Keith Jarrett's The Koln ConcertKeith Jarrett ranks among the most accomplished and influential pianists in jazz history. His The Köln Concert stands among the most important jazz recordings of the past four decades, not only because of the music on the record, but also because of the remarkable reception it has received from musicians and lay-listeners alike. Since the album's 1975 release, it has sold over three million copies: a remarkable achievement for any jazz record, but an unprecedented feat for a two-disc set of solo piano performances featuring no well-known songs. In Keith Jarrett's The Köln Concert, author Peter Elsdon seeks to uncover what it is about this recording, about Keith Jarrett's performance, that elicits such success. Recognizing The Köln Concert as a multi-faceted text, Elsdon engages with it musically, culturally, aesthetically, and historically in order to understand the concert and album as a means through which Jarrett articulated his own cultural and musical outlook, and establish himself as a serious artist. Through these explorations of the concert as text, of the recording and of the live performance, Keith Jarrett's The Köln Concert fills a major hole in jazz scholarship, and is essential reading for jazz scholars and musicians alike, as well as Keith Jarrett's many fans. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic Age music album approach articulated artist audience Beat Brubeck Chapter Charlie Haden Chick Corea chord Cologne Cologne concert Cologne performance Cologne recording composition Concert recording context create creative critics cultural described diatonic effect Eicher Europe free improvisation free jazz function Gary Burton German groove passage harmonic idea important improvised music inflection instance January Jarrett performing Jarrett plays Jazz Festival jazz musicians Jazz Recordings Keith Jarrett kind Köln Concert label left hand liner notes listeners major mance Manfred Eicher melodic Miles Davis minor modal musi opening particular Paul Bley pedal pianist Piano Improvisations Piano Improvisations Vol piece progression release rhythmic right hand right-hand lines rock Rolling Stone rubato seems sense sequence shown in Example significant simply solo performances solo piano song sound structure studio style suggests Termini theme tion tonal tour transcription Tristano tune University Press vamp vamp passage York