Köln Concert “by Keith Jarrett returns to life, 50 years later
On January 24, 1975 Keith Jarrett rose on the stage of the work of the tired colony, hungry, with back pain and in front of it a Bösendorfer plane that should not have been there, forgotten, with a defective mechanics. Convinced to play, he opened improvisation with the notes of the sound that was used in the theater to call the spectators in the room. From those impossible circumstances a legendary concert was born, which was published at the end of the year as “The Köln Concert”, an hour of pure improvisation that became one of the best -selling albums in the history of jazz – over 3.5 million copies. But also a work repudiated by the same author.
A work so legendary that it has become the subject of academic studies (“Keith Jarrett’s the Köln Concert” by Peter Elsdon for Oxford University Press) and also of a film, “Koln 75”: presented to the Berlinal, tells the story from the point of view of Vera Brandes, the young organizer who with his tenacity made that evening possible.
Cologne’s was not only a concert, but the incarnation of the paradox of improvised art that becomes a disc and then myth. An untouchable, unrepeatable evening, yet in some way universal – which finds a new life in Piano City, with Cesare Picco. The Milanese pianist will bring his reinterpretation of “The Köln Concert” to the steam factory this evening, Saturday 24. An act of “gratitude”, as he himself defines it: “A sort of return for all the wonder of sounds that Jarrett has given the world in these fifty years”, he tells Rockol.
The enchantment of the prediction generates total music
“An hour of total music that takes you for a walk in time and space”: so Picco defines the “Köln Concert”. “The strength of this music is such that any mental barrier we have – is it jazz? Is it pop? Is it classic? – shatters instantly,” says peak. It was not his first meeting with Jarrett, on the contrary: “The Cologne concert came after many of his other albums. His listening generated something strange, unsettling. It was different, he had something that I could not define then and I understood that something after”.
That legendary music is what peak today tries to face, not to emulate. Because the “Köln Concert” has become untouchable not only for its content, but for the legend that surrounds it and for the will of Jarrett himself, who allowed a transcription in score only many years later.
Reinterpreting a improvisation means walking on the edge of nothing. Peak knows it well. “The clear thing is that nobody can ever play it like him, the difference does the mental approach that I can use. Here we do not perform music previously written, as if it were a score of Chopin or Bach: this music has been created instantly and entering that emotional state and deep meditation can make a difference. I think this is the key to a correct interpretation”.
It will not be a philological execution, but a mental adhesion. Picco will use that official transcription published in the 90s, approved by Jarrett himself, but he considers it only a base: “It is good at eighth percent. The fact that there are no indications of dynamics or interpretation, except the BPM, ideally transforming these pages into a baroque music score” is fun. “
And the plan will also be “wrong”, like that of Jarrett: a Bösendorfer of the same brand and measure, with technical changes aimed at recreating the defects of the original. “With the official technical leader Bösendorfer – Alessandro Montemagno – we intervened on the mechanics of the instrument trying to recreate as far as possible the defects of the original, also focusing on the noises of the pedal, an integral part of these music”.
Keith Jarrett, pop and future
“His pop strength is what made him so usable and famous in the world, reaching everyone using simple harmonic codes,” explains Picco. “We must not think of Italian pop, but the American one, thinking of Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell as the gospel echoes deeply rooted in his musical culture”. The most exciting moments, he says, “draw on the most immediate and simple codes that popular music can donate”.
All this was born from an idea of Ricciarda Belgiojoso – artistic director of Piano City Milan – who proposed the idea of the execution a few months ago. The concert is part of the celebrations for VESAK, the most important Buddhist holiday, organized by the Italian Buddhist Union, to the steam factory.
The Milanese evening will be only the beginning. “Debutto on May 27 in Perugia with ‘The Köln Concert Variations’, a collateral project I thought during the study of the original,” explains Picco. A journey that will develop throughout the 2025/2026 season, where improvisation will enter and leave the score, and where a keyboard will be joined on the piano: “To immerse the original atmospheres in a world of contemporary sounds”.
It is the best way to honor music that, by definition, should not be replicated. But that, like all legends, continues to resonate over time.
