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CULTURE SHOCK:Musician Keith Jarrett played Carnegie Hall in New York last week where his audience witnessed him almost pluck music from the air

FOR A devotee, going to see a concert of solo improvisations by the great pianist Keith Jarrett is almost as risky as it is difficult. Jarrett mostly plays these days with his superb trio, alongside Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette. He plays solo three or four times a year, mostly in Japan, where he judges the audiences to be sufficiently well-attuned. And it is in the nature of his high-wire act that these solo concerts tend to be either blindingly brilliant (and thus to end up as part of the series of legendary ECM recordings) or to be marred by a grumpiness that extends to walking out because someone has coughed at just the wrong moment.