The Köln Concert

Occupation

Piano: Keith Jarrett

The Köln Concert is vinyl recording of an improvisational solo concert, which took place at the Cologne Opera on 24 January 1975. It is the best-selling and best-known publication of Keith Jarrett, as well as the best-selling jazz solo album and best-selling piano solo record.

Expenditure

The recording was released in 1975 in the ECM as a double album on vinyl (ECM 1064/1065 ST), is available as a single CD since 1983 and consists of four parts of a total of 67 minutes in length. Producer of the recording is Manfred Eicher; Sound engineer Martin Wieland.

Circumstances of the recording

Like other solo concerts of Keith Jarrett, as Solo Concerts Bremen / Lausanne, The Köln Concert was a free impromptu concert. From the solo concerts, there is the claim of Jarrett, without creating any musical forethought and without a plan " out of nowhere " music. It observes: " It is always when I would come naked on the stage. The most important thing in a solo concert is the first note I play, or the first four notes. If they have enough voltage, the rest of the concert, it follows almost naturally. Solo concerts are pretty much the most revealing psychological self- analysis that I can imagine. "

The recording of the Köln Concert took place under extremely adverse circumstances. The musician had the night hardly slept before, since he had traveled since early morning with his producer in the car from a concert in Switzerland. The actually selected grand piano had been mistaken. Jarrett had to play on a regular baby grand piano, which was actually only used for the rehearsals and was out of tune; also hooked the pedals and some keys jammed. His food before the concert was only a quarter-hour before returning to the Opera House. Only at the express request of the local organizer Vera Brandes Jarrett was ready, but act. The team wanted to emphasize the already live recording, when the recording engineer it agreed, the sold out concert in Cologne finally record them for internal purposes: Keith Jarrett fit the musical events of the instrument and is mainly confined to the middle and low registers, where he repeating patterns preferred. The concert was Arrested by the sound engineer Martin Wieland ( Tonstudio Bauer). For the recording, he used two Neumann U -67 condenser microphones and a portable Telefunken M -5 tape machine.

Construction of the concert

The concert has an unusual for Jarrett simplicity, catchiness and unity. The first part began Jarrett with the melody of the break gongs at the Cologne Opera; in the audience laugh is heard. He developed it ostinatohafte motif figures he played with the left hand while he commented with his right hand, varied and also developed counter figures. The were compared in Part I in a quiet, almost imperceptibly changing between two chords harmonic surfaces on which Jarrett developed repetitive melodies. " What Jarrett of motives, to quiet as instinctual moments of tension, ecstatic harmony redemption and relaxation included here together, is almost overwhelming. He does not seem to have needed an idea to pursue longer, " analyzed his biographer Uwe Andersen.

Part IIa is, however, dominated by a very different mood, reminiscent of the joy of life and the spirituality of a gospel song. At the beginning of this part Jarrett played a rhythmically accentuated hammered 1-4 ostinato in the left hand, on which he played very dance with the right hand. This resulted in a " sustained-release sequel, which started the mood and rhythmic structure of the beginning again and went into a pathetic, oscillating finale, which ended quietly, behavior, meditative ".

Part IIb has clear traits of an elegy, but culminates " in a three -part choir with almost kathedraler sound violence."

Part IIc can be " independent, floating, Album Leaf ' " be seen as a; this piece ends pianissimo.

Track List (CD)

Effect

When critics and the audience The Köln Concert was a great success. The sales figures are about 3 ½ million sold CDs and records. The plate with its striking white cover was seen in many households and " graced the board cabinets that time, as the poster of Che Guevara student digs a decade earlier. " The record was awarded the Prize of the German Phono Academy and was one of Time Magazine as one of the " Records of the Year". Thom Jurek gave the album at Allmusic the highest rating ( 5 stars).

However, Joachim -Ernst Berendt criticized in view of the preference for Jarrett's "certain, often even to simple harmonic progressions and reconciliation" that they do not should go " beyond what the here given". He cites the Polish pianist Andrzej Trzaskowski, both in compositional and rhythmic sense, refers to a " limitation ". The album is still the best known recording of the American artist. In 1992 he provoked in an interview with Der Spiegel, it should all copies of the disk to be pulped so that the listener does not remain "addicted hang on things past ."

The music magazine Jazzwise recorded the album in the list The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World; Keith Shadwick wrote:

"An adept at solo recitals [ ... ], he began a series of in -concert recitals for Manfred Eicher 's label did Attracted acclaim and Increasing public interest, but no -one what prepared for what happened to The Köln Concert When It Appeared. A long series of intensely rhythmical improvisations did Became hypnotic and endlessly repeatable on turntables Throughout the world, the album Became a runaway bestseller by word of mouth, proceed rapidly escaping the confines of the jazz listeners ' community and spreading into the living rooms of people who never ever listened to, let alone owned, another jazz album. This remains the case with Jarrett and with the record, Which is not only a jazz turning-point in its own right but one of the biggest -selling discs in the genre. ". "

" As an expert in solo presentations [ ... ] he began a series of concert presentations for Manfred Eicher's label, attracted the recognition and growing public interest, but nobody was prepared for what happened to the Köln Concert, when it appeared. As long series of intense rhythmic improvisations, the hypnotic and endlessly repeated on turntables in the world, the album an outstanding bestseller that quickly escaped the confines of the jazz listener community and in living rooms of people spread that never ever was a word of mouth Jazz music heard let alone had possessed one. It is a fact with Jarrett and this recording that it is not only a turning point in jazz, but also one of the biggest selling albums of the genre. "

Note transcriptions

1991 concerned two Japanese musicologist a note issue of the Köln Concert, which was published by Schott Music as authorized by Keith Jarrett original transcription. Jarrett writes here in a preface that he was only at the insistence of musicologists and pianist permission for the publication of a transcription was because " ... this improvisation now but already exists in a concrete form and the transcription is only a description of the music ." Previously, he was of the opinion, the product of a single improvisation concert could not be recommended to re-enact.

Published in 1994, the guitarist Manuel Barrueco transcription of Part IIc for guitar.

Published in 2006, the Polish pianist Tomasz Trzcinski his interpretation of the concert on the album Blue Mountain.