Yikes. If I came across as some sort of Jarrett "fanboy" that was definitely not my intent.
To summarize:
1) I have no problem if someone dislikes Jarrett's music. Different strokes and all. I personally don't like all of it, as I'm sure you can find out if you comb the archives.
2) I have no interest in defending Jarrett the person. He's a putz.
3) I do think that people's opinions of his music are affected by extramusical factors (as you can see from this thread) -- his obnoxious personality, his pretentious blatherings, his financial success, his occasionally cult-like followers, etc. That's completely human, but it needs to be acknowledged.
4) I also think that blanket "objective" dismissals of his work, dismissals of his contribution to his music (ie "group X works in spite of his playing"), or the even stronger suggestion that he's an (artistic) phony are BS. (The obvious implication of these arguments is that the many people who seem to genuinely love his music are 'wrong'.)
5) Many of the "objective" criticisms directed against his music could easily be directed at other more "politically correct" pianists or musicians. (For example, Jarrett vs. Herbie's gospellisms. Or Jarrett vs. Byard on the eclectic nature of their playing.)
6) Hopefully if any other musician came under unfair criticism on this board, I'd act in exactly the same way.
Guy
Amen.