Insight into the vastness improvisational possibilities

Who would not like to have been there in the evening of January 24, 1975 in the Cologne Opera, as Keith Jarrett sat on this memorable concert at the piano ?! Already in March and July 1973 Jarrett had made with unique solo concerts in Bremen and Lausanne of talk, but the improvisations recorded here came the listeners the door open to the unexpected length of his immense musical possibilities.

The division into four pieces follows the then usual format a double LP and I remember that this album in my area was a large spread during the second half of the seventies. Although the CD of the vinyl pressing actually not inferior, I looked at the two LPs in good hands in the meanwhile very yellowed cover, because I just really like to hear from time to time the first piece of the plate.

About the whole concert is a great sincerity, so as to be all present the dawning of a new era of jazz aware. In fact, it was probably more the case that hardly anyone has guessed what would trigger the recording of this concert and many other artists' attempts to tie deserved to Keith Jarrett had success, of course, pales in comparison to its powerful virtuosity. The overwhelming applause after each piece indicate with what concentration and inner participation concertgoers have followed the pianist.

Even after thirty years is for me always a strange charm in the artist listening as he sets a theme that sounds grouped, can resonate a melody line, it discards or developed vividly increases, loses in abstraction, takes up again and continues. But Keith Jarrett's passionate, intense improvisations beyond the words. You have to listen to him and is then surprised by his liveliness.

For many of these Konzertmitschnitt marked their approach to jazz. The influences from many genres are not to be mistaken - no such business occurred so to say in history free space - but it must be said, no one previously has played piano in the same way. Therein lies my opinion, the reason for the enduring popularity of "The Köln Concert".

If I remember correctly, this was the first production from the house of ECM, which has found such a lot of attention among music lovers. It is the inestimable merit of Manfred Eicher, to have his "Edition of Contemporary Music", known the work of many great artists who largely escape hergebrachtem divisional thinking around the world and made available. His ECM Recordings have marked the history of European jazz recording since the seventies and eighties year in a very special way.

The objective pursued by Eicher sound ideal was later called the "most beautiful sound next to silence". Beyond the usual jazz sounds he created with its unique publications a transparent, more minimalist sound. Limited finances may have helped make Eicher this half looking round, especially for young, promising talents. So he won alongside the pianist Keith Jarrett early known for its very elegiac compositions saxophonist Jan Garbarek for his company. Both guarantee for its minimalist sound to the present day for the uniqueness of the label.

Today well known artists such as Pat Metheny, Gary Burton, Chick Corea, Egberto Gismonti and Ralph Towner matured under Manfred Eicher's aegis to style-defining instrumentalists of her generation approach. He always knew how to let the musicians a lot of freedom and at the same time be integrated into the overall concept of sound of his label. Musicians who parted from ECM, usually needed some time before they were able to match their previous successes. With regard to the discovery and promotion of young artists, now other companies have overtaken ECM. Manfred Eicher, it is, however, managed to establish itself with its label in the field of classical music and to offer recordings of extremely high sound level even here.