The Köln Concert

The Köln Concert is a recording released through ECM by the renowned jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, who performed solo improvisations at the Cologne Opera House in Köln / Cologne in 1975. The album is one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time with sales of more than 3.5 million and the most sold solo album in jazz. The recording is in three parts, lasting 26 minutes, 34 minutes and 7 minutes, respectively. As the concert was originally published on LP, the second part was split into parts labeled “II a” and “II b”. “Part II c” actually is a 3rd part, the encore. The Köln Concert has been hailed as a masterpiece by critics, “flowing with human warmth.”

Preliminaries to the concert were not auspicious. The concert was organized by 18 year-old Vera Brandes, Germany’s youngest concert promoter. At Jarrett’s request, Brandes had selected a Bösendorfer 290 Imperial concert grand piano for the performance. However, there was some confusion by the opera house staff and instead they found another Bösendorfer piano backstage – a much smaller baby grand – and assuming it was the one requested placed it on the stage. Unfortunately, the error was discovered too late for the correct Bösendorfer to be delivered to the venue in time for the evening’s concert.