You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - "The Köln Concert" – Keith Jarrett

Episode Date: November 24, 2025

Keith Jarrett's "The Köln Concert" is the best selling solo piano album of all time. But why this album? Possibly because it sounded like nothing else in popular music at the time of its release in 1975. It is cinematic, genre-fluid and masterful – in many ways ahead of its time.Jazz musicians Adam Maness and Peter Martin listen to one of the most popular albums in the history of jazz, pulling apart all the elements that make it great: the melodies, the vamps, even the "soul" of Jarrett's notoriously flawed piano. If you know "The Köln Concert" well, watch for the analysis and hot takes. If you haven't heard this album before, it may just become the soundtrack to your life!Start your free Open Studio trial for ALLLLL your jazz lesson needs: https://osjazz.link/yhi   00:00 - Is it Köln or Cologne?06:30 - Part I09:20 - How Jarrett Made Music for the Moment17:00 - Jumping Back Into Part I23:00 - Joyful and Fearless 29:00 - All the Genres33:20 - Legit Amazing AND Popular36:05 - The Harp42:00 - Part II a48:25 - 80s Cinema Vibes54:20 - Part II b1:00:55 - Part II c1:04:00 - Apex Moments & Categories1:11:45 - GALA + Black Friday at Open Studio!

I'm Adam Mance. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear Podcast. Music Explored. Explored, brought today by Open Studio. Go to Open Studio, Jazz.com. Oh. Hello.

Jazz. Listen, me. Hello, who are you? Peter, today we're talking about an album that inspired so many. It inspired me to wear some cologne. Oh, I get it. It's actually pronounced cologne. Oh, it is?

Yes. Well, it's been anglicized as cologne, but I don't know. I thought it was cologne. Okay. Well, that changes everything, doesn't it? Oh, it was recorded. released in 1975. I think you nailed it

with the voice there. Was that, are we on AM radio? What's going on? Yeah, I thought this was like a Cologne concert and I was like, oh, groovy. I guess technically it is,

but it's, this is Keith Jarrett's the Cone concert. Ah, I've heard of that. Classy. Yeah. What's not classy is, if you're on the YouTube, you can see this.

You know what is not classy is that... I couldn't find my LP of this. It's actually possible that Keith Jarrett could see this and I regret doing what I just did

about his great best-selling album of all time. We love Keith Jared here. This is going to be excited because this record, this is one of the most lore-filled, for sure. Storyed records ever made. And it's also the best-selling solo piano record ever.

Over 4 million copies. 4X platinum. We don't use the word platinum a lot when we're talking about piano or jazz. Is this even a jazz record? We've got to talk about that. Yeah. But we don't use the word platinum

because we usually use like Ruby or Diamond L or whatever for every 10,000. Diamond L. 10,000. Is that exactly? Sorry. Wow, what are you a millionaire? But yeah, platinum is a million copies

and this is 4x, which is really crazy. It's insane. For as thoughtful and insightful as a record, that's four LPs, four songs, none of which are called Autumn Leaves or Embris. The titles alone are like, they don't exactly scream hit album. Colne or as you say, Cologne,

Drakard noir. Columnoir. 1975. January 24th, 1975 part one. That's the first track. We're about to listen to it, and it's 26 minutes long. That's catchy as hell as a title.

But what a document, what a, this is the digital booklet that I downloaded. It's funny because it's like, that's a very ECM title, right? I think ECM has this sort of reputation of like taking jazz and putting it almost like in the way that you might frame like a classical concert, right? And that's how a modern classical concert

would be framed as well. But interesting too, because it's, you know, this is all improvised, right? It's all... Well, encore, maybe not. Maybe not the encore. But for the most part, all improvised solo piano. And it just, the whole thing doesn't scream like, yeah, this is going to be a big hit

record in 1975. But lo and behold, it sure was. Yeah, it absolutely was. And continues to sell really well. Streams a lot, all that kind of stuff. And of course, Keechia, solo at the piano. Manfred Iker, ECM Records, the founder, produced this Martin Wyland, the engineer. We're going to kind of talk about how this was recorded in the piano.

But I thought it would be fun. to kind of just jump in. And so we can kind of start to discover as we go or try to figure out like why this record was so successful. Because it's definitely not like there's nothing screaming here. Like you say, it's very like come on in if you want, but we're not, there's no flashy

sign saying, you know, waterbed. Remember like the hotels used to be like put 25 cents in the waterbed? Pete, what kind of hotels are you going to, man? 1975. They never went in. We drove by my family. But 175. Turton X and waterbeds.

I was four years old, by the way. No, it does have, I think I've fashioned that voice to this album because it does have a very like Euro-1975, artistic. It's 11.30 at night. We're going to a friggin' concert. You couldn't me? Yes. My St. Louis heart breaks at that.

Right. I got to be in bed by nine. You know what I mean? The cow has got to be fed in the morning. And it just feels... That's not. You're exaggerated. But I got you. No, anyway.

But it just feels very like continental. The continental, you know what I mean? Yeah. Hey, by the way, side note, do you want to meet on Sunday morning for a continental breakfast? I don't know what counts. Let's do that.

I know a German place out in West County. Okay. Okay, so we're going to jump into this. Just to frame this, 1975, January, Cologne, so it's going to be cold. Cone. Cone, sorry.

I think this was on like a Monday night or something crazy, but it was at the opera house. It was not, I've actually, the filer monie is one of the most beautiful venues, modern, as in 70s, that I've actually played there a couple of times. I always thought it was there. It was actually at the opera house, which is already weird

because they were doing an opera before this. Like that night? That night. No, that evening. Like at 8 o'clock. And so the only time that they could schedule this concert and that he was available, the concert started at 11.30 p.m., which is weird for an opera house, weird for a solo jazz pianist.

The whole thing was kind of weird. But legendary promoter, Vera Brandis, was only 18 years old. That's weird, too. The promoter's 18. Sold the show out for Deutsche Mark. Yeah, just to back up a little bit, the promoter of this show is an 18-year-old woman

named Vera Brandis. There's actually a movie, a German film coming out this year. Yeah, this week. About this week. About this concert. Yeah, I wish we could watch it before recording this episode,

but we'll definitely go check it out. Yeah. I think it's on Apple TV Plus. No, no, it's not on anything yet. It's not on anything yet. It's in like select theaters. But it's all about Vera and putting on this concert and the sort of like the follies

that went on and trying to put this on. Yeah, yeah, it looks super interesting. but famously the piano was subpar I never knew about this that it was a Bosn-Dorf I remember hearing about it was yeah

but he was supposed to be a Bosendorf for Imperial Grand which is weird too because you know all the times I saw Keith later on he always played a Steinway in fact he was notoriously picky about wanting to have an American Steinway would bring it with him wouldn't he? I don't think so

tour with a Steinway maybe I heard he toured across Europe with a Steinway could be certainly could be but at this time he was playing asked for the Bosendor for the 290, the big one, the 10-footer. With the extra keys? With the extra keys.

And what they gave him was like a rehearsal piano that happened to be, you know, it's an opera house. So they have those, it was a Bosendor who was smaller than that one. A baby grand. No, like the Bosnard can play on the intro. Yeah. But, I mean, well, subparter to that, they had to bring in tuners, Vera had to work her magic.

I mean, we don't even use ours on the, we use the stuff here. I know. I know. I know. Yeah. And so I never really, I always heard it was subpar. I didn't realize how subpar it was.

Sounds good to be, man. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure Keith Jerk can make anything sound great. So we're going to jump in and just listen to a little bit. Well, we're going to get started on part one. But think about the piano. And then also this initial theme, as we were preparing for this, you noted something that I never really noticed.

There's a little bit of laughter. Yeah, right as he starts. Right as he starts. And apparently that's because the first theme that he plays, and there's a little bit of controversy, or just misrecollection from several folks that were there. Some people said it was the little bells. It was the melody from the bells.

You know what, a classical concert hall that they play when it's time to go in? Yeah, a little handshake, little... A little handshake. A little handshake. Yeah. Doong, do, do, do, do. But then, apparently, Keith said, no, I don't remember that at all. And somebody else said, no, it was like a clock tower outside that was doing a certain chime that he picked up on.

But it was something that people recognized that Keith didn't even think about. Interesting. Yeah, so anyway, should we jump in? Let's do it. Do we need to douse ourselves with Druck R noir, or are you in the mood now? Simple melody. Groo's already there, right? Or the pulse.

I love that. Tenths. Okay, I want to pause here just because although this is like a 26-minute track, I think, and it's definitely, you know, as Keith talked about and Manfred and other folks that were there, just knowing what his

process was at this time, it was just sit down, stream of consciousness, improvise in the moment. But he's already framing some like kind of sections. And that's sort of the end of... I mean, that's one way of looking at it. It's the first theme. It's the first theme

and he's kind of developed it and like harmonically he set the mood, the textures there and all that. But now we're going to kind of either move on to developing or something. But one of the great things about this record, and if you like this kind of stuff, if you're one of the four million plus that has purchased this

bad boy, is that there's so many different ways like it was just created in the moment, right? And Keith has talked about this in interviews many times. that it is about who, like, what is in the air, that what are the people, what is the sound? Like, is there a chime that goes off

right before he starts? It's entirely something for that moment to be consumed by the humans that are there. He talks about the door. Well, actually, you know what? Let's listen to what Keith says about this. Once I walk out on stage, supposedly everybody's there.

The door is closed. And this is a very private event. And it's only, it's only taking place in that space. The privilege of having recordings is that other people can know what happened in the space, but I disagree with anybody

who says that they can give you exactly what happened in the space. It's always bigger live. Yeah, so we have this incredible document, this recording, and like so many more, you know, a million X more,

people have experienced this through the recording that were there at the time, but it does beg the question of like yes it's not the same as being there but man it's got to be pretty close right because we can listen to it again we can like feel it in a different way

we can come back to it at a different point in our life I mean I remember when I first heard this when I was probably I didn't hear this record actually real early but I was probably like I don't know 16 or 17 or something like that but now the way I listen to it now like the notes are the same the moment was the same but we live with this forever if we want yeah and we have It's just a different experience.

I would imagine if we were going to this concert tonight, right? You and I were in, we're in Cologne, we got on Cologne, and we're going to the, we put on a lot of Cologne. We have a cigarette with a plastic holder. I don't know why. Hell, yeah. And we're going to this concert. I mean, how many of the melodies are we going to remember next week?

You know what I mean? Like, how many of these sections, we're probably going to remember how we felt on the night. Like, I think about my favorite concerts of all times, that I went to live, I don't really remember a lot of the music. You know what I mean?

I don't remember what Benny Green played with the trio with Hutch and McBride a couple years ago. I just remember that whole night that I was there just sitting in

on this incredible feeling. You know what I mean? I remember like certain textures maybe, but I don't remember a thing that Hutch played or a lick or something McBride did. I just remember just feeling transported. And maybe that's me,

but I just feel like the live experience is it doesn't just leave you when you leave that room, but the music itself is kind of like secondary to how you feel when you're there and experiencing it. However, a record is different, because now we study this, we know these melodies, we steal these melodies.

A lot of people do, as we're going to hear, have stolen these vibes, you know what I mean? For sure. And that's because it's on a recording. So I just think it's a different experience. I like what Keith said here. I think it is much, much bigger, and it's just different, you know?

I mean, for real, can remember maybe five actual musical things that have happened not just like events that are happening musically like feels and stuff like that and big changes or whatever. I remember all that stuff but like actual what this killing saxophone player did on this thing.

I just remember feeling that was killing. You know what I mean? Right. But you know what? I think that our the recollection of being at a concert versus living with the record, living with the record is in some ways a much deeper and more accurate representation of it because like how many times have you well I know for me this happened a lot

when I'll be on a game like man that felt so good oh I really feel like I played great there the saxophone player killed it on that tune and you're so because you have that memory you don't remember the exact notes but then you hear recording back and you're like oh

actually it was killing but not at the part that I thought it was like like the memories and just like people that talked about like Keith didn't even remember hearing obviously something happened because people were laughing So he got that melody, but he didn't even remember that or notice it. Like people, and it's not that people are making stories or lying. It's just people's recollections of things that happen in the moment are very different.

So when we have a document like this, this is the LP because I couldn't find my LP at home. I love it so much. This is the digital booklet that I printed out of the record. Printed it to paper. I went old school. I went old school. Is that black and white? Is that from a Commodore 64?

What's going on? It is black and white. The record's kind of black and white. Great design. We're going to talk about that. But the fact that we have this, like, we're able to experience this evening in a way that is so much more accurate,

but it's less, it could be seen as less visceral, less connected in a way. When you're there in that hall, and he's improvising this stuff in front of you live, there's a ton of stakes. Right. It's very risky.

Right, but if we didn't have this recording of this and there was 1,400 people, the concert was sold out, We'd only have those 1,400 people saying, oh, my God, this is the most incredible concert ever. But Keith might say, like, ah, it was okay, but the Bram and Lausanne was actually better because I heard that record.

And then the people in Stockholm or whatever, three nights later would be like, I want to know it was great. But like this, we can go back and verify it. For sure. For sure. No, I'm not saying one's better than the other. I just think, I agree with Keith

that it's just a totally different experience. Yeah. Maybe the best is to be there and then to get the record. I love live music. And then I love albums, too, but I think they're totally different. I think what's so great, about improvised music is that it's, it really is the best when it's live. It's like,

you know, there's a ton of things like that. Theater, stand-up comedy and improvised music, specifically jazz. But even like classical music, I think, is way better live. Right. Way, way better to see the symphony orchestra and everybody playing at the same time in a room with a big audience. I think there's no better feeling than all of that. But that's interesting because that's a little different because you go into a classical, Classical concert, also known as classical. I'm classy You go to that kind of a

You may go there Knowing the repertoire Knowing the notes that are going to be played You don't know how they're going to be played that evening Exactly That's true That's true But you know like there's an anticipation to that

That is based upon Oh I can't wait till it gets to the third move That's the most beautiful part Are they gonna Is the Oble player on that solo Gonna be a little different Probably than any recording you've heard Right but this is like

And maybe you could say Oh is Keith gonna do some bamps? Yes, he probably is. Maybe. But I mean, you don't bring, especially in 1975 when, yeah, he had a couple of solo improvised records out by this point, but this was the one that really broke through where many, many people would know it. So, yeah, I mean, it's just, it's kind of an interesting way to look at it.

Should we kind of go dive through it a little bit more? Absolutely. Okay, so now I have to try to find exactly where it was, but I think I'm close here. From that first little section that we framed. So now he's going into something else, right? Yeah. Spanish on it. And we're going rebuttal for the first time, really. He was dialed in on that groove. Subtle, but...

Keith has great time. Yeah. There you can hear... You hear a little bit of the deficiencies of the piano. You hear that hammer jumping a little bit in a weird way. There. There. He's using it.

He's using as part of the performance. Yeah, I mean, you can't get scared of something like that. You've got to lean into it. Oh, yes, you can. But you can't, but you should try to lean into it. Man, his concentration level. Did you imagine if he had a couple guys talking about what he was playing right next to him? Could he have continued all?

Again, I hope he's listening and I hope he's loving it. Okay, so we were talking about what makes this successful. And I hate to turn this off, but we've been getting some comments saying, why are you talking over the music? I'm also like, this is a podcast where we talk about music. This is not a radio station, so we're trying to hit a middle ground, but I get it. It's hard not to just sit here and just listen because it is so great. But when we talk about what makes this.

record so successful, why did it sell 4 million copies? I don't buy this idea of just like, oh, it was a fluke, and it just happened to be, and it came out at the right time. I think what we've heard so far, we're four minutes into this record. We talk about the importance of the first track of how our record starts. Like, we've pretty much listened to flawless piano playing. Yes. And whether you know about the difficulties of the instrument, you can hear these little things,

which I'm even after all these years, I'm just now starting to hear, I think if you didn't know about the subpar piano, I don't think you'd ever know, because it's not subpar piano playing. So he's definitely, he went into this with some restrictions on the tools that he had, but he made a masterpiece.

I mean, Keith Jared is famously very particular about everything. Yeah, right? I mean, he has this reputation for being very particular about pianos, about halls, about audiences. About backstage. About backstage.

About who's talking to him, who's how they're talking to him. How many M&Ms? I don't know about that. But you get a sense, there's actually a great Terry Gross interview with him from years and years ago. Yeah, we'll link to that. NPR. Yeah, we'll link to the Terry Gross interview. And you really get a sense of how, I mean, he just cares about the music in a very serious way.

And there are loads of great artists who are like this. And I just think it's like, you are right. If he hadn't made a big deal of this, we wouldn't been talking about it. Nobody would be talking about the piano or the quality of it because he makes it sound so good. beautiful. And, by the way, so does Manfrediker. Like, so does the... What's the engineer's name? Was my guy? They make that hall and that piano. I'm sure the hall

sounds great on its own. European opera halls are known for sounding amazing. But I'm sure, you know, like... Two of these and that's what it's before. It's a... The telefunken and a couple of great... Yeah, so... You 67, Normans. Yeah, I mean, it's all going to

sound good and, you know... But for Keith Jarrett, who's very particular about everything... Yeah. He notices this stuff. He knows. Yeah. For sure. And I think, too, you know, part of him being particular about the pianos, that really obviously started after this. There was a point in his career. I mean, he was...

Maybe this triggered it? Maybe so, right. It's like, what was he? Like, 29 years old here. So, I mean, he had some clout. You know, he could sell out in Cologne. Yeah, sure. A mid-sized European city at 1130 p.m. That's saying something, solo piano. but it wasn't until a little bit later

where he would have been like, no, like where they would have made, like his reputation was to the point where oh my God, you have to have everything correctly, you know, and I've been around. I mean,

I got to see him a couple times live and like people, the promoters, people backstage are so nervous to the audience because his reputation for so many years preceded him, right? So they're like,

we don't want to mess anything up and it wasn't just because they were scared of him, I think to a certain way. Well, yeah, maybe for them. But I think for Keith, it was always like, he recognized, how special these moments could be,

how special a concert could be. And it's one thing if you're coming in with your set list and you're playing standards with, you know, Gary Peacock and Jack Dijunette, which he did on many concerts, where it can be a somewhat more relaxed in terms of like, well, we know this is going to be a good show

as long as we concentrate and do our thing. Good instruments, good audience. We're going to play some standards, play some jazz standards, you know, play some tunes. But when you're coming in to create totally from nothing, there's a lot of pressure, solo piano, and not to just go through the motions and fall back on stuff that you know,

but to really create an event and a moment, you know, a participatory cultural moment with the audience, especially Andrew doing a live recording on the telefunken M5? Come on now. Yeah. Shall we continue on a little bit? Let's go.

Yes, this rebuttal kind of section bridging. Unbelievable. Yeah. It's incredible. It's very simple, totally different kind of sound with his left hand. Using the lines In the bottom

The first vocalization on the album Yeah Man, he's really fearless The way he's playing too Yeah, as you said, a little bit of Spanish flamenco flair to it, we would say Sick Open fist and force

Oh I should learn how to play the piano I never think that? Like, I wish I played the piano Man, the control And it's not I mean, yeah, now you're getting to some speed the dexterity.

But what he's doing with the left hand is actually equally as hard. Yeah, it's a beautiful tone. Yeah. And it's just two totally different things. To the time. I mean, you can't tell me he doesn't love this piano a little bit, though, too. Listen to how he's playing it. It's so joyful.

He's making his way towards like, what can I make out of it? And now we've got the time subtle with the left hand. Now he's kicking the pedal, I think. that sustained i mean the um sauce and noodle pedal almost using it as a percussive device right almost and i think the soft pedal i should say i mean that it was apparently broken it wasn't

working he might as well have a stomp box yeah now that i can do building up to something big cool little secondary dominance happening but he kind of revealed it right i mean we're 10 minutes in that's kind of the first kind of gospely a little bit hint of about to move in a little yeah gospel territory ar and b territory yeah That was the first actual two chord to the one chord. Yeah, minor two to see all the different ways we can get from one to the other. Now he's really just like opening it up. Right?

Really pressed it. That's very much pop rock when we're thinking absolutely. What he hasn't done but he's gonna do a lot of on this record. There's blues. He's why this record is so successful. After melodies on that telephone? For the first time. A little bit just in less.

Just the right time though, man. Perfect We're not robots out here No Somewhere new Not for long No When you've been at that other place

So long That's like Like a little sauce Beatles Little Beatles Hormotic movement Take it's similar Keeh

I mean it's like He plays stomp Somehow Flat 6 I hate to do this And I hate to be the bad guy But we have to pause it there Because

I mean Should we just listen The rest of the record That's cruel That's cruel I'm sorry No no we got We're still in the first tune

I mean This is the thing This is why it's first of all, can we just like shout out how amazing it is that this album is the best-selling solo piano album of all time? I mean, it's not really fucking good. Yeah, but it's not like he's just playing like,

you know, everything's so palatable or whatever. I mean, there's craziness going on in there. There is. And how does he get away with it? But it's so, I mean, it's so beautifully executed. It's beautifully executed. Like when he goes crazy, there's always the antidote to it. It's like the groove in the left hand.

The groove is so solid. beautiful melodies. It's like that opens things up. And then even when he gets to the point where it's like, wow, this is great, but it's been vamping. Then he goes into the blue, like he held the blues in the back pocket for longer than he does on some of the other track.

I guess I'm saying, is this not like new age or dumbed down BS kind of music? This is like incredible, legit, amazing improvised music. And like the fact that it's so popular, I don't know what happened. I know. Good for him. Good for you.

Good for you. Good for you. But I mean, sometimes, you know what? I know we're going to bring this up later. I hope he made a lot of money. That's all I'm saying. I think so. Solo pianos don't always make the bank, so I hope you had a good deal on that.

But look, on a certain level, this is what it is. Piano, humans love the piano. It's a popular instrument. Not just to play. Like, we play it. Yeah, we, well, but people love. I feel like I played after listening to that. No, no, no, but people love to listen to it.

Like, it might be the most popular instrument ever in terms of, like, think about film scores. Think about, like, the Beatles or something. Like, yes, there's a lot of different instruments. Of course, guitar is great drum. are important. But I mean, if you're going to have one instrument to really touch the most number of people in the world, QBT? That's not an instrument. That's a tool. I don't know. People have been telling me. But I just think that, you know, you really hear,

like he takes you on a journey, even with this limited piano, we know that the piano can be an orchestra. Like, that's a cliche that we say all the time. Well, I mean, he just proved it. He just proved it, even a substandard one. And I think, like, that's why, like, you can almost think about different film scenes from beautiful filmscapes or things as he's playing these different sections. I think that's another reason people love this record, even though there's no like bangers on there or anything, is that like it can be the soundtrack to you cooking dinner

or you gardening or you staring at your, you know, Macintosh amplifier or to you making love with your spouse. It can be a lot of different things, you know? Can I get five more examples, please? Um... All right. Next track. Oh, actually, there is something...

Next track! If you could skip ahead, I do want to... There's a part of part one that I definitely don't want to miss out on. I call it the harp. It starts at 1947 and it kind of goes all the way to the end, but we can just listen to a little bit. I love this.

This is definitely a texture that I don't recall ever being like, ooh, I'm going to steal that, but I do do this. And I know it comes from this album. It has to. This is a little bit before. This is all still... It's so amazing.

I actually think... You know, so the issue with the piano, I think what you hear there, well, here, let me just play a little more. Listen as he plays something and the notes, something is just sustained. So when you play the piano, unlike a trumpet or a saxophone or something, we generally don't have any control over how the instrument sounds after you play a chord. Or even if you play, like he's doing, right? But listen to how the instrument sounds when it's just being itself. Because I always feel like that's the real soul of the instrument. When it's just ringing.

Yeah. And he does that a lot. The soundboard is the soul. Yeah. Now, he's playing a little bit in between there. I'm going to take it back a little bit when he first starts playing. Here it's just ringing. So I think that's an incredible instrument.

Because I think, you know, when you talk about substandard, I mean, it obviously had technical difficulties and they fixed some of them. But like the soul of an instrument, even a master like Keith Jarrett, can't do anything. I mean, of course he can't because it's the way that he plays it. But once it's just playing. Like if it's an ugly sounding, if it's an ugly soul on that instrument,

you would hear that. So I think he was able to harness it and to get over like only a master can because a lot of people were like, oh, there's no way I could do anything. Well, he did it. Yeah, you know, when we do our YouTube videos on our Steinway B over here,

we get a lot of comments on how great the piano sounds. And it is our amazing engineer, Sam and Caleb has done a lot of these as well. But it's just not a great sound like that. Soundboard on the iraig. You hear that? The soul of this is not great. But the soul of our Steinway gets a lot of credit on that.

And just like this, I also think, too, what you're hearing there is a little bit of the hall. Like the hall is definitely making that ring out. And the humans in the hall. And the humans in the hall. I know I'm getting a little wishy-washy tiki-talkie. No, that's true. Yeah. I mean, because how many times have we been in a sound check and we play with like, man, this hall sounds weird.

Yeah, I mean, you get 1,400, 180-pound bags of water in the... Don't call Germans bags of water. of water, sir? It's all human beings, you know what I mean? But that's the equivalent of it is you get 1,400 of those big bags of water in there and it's going to change the sound of the hall. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now, I love that part and I love the heart part, and I mean, the whole part one is pretty incredible. It's pretty good, huh? So you like it? All right, so we jump into number two? Yeah. Okay, this, I love the title. Did you come up with what you call the beginning?

I call it mooring in America because it reminds me of those Reagan ads. No, so I want to talk about this, though. First of all, you know, Colne is not in America, just so you know. I do, but there's a lot of American music going on in this concert.

Let's be honest. There's a lot of American music. Keith Jared is famously American. And he plays... He's from Allentown, Pennsylvania. I know. Is it getting more American? That's a very American town,

and he's very much an American musician, and we're grateful for him. But I... I want to just throw this out there. I was not alive on Earth during this time, so please put in the comments. Like... I was.

To me, this... I don't hear any other music in 1975 or before 1975, I guess, that sounds like this. But I hear a lot of music in the 80s that sounds like part two, especially the beginning. Oh, good.

I've got some examples. Yeah, yeah. Like, to me, I'm like, when I think about why did this, why this album? Why did this, you know, outsell every other solo piano album? Four million is an insane amount of album sales

for a solo piano, improvised concert. Yeah. Why? And I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there were a lot of, there was a lot of music

that sounded like what he's about to play here. Right. You know, if you think about what's going on in popular music around this time, you've got like, you know, still crazy after all these years winning an album of the year. You got songs in the Key of Life winning album of the year. And Stevie before that, with Inervisions before. Highly crafted and produced records. Highly crafted and produced records.

But just musically, with the pedal point that's about to happen and all the things going around it, to me, it sounds like, I mean, it sounds like soundtracks to 80s films that I like, which is not going to happen for another six, seven, eight years. So if we could start part two, I think you'll get the idea right away. Yeah. Let's do it. Soundtrack to the firm, you know what I mean? This little ostinado, which is the left-hand thing,

but I don't know. I could be wrong. And please, in the comments, for people who are around, like, who else was playing music like this in 1975? I don't know. So that ostinado, that's the thing that's so influential on pianists. I can't do it like that, but they try. D-major, that was a good choice for this cut.

It's a very optimistic morning in America. I mean, the closest that I can think of is maybe like some Billy Joel. Billy Joel for sure. But was Billy Joel like checking this out? Yeah, that's the stranger a little bit late. You know what I mean? But is it that, yeah, I don't think Billy Joel like referenced this. But I think it's like Keith is tapping into the same place maybe, you know.

And the one to four that's got so many connections, church music, gospel blues. A little bit of Genesis Fox Trot, which would have been around this time. But I don't know. I don't know if Keith is listening to that. All right. So now he went straight into the blue. Like, everything was... Well, that's...

This is like the Dave Rusen thing. Yeah. Just so you know Dave Rusen wasn't doing this yet at that time. Well, no. I don't know. Yeah. Right. Hornsby, Grusen.

Right. But you know what's interesting? The way that Keith put this together... Like he went two minutes and it was all like major one to four and so like he sets up

expectation with the listeners so then when he throws that blues in there it's like whoo you know and that perfection on that ostinado I mean shit is free right? Think how asinato is locked down now he can get weird right

you can go Cecil Taylor on your ass yeah no one else is doing that either no one else can do that Yeah. I mean, so check this out. We're going to talk now while this beautiful music, which I know we're not supposed to do, but it kind of works. I think part of the success of this record, and this is a great part here,

is that, did we talk about this already passive versus active? You talked about it, yeah. Oh, we did talk about it. Yeah, I'm just gauging how much offense to take from it. No, no, no, but it's not like this is the rare. I don't think it's a bad thing, but I think that this record, especially certain parts of it can be in the background.

Most great records, like, I don't want them, I either want them on or off. It's kind of... Like, this can kind of work. It's kind of unbelievably palatable at any level. Yeah. You're right. You're absolutely right.

Now, we have our favorite moments where it's kind of like, oh, I want to jump back in there, of course. It's a little Eno-esque in that. Yeah. You could listen very closely and enjoy it, and it could also... Yeah. I hate to use the wallpaper terminology, but, like, it also just sounds good in any space and makes it better. But, you know, obviously, this is recorded as, like, as a concert that you're meant to, like, be in there and present with it. I hear what you say.

Yeah. I mean, it's like if you go into a hotel, like they used to have pianists in every hotel bar, right? They're playing in the background. People love to hear piano in the back. This is like the greatest solo piano in a hotel you could ever. I mean, but this is the thing. People would be like, oh my God, that's Keith Jarrett. But if you didn't know it, you'd be like, wow, it sounds great. Anyway, how are you doing?

Oh, look, check that out. You know, like you'd be back and forth. You'd be rewarded for it. Am I this? I'm talking about the record. I'm not talking about if we were at the gig, we would be talking to each other. like this, you know what I mean? Because we know we can come back and enjoy it.

So I don't know. I'm going to get some shade on this, but Adam told me to say it. There's that. Did you just say Adam told me to say it? Hey, so then he gets into some great weird stuff there. Stand behind your own hot takes here, buddy. Okay, so you mentioned the firm. I love that soundtrack.

I love that movie. Shout out, Gene Hackman. Wilford Brimley, you kidding me? The oats guy. He went off the rails, man. Damn. But big shout out Dave Grusen. Shout out to Tom Cruise doing back handsprings.

That's right. 90s. I'm going to take you back to a little place called the 90s. Early. Is this a Colin concert? No, it's not. This is a Yamaha. This is not a Posendorfer.

But the vibes, right? You know what I'm saying? But has a bit of the flavor. Absolutely. That's what I'm playing. It's a great word. The whole soundtrack is just piano. We should do an episode on the firm soundtrane.

This is one of the best soundtracks ever. Yeah, Dave Gruson. And this is no shade on Dave Gruson, but I... Man, just kill it. But he recorded that on a disclavier, I believe. No. And he laid down the different parts and then added them on and stuff. Damn.

They had those in 1991. Yeah, I think so. Damn. But yeah, that's fantastic. Dave Gruson, the firm, main title. Okay. So we're talking about... That's a good pull, Peter.

Good pull. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's funny because you mentioned it because I was... No, I think... And I could be wrong about this. this could be my own ignorance about music around this time. But to me, it just sounds like it's a little bit prophetic, especially that part two of Dave Gruson.

Yeah. Of like all those GRP late 80s albums, too, even. Like David Binwa has some of this feel. But it's certainly like Bruce Hornsby or... Bruce Hornsby. Bruce Hornsby. Glad you mentioned it. But you know what I mean?

Yeah. Not saying all these musicians are their own artists and make incredible music, but I feel like there is an influence there. But does this kind of Bruce Hornsby playing exists without Coln Conscience be playing exists and that kind of. a good question. Does it not lead to there? Man, what a great musician.

Yeah, fantastic. He's great. I actually got a chance to work with him once. Are you serious? Yeah, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Super nice cat, too. Loves jazz. Love's jazz. Yeah, and even... Some of the best pop piano ever on Bonnie Rates, I can't make you love me. Oh, absolutely. Hornsby, crushing. Absolutely. Absolutely crushing.

Yep. Does this exist without cold concerts? It's your boy, friend of the pod. Brad Meldow? Brad Meldell. I see that kind of thing there? From your mother should know.

Just from a couple years ago. The Beatles thing? Yeah, that's great. Golden Slumbers. I love this track. He's killing. Shout out to Brad's new album, all with Elliot Smith music. If you haven't checked it out, go listen to Brad's new album. Unbelievable.

We should listen to that. We should listen to that and Cecile's new album, by the way. Just putting it out there. For sure. Okay, we're going to listen to a little more. but we brought up before I mean I kind of as we were listening to Part 1 even was talking about like

obviously we can't say this is a jazz record this is a classical record whatever but I was just jotting down some different styles but I want you to go first because I feel like I miss them I have one two three four five six seven eight that I heard in just the first two parts of this I know you hate genres

but if forced into a corner where you'd have to name some genres I mean there's church music of all kinds And by all kinds, I mean, there's, like, Lutheran church music. Yeah. And there's gospel music, like, like, Black American gospel music. Gospel, for them. In there as well.

There's CCM vibes. I mean, I think CCM pulled from this probably and maybe, like, several generations later. Yeah. Obviously, there's jazz. Obviously, we heard D-BOP. Like, we heard, we also heard some of... But jazz is not the... Like, I would not say this is a jazz record.

Oddly enough. What is jazz? No, use your Am voice What is jazz people? What is what is what is what is what is what is what is Cologne even Where is Cologne? Is that in?

What is that in? There are we there are we? Is that in Prussia? Where are we going? Prussia. Oh I remember back in those days. Yeah so I mean jazz for sure but not I mean I would say if I was forced into a corner so I've got yeah

Church, Gospel, CCM I didn't even have those which is stupid. I've still got other ones. Jazz, blues, classical, kind of world music. I think you could put ambient music in there? Ambient.

Like we mentioned the Brian Eno thing? Yeah, yeah, I know. There's some of that. Yeah. There's some of that. Folk. 100%, you know, rock or and or pop.

Like I think the closest thing... Like 70s, early 70s, the closest thing to this sound that I'm talking about, that then we mentioned like Gruson kind of has the same thing. The closest thing I can think of would be like, you know, like the...

The Eagles or like, you know, like folk rock. You know what I mean? But with like strumming guitars, right? That's what he's like, what he's evoking. Ooh, and then leading to like Dubey Brothers kind of, that's not early 80s stuff, right? That's, yeah, that's, it's hard because like this is such a popular album. You got to think all these people heard it.

Right. You know, and we're into it. Right. Americana, whatever that is, I wrote that down. But this is the thing. I would say if you had to push it into a category like Apple music and stuff always does I'd say between jazz and classical

I almost think this is more of an improvised classical record maybe I'm just going off of the comb I don't think so just because all the music It's not a jazz record though Well but it's not a classical record And because all the music he's pulling from It's like American folk music Could basically classical can do that

Yeah but it's not It's in an opera house Okay Okay agree to disagree Now should we move on You're at your car I'm cool water go ahead Should we go to part 2B? Why did they call it that?

That's the third track. What a name for a track. Sure. Okay, this is my... Is this good? It's very good. This is my least favorite of the three parts, which is weird because it's really just one concert, as we say.

But because it was presented in this way as on the LP, we do consume it, I think, as three separate segments, right? Yeah. And then with the... But yeah, I think it's... This is the most kind of vamping that I feel like we could definitely have a conversation over, you know. I don't want to start. I mean, it's incredible.

I want to shout out to like all the, we talk about the vamps. Yeah. The melodies. The melodies, right. Amazing. This is kind of, you know what it's to F sharp minor, not my favorite key. I know I'm picking it. I just feel like this is the longest on this record where he was it.

I mean, it's great. Yeah, it is good. it's just the longest where he's not really going somewhere. I mean, he's going somewhere, of course. Actually, I love this. Change. Like, we're a minute in. We're a minute and a half now.

Isn't it maybe a little bit... In a way, it's just... It's like five and a half to seven minutes of this. It's what happened, you know? Right, it is. And, you know, I think that's the thing. This might be the thing in the context of being at the concert, experiencing this, you might have needed this time.

Yeah. Killing it still. But, I mean, this ability to just... continue that baseline so well. It's pretty awesome. Yeah. And actually I'm gonna skip a head a little bit if I can figure out how to do that on it. Yeah, because he starts to really get into some stuff.

All that stuff while you're keeping that baseline going for three and a half minutes now, that's hard. With that intensity. But yeah, the main variation he brings on this is that occasional, that minor to major blues thing. And then a lot of a lot of Aeolian on this. That's, that's, ooh, suit me. A lot of a olea. You're not messing with the natural minor, man?

I'm not messing with the natural minor, man. But, I mean, that's a, he's stuck on that. Pretty crazy how free he is with his right now. I don't. I'm going to skip ahead a little more. Now we're, I hate to do this. We're past five minutes now. He's still on that, we've been an F-sharp minor over five minutes.

You'd think it might go, it's going to go major, is going to go relative major, but it goes to the related major. Not yet. A little sharp 11 action, but then right back to that minor. But see, now, because that's a long time, because he's messing with the Aeolian,

that D feels very powerful. It does. Doesn't work if he's doing that sharp Dorian. Right. You know? Yeah. He was playing on her head. Yeah, so that's part 2B.

There's obviously much more. He starts really going in there. It's fantastic. But it's just a lot. And that was like, the last piece on the concert, right? But it goes, I mean, it goes on a whole journey. Yeah, you know, it's

this whole thing. So, but there's one more track on the album, which was, I guess, the encore? Yes. So this one's interesting. Yeah, and you can kind of hear, I need to pull it back up, like boom, boom, boom, boom, here, we're moving. We're moving, my friend. Big guy. Okay.

So part 2B, which we just listened to the beginning of as it got into at the end, They're going into clapping, right? Big applause. 1,400 people, right? It's a big, yeah.

And then he comes back out. That's right. Ingo sits down and does this, part 2C. Some Brad Meldovibes for sure. So this beautiful song that he composed, and he has taken a lot of liberties with it, but memories of tomorrow, that he composed like 10 years before this,

supposedly, or maybe more, when he was at Berkeley. By the way, when I say Brad Meldo vibes, I mean, it's obvious Brad's influence. Keith, not the other way around. Brad would have been five years old. Yeah, it would have just a child. But yeah, the interesting thing about this, yeah, he supposedly wrote it when he was at Berkeley. So that would have been like 12 years before.

So this isn't an improvised melody. No, he's improvising on it. This is in the real book. This is in the real book. Which I always thought was weird because I never made the connection. I remember seeing that years ago. But if you check this out, this was, he recorded this actually, in 1969, or there's a recording of it from a live trio recording with Paul

motion and I'm not sure who's on drums. This is six years before. Keith Jared on piano, of course. So Paul Motion on drums? Who's on bass? We don't know who's on bass. It might be charted. Definitely Paul Motion.

That's the tune, right? Crazy. But it's interesting, called Memories of Tomorrow because remember before I said it's like Keith's stuff sounds like these influences from before and then we can find influences from the future somehow on him. Maybe even some memories of tomorrow.

Let's get to some categories. How do we even do Desert Island tracks on a twice? Oh, that's easy. That's part 2A. Don't you love Part 2A? Also known as Part 2. I do love Part 2A for sure. But I'm going to put Part 1 specifically from 9 minutes and 44 seconds on what I call the Big Groove.

I'm sorry, by Part 1, do you mean Cone? January 24, 1975, Part 1? That's the track. Yeah, that banger. I mean, you can easily find that in a jukebox. Okay. Yeah, but that section from 944, which we already listened to, which is we were calling the big groove, I think, is my favorite. And you like Part 2A.

I love Part 2A. Morning in America, that's what I call it. I mean, where it goes, that's not disrespectful. This reminds me of like, Morning in America. It's the early 80s. George Bush, the older one. Okay. Okay, so let's get to Apex moments.

Okay. So mine, I just referred to this as, this is worse than Morning in America. The long-ass line in part one at 1138 is a 40. plays a 14-second melodic line. Can I play it for you, my friend? Yeah. Okay. 1138, queuing it up.

iPad activated. So I'm going to tell you when it starts. I'm going to put my hand down. Here it is. That was 14 seconds, my friend. That is insane. That's absolutely crazy. Let me just do it again.

I want to lead into it a little bit better. But that's crazy, man. And he's playing a bunch of great stuff. I've always, like, this stuff before is so great. But this one, that's, I mean, it's pretty good. Jeez, Louise. You know, I'm going to amend my Apex moment to, I want to honor the original source of this category.

So we might have borrowed this category from the Rwatchables podcast. I've never heard of it. Incredible ringer network. Shout out Bill Simmons. But they have a category called Apex Mountain, which is really all about like. Totally different. Totally unrelated.

Totally unrelated. But it actually is kind of different because their Apex Mountain is like, is this the peak? like the amount of juice that this artist had, right? Whether it's the director or the or the actors, one of the actors, or even, you know, if it's like the city of Cleveland or something. I'm going to say that this album is Keith Jarrett's sort of Apex Mountain.

I think it is like this is the crest of the wave of his, not just popularity, but like, I mean, if you think about everything he was making, not just this concert, but this is close to like Treasure Island, one of my favorite albums, that whole run where he's making original. music and the European group and the American group.

And like he's, I mean, not that he, he's been. Belonging had dropped already, I believe it. He's been such a prolific artist. I love the standards trio. Yeah. Some of my favorite albums. But I really think that 1975 here, he's almost 30. He is playing, I mean, he's always played so incredibly.

But I think he's really found with this album, his sound and his power. And, like, I think there's, what's one of the reasons why this album is probably his most popular album and one of the most popular albums in the history of jazz is because of he is really at the peak of his powers and it just happens to just like collide culturally with everything that's going on yeah and that's a real gift for an artist and i think that that's happening here that's great yeah that's great so your moment is 1975 yeah or keith for keith in 1975 got good uh bespoke playlist what do you got um albums your dad's macintosh were born for Oh, perfect.

You know? Not Macintosh computer. No. Macintosh with a... Tubeamp. Yeah, with a tube amp, exactly. I'm going to go with turtlenex and blazers. Turtle necks, which is, by the way, a combo I love to wear.

That's right. Quibble bits. What do you got? I mean, there's a lot of vamps. There's a lot of vamps. I love the vamps, though. I love the vamps. But like, the F-sharp minor was a lot at the beginning of part, too.

But, again, in the context of the whole thing, it's just such a weird kind of record to compare to what we normally do, or it's like track by track or like a kind of journey. I mean, this is really a moment captured, a concert with the lore and everything attached. But if anything, it's a lot of... But you know what? If it didn't have as many vamps,

I wouldn't like it as much. Yeah, that's really the only thing I can think of that, I mean, it's not even... It's such a small quibble. Yeah. It's a bit of a quibble. Oh, and that really, that beautiful 14-second line that he did, he played one little wrong note in the middle,

but most people wouldn't know this. That's my little quibbobit. Snobbator, how snobby is this album? Is it a one, not snobby, or is it a 10? very snobby. I mean, this is a classic five, I'm going to say. They all are. No, no, no, well, that's maybe so, but I evaluate each one. It is both

I mean, look, it's, it's the least snobby ever, because it's the best selling record, you would say, but it's also, like you said, turtlenecks and blazers, like the ultimate snob, if you're a classical snob with a Macintosh tube amplifier still today, and a cigarette with, you know,

you're going to be, and this is your one jazz record, or your one solo piano record, it's going to be this. I got it at a three. I think it's a little... That means nothing. No, it doesn't mean nothing. It means it's a little less snobby than you're putting it.

I think it's pretty accessible. Obviously, it's over 4 million copies. But you're right. The turtlenex and blazers, the long skinny cigarettes, the cologne, the whole thing. Is it better than kind of blue? Maybe.

No, I'm gonna go... Okay. Maybe let me qualify it. Every snobomboator is five. Every kind of... Better than kind of blue is maybe. Okay. This is a great record, man.

This is a fantastic record. I'm going to say, if it's a straight, is it better than K will be no. But the more interesting comparison, I think, would be, is this record better than facing you? Some of our great listeners have started to put comments saying, maybe we shouldn't compare everything. Like when we do what's going on or voodoo or rumors or something,

like, why are we comparing it to kind of blue? Why not? Well, because they're different types of things. They're works of art. They are, but they're not like, like that's so apples and oranges. You could say facing you and this, the same artist solo piano.

Is it better than facing you? I maybe. I think no, it's not better than Kind of Blue, and I think, honestly, no, it's not better for me. Maybe than facing you. Acutre Maltz. And I think for the category itself, about changing the album,

I think we could definitely do that, but also, I mean, it's... It's gotten us to silver level. It's just a little fun, isn't it? It's just a little fun. Of course. All this is fun. Accoutrements.

I'm going 10 on this one. A rare 10. It's really good. But I mean, there's like, it's so iconic. It's, first of all, this and the inside pictures on the LP, none of these were from, well, that's, they're not actually from Cologne.

They were from the same year. This picture. That's why I actually have it as a nine. They're beautiful, but it's not from the concert. Well, who cares? Why does that matter? I care one. Would you rather that picture be on there?

This is the only picture that exists. Shout out to the YouTuber that I screen grabbed is from, from the actually, he doesn't look happy there. He's playing happy, though. But I mean, just, but on its own, is there anything with that design that does not speak class. It's beautiful. All class, no ass.

Okay. So you said nine. That's like my five. I said nine. Okay. Up next. What do you got? I've got the firm soundtrack.

The firm? Interesting. Yeah. I feel like that might be... It's a little more bluesy. There's a little more like New Orleans in it. It might feel like a little bit of a letdown, though? I don't know.

Because it's a different era. Different era. Yeah. It's, you know, it's 16 years later. Yeah. No, that's great. I've got actually Chick Korea's return to forever, which I had to check this.

This was actually, that was recorded before Cohn concert, which I was like, what? And of course, this ECM as well. It's a great call. I believe it came out in 19. I was like to get ones that came out. And that was a big record for ECM, but not as big as this one and not as quickly, I believe.

Yeah. But was huge, you know. I think it really works. But one of the other 70s greatest, I mean, what's the trilogy? What's the quartet of great jazz pianists in the 70s? Keith Jared. Chick-Korea.

Herbie Hancock? Yeah. McCoy Tiner? Yeah, yeah. No, return to Fevere is more of a turtle neck cardigan, but yeah. Yeah. Cardigan. Cardigan.

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