The Mourning of a Star is an album by Keith Jarrett recorded in 1971 with his regular working trio (bass player Charlie Haden and drummer Paul Motian) and released that same year by Atlantic Records. On five dates in July and August 1971 Jarrett went into the studio with Haden and Motian and, along with Dewey Redman on tenor saxophone, produced enough material for three albums, The Mourning of a Star, El Juicio (The Judgement) (released in 1975) and Birth (released in 1972). Although Dewey Redman does not appear on this album, the July and August 1971 sessions marked the metamorphosis of Jarrett's first trio into what would be his future quartet.
The album mostly contains tunes conceptualized in the "traditional" avantgarde piano trio approach heard in Life Between the Exit Signs (recorded in 1967) but also expands to a much richer and colourful soundscape where Jarrett can be heard on different instruments, paving the way to what was to come later with the addition of Dewey Redman on reeds.