Vinyl Vault: Keith Jarrett, “The Köln Concert”

Fifty years ago this month, ECM Records released the best-selling solo album in jazz history, “The Koln Concert” by Keith Jarrett. The album of improvised music sold over 4 million copies and remains popular worldwide. ECM is reissuing the album next month. This week on the Vinyl Vault, we’ll hear a portion of this legendary double LP.

The circumstances surrounding the concert and its promotion were so dramatic and unusual that they are the subject of a current film entitled “Koln 75.” The action centers on the 18-year-old neophyte concert promoter, Vera Brandes. She arranged for the concert to be held in the Opera House in Cologne, West Germany, on January 25, 1975. The concert could not begin until 11:30 p.m. to allow an Opera performance earlier in the evening. Nevertheless, the 1400-seat Opera House sold out.

Meanwhile, Brandes had sent a plane ticket to Jarrett for a flight from Zurich, Switzerland, to Koln. Instead, he exchanged the ticket for cash and drove, arriving later than planned and exhausted from the trip. Compounding the physical problems, Jarrett had been suffering from back pain, which required him to wear a brace.

Another serious problem concerned the piano to be used for the performance. Jarrett had specified a particular model of Bosendorfer. The day of the concert, the stage crew found a Bosendorfer backstage and assumed that it would be the one for the concert. Unfortunately, it was the wrong model. It was a baby grand instead of a full-sized grand piano, and the quality was poor. It was only used for rehearsals. By the time the mistake was identified, it was too late to find a replacement piano, especially because of the low January temperatures and the local rainstorm, which made moving a piano in those conditions on short notice impossible. The piano tuner spent several hours working on the baby grand to make it playable, but even then, the high notes were thin and the bass notes weak.

Jarrett tried playing the baby grand, but when he learned no replacement was available, he initially refused to perform. Brandes had to talk him into going on with the show, which, by that time, was only a few hours away. Ultimately, he relented in part because the recording equipment was already set up. He compensated for the substandard piano by playing primarily in the middle range.

You can hear the results of this drama on the next Vinyl Vault with host Geoff Anderson, on Tuesday, November 4, at 8:30 p.m. on KUVO JAZZ.