Album: The Koln Concert

The Koln Concert is a live solo double album by pianist Keith Jarrett recorded at the Opera House in Köln, West Germany on 24 January 1975.

The concert took place on a Friday at the late hour of 11:30 pm, following an earlier opera performance. The late time was the only one the venuye would make available for a jazz concert—the first at the Köln Opera House. The show was sold out, filled to capacity at over 1,400 people.

At Jarrett's request, a Bösendorfer 290 Imperial concert grand piano had been selected 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 piano—and, assuming it was the one requested, placed it on the stage. The error was discovered too late for the correct Bösendorfer to be delivered to the venue in time for the evening's concert. The piano they had was intended for rehearsals only and was in poor condition and required several hours of tuning and adjustment to make it playable. The instrument was tinny and thin in the upper registers and weak in the bass register, and the pedals did not work properly. Last minute attempts to obtain another grand piano up to Jarrett's standards were unsuccessful.

Jarrett had performed a few days earlier in Zürich, Switzerland, and although the concert promoter had sent him a ticket for a flight to Cologne, he exchanged the ticket for cash and joined ECM Records producer Manfred Eicher and traveled to Cologne by car, and they arrived at the opera house late in the afternoon tired after the exhausting long drive. Jarrett had not slept well in several nights and was in pain from back problems, having to wear a brace as a result. After trying out the substandard piano and learning a replacement instrument was not available, Jarrett nearly refused to play and was about to leave, but was persuaded to stay and perform anyway as the concert was scheduled to begin in just a few hours.

Tired and hungry, Jarrett decided to play largely because the recording equipment was already set up. Heused ostinatos and rolling left-hand rhythmic figures during his performance to give the effect of stronger bass notes, and concentrated his playing in the middle portion of the keyboard.