Song: “The Köln Concert — IIc”

Solo piano recordings hold a special place in my heart, from classical to jazz to blended works. Favorites that come to mind include some by Liz Story, Hélène Grimaud, Vince Guaraldi, and George Winston, but if you feature piano in nearly any musical genre, it’s more likely to catch my ear. I love the instrument.

Last week, an episode of Jordan Harbinger’s podcast included an interview with David Epstein about his book, Inside the Box, which reminds us of the well-known importance of constraints on creativity.

One of the stories Epstein shared was about Keith Jarrett’s 1975 concert in Köln, Germany — a legendary night built on constraints.

Vera Brandes, at 18 years old the youngest concert promoter in Germany at the time, invited Jarrett to perform at the opera house after the main evening’s performance, which meant the show had to start at 11:30 p.m. It was the first jazz concert at the opera house, so the administrators were rather inflexible. But Brandes got the time booked and Jarrett’s agreement.

The show sold out.

Jarrett specified a Bösendorfer 290 Imperial concert grand piano for the performance, but the opera house staff found another Bösendorfer backstage and decided to use that. It was a baby grand that was used as a practice piano, so it was both smaller and in bad shape. It required hours of tuning and adjustment to make it playable. Even then, the instrument was tinny in the upper registers and thin in the bass register, and the pedals did not work properly.

When Jarrett arrived and touched the keys, he deemed the piano inadequate and refused to play the show. He and his manager left to eat dinner and thought they would call it a night.

Desperate, Brandes sought out a replacement piano, but it was cold and raining and the only option would require pushing one under blankets across wet cobblestones as it rained. That was not an option.

Brandes tracked Jarrett down and begged him to play the show. He was exhausted, suffering from a bad back, and had been able to eat very little of his dinner, but he ultimately decided to play the show because the recording equipment had been set up and Brandes was desperate.

Because of the limitations of the piano, Jarrett was constrained to the central portion of the keys. This forced him to simplify his lefthand playing style and vamp in more creative ways over fewer keys. Also, like Grimaud, Jarrett can be heard physically exerting himself, something that always makes piano recordings feel more immediate and exciting to me.

The result is a classic recording that became the best-selling solo album in jazz history and the best-selling piano album. In 2025, the album was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

Brandes went on to become a music producer and researcher in music and media effects, including the effects of music in medicine. Her adventure was dramatized 50 years later in a 2025 film, Köln 75.

This is Part IIc in a concert that is broken up with strange numbering to work on vinyl. There are four parts in sum. I recommend it all. It’s amazing and delightful. The duration of the applause at the end tells you all you need to know.

Enjoy!