first couple of rows with his bass guitar, which frankly was the only use he ever got from the damn thing.
Jazz, however, is supposed to be polite, with jazz musicians expected to be urbane sophisticates. Quite how jazz acquired this reputation is beyond me. Anyone who has ever bothered to read a book on the subject (and one would hope that the organisers of the Umbria Jazz Festival might have done just that) will know that the behaviour of jazz's most revered musicians make the antics of Led Zeppelin look positively demure.
Jarrett has, at least through his management, issued an apology. This is a shame, as concerts in general and jazz concerts in particular would be much improved by the banning of all mobile phones and cameras. "Assholes" is the least of it.
