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‘The Köln Concert is the hit he wants to disown’: why Keith Jarrett shunned two new films about his unlikely masterpiece
His back hurt and his piano was substandard. But the musician’s improvised 1975 show entered jazz history. Now two films are celebrating that mesmerising night – and the sweary teen promoter who made it happen
A furious Jarrett wanted to cancel but – after much coaxing from Brandes, and the diligent work of two piano technicians – he reluctantly stayed to perform a completely improvised one-hour set. Her New Jazz in Köln series welcomed the likes of Ralph Towner’s Oregon, Ian Carr’s Nucleus, Barbara Thompson and a quartet featuring Gary Burton and Pat Metheny. Photograph: No crteditShe spent feverish hours trying to obtain a concert grand from the local university, and was even preparing to push it over the cobbled streets of Cologne, but the piano-tuner warned her this risked destroying the instrument.
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