Remembering the Koln Concert

I’m not gonna deny it - last year when I tried to do the All Jazzed Up series of posts as an attempt to hook everyone to my favorite music genre, I didn’t foresee how hard it is to consistently update my readers with new recommendations. Although I love talking about music, I also think of it as the most challenging topic to write about, not because it’s always going to be deep and thought-provoking (more often, no), but because no two people will ever be in complete agreement about what they’re hearing and whether they’re melodious or cacophonous. It certainly doesn’t help that jazz is very difficult to define that its own name doesn’t suggest anything definite. How exactly do you put into words the improvisations you hear in most jazz music and have people imagine its sound with any accuracy? You can’t.

All my frustrations aside, I still miss talking about jazz and getting people acquainted with it. For now, though, I want you to listen to some great solo improvisations from Keith Jarrett’s Part 1 (of 2) of his Koln Concert, right here. This is improvisation at its finest, because accordingly, Keith Jarrett came up with this music the instant he was on his piano and playing it. He didn’t write any of the notes down prior to the day he performed, and he won’t be able to play the same tune (he doesn’t want to, anyway), note-per-note, again.

Anyway, in that link I provided, the track got capped to 10 minutes because that’s the time limit for youtube videos. It originally lasts for 26 minutes. If you like it, be sure to grab a copy of the album.