50 years Köln Concert

Friday evening, 24 January 1975, Alban Berg's ‘Lulu’ was performed at the Cologne Opera House, with the performance ending at 10 p.m., as the evening programme noted. That same evening, an extraordinary concert took place: The American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett gave a solo recital, organised by the young concert promoter Vera Brandes. What happened that evening is now legend. ‘I wanted a midnight concert right from the start,’ says Vera Brandes. And an artist like Keith Jarrett was supposed to perform at the most prestigious venue in the city: the opera house with its 1,300 seats. It almost didn't happen. The promised large Bösendorfer Imperial grand piano - a model with a full sound spectrum, ideal for Jarrett's virtuoso style - remained in the closed corridor between the opera house and the theatre, well packed and impossible for the pianists to find. Instead, a smaller, older Bösendorfer model was brought on stage from a rehearsal room. It was not only badly worn, but also had tonal defects: the upper treble sounded shrill, the lower registers dull. An ad hoc piano transport across Neumarkt was rejected after the piano tuner asked Vera Brandes whether she still had a savings book with DM 40,000 left. That's how much it would cost if the grand piano was damaged.
While the piano tuners tuned and prepared the existing instrument as best they could - they placed felt under the hammers to equalise the sound - Vera Brandes fetched Keith Jarrett from the car into which he had retreated. He was tired, hungry and in poor health after an exhausting tour. Here came the legendary words: ‘Okay, I'll play. But never forget - just for you!’. At around 11.30 pm, the concert that was to go down in history as ‘The Köln Concert’ began with a simple motif in G major, which Keith Jarrett varied and expanded until it became a rich soundscape. The limitations of the instrument forced him to play in an unusual way: he had to find creative ways to compensate for the weak bass and therefore worked increasingly with rhythmic patterns and repetitions. The improvisation lasted around 66 minutes and was divided into four parts. The atmosphere in the opera house was electrifying; the audience was captivated from the very first minute. The concert was recorded by sound engineer Martin Wieland on behalf of ECM Records. What was originally planned as a one-off live performance later became the best-selling solo jazz recording in music history and one of the most successful jazz albums of all time.
To date, over 4 million copies have been sold worldwide. The album not only brought Keith Jarrett worldwide recognition, but also changed the perception of solo jazz piano concerts. It showed how a musician could create profound emotional and musical structures through improvisation without resorting to existing material. The music radiates a unique mixture of melancholy, ecstasy and intimacy that continues to fascinate listeners to this day. Vera Brandes, who was just 17 years old at the time, was already one of the youngest concert organisers in Germany. She had a special flair for innovative artists and was largely responsible for getting Jarrett to play in Cologne. After the success of the ‘Köln Concert’, she made a career in the music industry and later became involved in the therapeutic effects of music. The piano tuners who saved the instrument remain anonymous. There are also legends about a mysterious gong that is said to have been heard during the concert. Whether this gong actually existed or whether it was an acoustic effect remains unclear. These little mysteries contribute to the fascination of the evening. ‘The Köln Concert’ not only influenced generations of jazz musicians, but also artists from other fields. The minimalist style of the album became an inspiration for filmmakers, writers and painters.

If you would like to find out more about ‘The Köln Concert’, we recommend the radio feature in the media centre of our cultural partner WDR3: