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Keith jarrett transcriptions bert ligon4/28/2024 It’s doubtful whether US pianist Brad Mehldau – also noted for his extemporized solo recitals – would have made the records he did without falling under Jarrett’s spell.ĭecades after the fact, The Köln Concert remains Keith Jarrett’s solo masterpiece and stands as the major highlight of both his and ECM’s recorded output. The Köln Concert wasn’t Jarrett’s first – or, indeed, last – album of unaccompanied piano improvisations, but it remains his most significant and influential. He’s a mesmerizing conjuror who, by dint of his supreme skill and super-smooth musical transitions, transports us to other worlds with his improvised piano soundscapes. Though the piano was not – to put it mildly – to Jarrett’s satisfaction, for those of us who don’t possess perfect pitch or aren’t pianoforte connoisseurs, the state of the instrument doesn’t impact on our enjoyment of Jarrett’s virtuoso performance. Because he could not fall in love with the sound of it, he found another way to get the most out of it.” According to the record’s producer, ECM boss Manfred Eicher, Jarrett’s reason for taking this approach was to compensate for the piano’s perceived shortcomings: “Probably played it the way he did because it was not a good piano. In fact, one of the distinguishing characteristics of Jarrett’s performance during this part of the record is his reliance on ostinato rhythms played by his left hand, which provided a pulsing, sometimes percussive and contrapuntal accompaniment through most of the piece. It’s more urgent than “Part I,” driven by propulsive left-hand chords. The second piece of the evening (“Part II”) is even longer: a 48-minute improvisation that is spread over Sides Two, Three, and Four of the original release. Besides jazz, the piece draws on folk, classical, Latin, gospel hymnals, and even country music, all bound together seamlessly in what could be described as the musical equivalent of a stream-of-consciousness outpouring. The Köln Concert begins with a 26-minute improvised piece – which filled up Side One of the original vinyl album – that begins in a meditative mood characterized by lucid, singing right-hand lines that glisten with a crystalline beauty (at certain points in the performance, Jarrett can be heard singing the melodies while playing). And if Keith Jarrett thought that was bad enough, he had to contend with malfunctioning sustain pedals.Įven so, the pianist – wearing a back brace to give him extra spinal support – eventually went out on stage at 11.30pm (the concert followed in the wake of an opera performance) and battled through pain and exhaustion to give one of his most memorable concerts ever. They managed to tune it, though couldn’t do much to improve its tone and timbre, which was defined by jangly high notes and a less than resonant bass register. Thankfully, Vera Brandes refused to give in and managed to cajole and pacify the pianist while technicians spent several hours trying to make the piano playable and sound halfway decent – at least to an untrained ear. Given that situation, it was no wonder that the pianist was ready to call it a day. To cap it all, his condition was exacerbated by the exhausting five-hour, 350-mile drive he made to Cologne from a concert he’d given in Zurich. He had been suffering from excruciating back pain for several days, a result of which was a run of sleepless nights. Making matters worse, Jarrett was not in good shape. When he was given the news that there was no time to get a replacement piano, Jarrett threatened to cancel the show. To make matters worse, it was a piano used for opera rehearsals and was in abject condition and badly out of tune.įor a renowned perfectionist such as Jarrett, who was fastidious about his pianos and possessed perfect pitch, the instrument was an abomination. Unfortunately, the opera house staff wheeled out the wrong piano – a much smaller Bösendorfer baby grand. Listen to The Köln Concert on Apple Music and Spotify.Ī young German student and part-time promoter called Vera Brandes – an avid jazz fan who was just 17 at the time – was responsible for organizing the concert and, at Jarrett’s request, had arranged for a Bösendorfer 290 Imperial concert grand piano to be provided for the show. Though The Köln Concert quickly went on to become regarded as a classic and amassed sales of four million (to date, it’s still the best-selling piano album of all time), remarkably, the concert almost never happened. Fortunately, the concert was recorded for posterity by ECM Records, who released the recording later that year as a double-album housed in stylish black-and-white artwork adorned with a picture of an Afro-topped Jarrett hunched over the piano. January 24, 1975, proved a memorable, magical night for the 1,300 people that witnessed American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett perform a solo recital in the majestic surroundings of Cologne’s opera house.
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