keith jarrett transcriptions by bert ligon

KEITH JARRETT TRANSCRIPTIONS BY BERT LIGON PORTABLE

Subsequent to the release of The Köln Concert, Jarrett was asked by pianists, musicologists and others to publish the music. Jarrett himself noted that while he does not remember doing it consciously, he credits it for putting the audience in a good mood that helped him through a difficult concert experience. Subtle laughter may be heard from the audience at the very beginning of 'Part I' in response to Jarrett's quoting of the melody of the signal bell which announces the beginning of an opera or concert to patrons at the Köln Opera House, the notes of which are G D C G A. The third part, labelled 'IIc', was actually the final piece, a separate encore. As it was originally programmed for vinyl LP, the second part was split into sections labelled 'IIa' and 'IIb'. The recording is in three parts: lasting about 26 minutes, 34 minutes and 7 minutes respectively.

KEITH JARRETT TRANSCRIPTIONS BY BERT LIGON PORTABLE

The performance was recorded by ECM Records engineer Martin Wieland, using a pair of Neumann U 67 vacuum-tube powered condenser microphones and a Telefunken M-5 portable tape machine.

Roughly the first 8 minutes of Part II A is a vamp over a D major groove with a repeated bass vamp in the left hand, and in Part IIb, Jarrett improvises over an F# minor vamp for about the first 6 minutes. For about the last 6 minutes of Part I, he vamps over an A major theme. For instance, in Part I, he spends almost 12 minutes vamping over the chords Am7 (A minor 7) to G major, sometimes in a slow, rubato feel, and other times in a bluesy, gospel rock feel. Because he could not fall in love with the sound of it, he found another way to get the most out of it.' Ī notable aspect of the concert was Jarrett's ability to produce very extensive improvised material over a vamp of one or two chords for prolonged periods of time. Eicher later said: 'Probably played it the way he did because it was not a good piano.

Jarrett used ostinatos and rolling left-hand rhythmic figures during his performance to give the effect of stronger bass notes, and concentrated his playing in the middle portion of the keyboard. Ultimately, Jarrett decided to play largely because the recording equipment was already set up. Brandes had booked a table at a restaurant in advance of the performance, but delays meant Jarrett was able to eat very little of it before leaving. After trying out the substandard piano and learning a replacement instrument was not available, Jarrett nearly refused to play and was about to leave, but Brandes was able to convince him to perform anyway as the concert was scheduled to begin in just a few hours. Jarrett had not slept well in several nights and was in pain from back problems, having to wear a brace as a result. Jarrett had performed a few days earlier in Zürich, Switzerland and although Brandes had sent him a ticket for a flight to Cologne on the record company's request, he had the ticket being paid out in cash and joined ECM Records producer Manfred Eicher travelling to Cologne by car in Eicher's old Renault R4, so they arrived at the opera house late in the afternoon tired after the exhausting long drive. While Brandes made an attempt and procured another grand piano up to Jarrett's standards to be delivered as an emergency, the piano tuner who had meanwhile arrived to fix the baby grand warned her that transporting a grand piano without the proper equipment at low temperatures in the middle of a rainstorm would irreparably damage the instrument, forcing Brandes to stick to the small one. The instrument was tinny and thin in the upper registers and weak in the bass register, and the pedals did not work properly. The piano they had was intended for rehearsals only and was in poor condition and required several hours of tuning and adjustment to make it playable. The error was discovered too late for the correct Bösendorfer to be delivered to the venue in time for the evening's concert. However, there was some confusion by the opera house staff and instead they found another Bösendorfer piano backstage-a much smaller baby grand piano-and, assuming it was the one requested, placed it on the stage. The show was sold out, filled to capacity at over 1400 people at a ticket price of 4 DM ($1.72).Īt Jarrett's request, Brandes had selected a Bösendorfer 290 Imperial concert grand piano for the performance. The late time was the only one the administration would make available to Brandes for a jazz concert-the first at the Köln Opera House. The concert took place on a Friday at the late hour of 11:30 pm, following an earlier opera performance. The concert was organized by 18-year-old Vera Brandes, then Germany's youngest concert promoter.

The Köln Concert is a live solo double album by pianist Keith Jarrett recorded at the Opera House in Köln, Germany on 24 January 1975 and released on ECM later that year.

Keith jarrett transcriptions by bert ligon