A Night at the Opera

The 24th January 1975 a concert at the Opera House in Cologne. A great moment for which there is almost did not come, as can be read in Ian Carr: Keith Jarrett was the day before still in Lausanne and had not slept the night practically. In the morning he went along with Manfred Eicher in the car all the way to Cologne without a break. At the hotel, they hung exhausted around in the lobby, waiting for the concert organizer. Everything was in order, she said, only the piano. No Steinway was present, but there were two Bösendorfer in the city. But first the bad Bösendorfer was dragged why the others had to be transported. Then Keith Jarrett tried to take a nap, which failed. Then he went with Manfred Eicher in an Italian restaurant, where all the others were served first. About 15 minutes before he was to be in the concert hall, the food arrived, he had to gulp. So Keith Jarrett went on stage, always in mind not to fall asleep, and played the concert, which was to go down in Jazz history.
The first two seconds are already awesome in itself, but by this early one is drawn correctly and banned following the 1st part of the piano improvisations of Keith Jarrett. Part IIa starts relatively lively, is increasingly threatening before the music suddenly at 7:57 fades into nothingness, as if someone moves toward a cliff and the abyss suddenly stops and pauses. In Part IIb Keith Jarrett expires after a melodic Effort at 6:10 suddenly in a repetive minimal music à la Philip Glass phase, resting, to then take the melodic thread again. Negative one can only notice that it is almost too beautiful and too perfect even at this concert.