Track listing
All of these composed/improvised by Keith Jarrett:
- Part I – 26:02
- Part II A – 14:55
- Part II B – 18:14
- Part II C – 6:57
Notes on the music
On first listening of the recording, one might hear subtle but quite audible laughter from some audience members at the very
beginning of Part I. The reason is that Jarrett quotes the melody of the signal bell in the Köln Opera, which announces the
beginning of an opera or concert to patrons.
Years after Jarrett improvised the Köln Concert,
Part II C also became known as "Memories of Tomorrow." Although Jarrett's
unpremeditated improvisation came first, the song can be found in certain fake books in lead sheet format under that title.
Notes
- Jazz: The Rough Guide, Rough Guides Ltd, London, 1995, p326
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, 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 "IIa" and "IIb".
Part IIc actually is a
3rd part, the encore. The Köln Concert has been hailed as a masterpiece by critics, "flowing with human warmth."
Quite a notable part of the sublimity of this concert is Jarrett's ability to produce seemingly limitless improvised material
over a vamp of one or two chords for prolonged periods of time. For instance, in Part I, he spends almost 12 minutes vamping
over the chords Am7 (A minor 7) to G major, sometimes in a slow, rubato feel, and other times in a bluesy, gospel rock feel.
And for about the last 6 minutes of Part I, he vamps over an A major theme. Roughly the first 8 minutes of Part II A is a vamp
over a D major groove with a repeated bass vamp in the left hand, and in Part II B, Jarrett improvises over an F# minor vamp
for approximately the first 6 minutes.
Since the release of The Köln Concert, Jarrett has been asked by pianists, students, musicologists and others, to publish
the music. At first, he resisted such requests since, as he said, the music played was improvised "on a certain night and
should go as quickly as it comes." However, this improvisation already existed in recording, and the transcription only
represents the music, so he finally came around to publish an authorized edition, but recommended that every pianist who
intended to play the concert should use the recording itself as having the final word. A transcription has also been
published by Manuel Barrueco for classical guitar.
