I heard about this Jazz story only yesterday. It’s also a great Christmas story. On 24-January-1975, the young pianist Keith Jarrett was to play in the opera house in Cologne. The concert was organized by the 18-year-old concert promoter Vera Brandes, sold out, and about to start at 11:30pm. Things have started to go off the rails at least from early afternoon on. The pianist arrived by car from an earlier concert in Switzerland, was tired, hungry, and felt under the weather. His food did not arrive on time. Even worse, only later that Friday evening, he realized that the piano on stage was not the concert piano he had asked for, but a shabby, out of tune mini piano used for rehearsals. Some tuners managed to improve its condition a bit. Note it was Friday evening, and no cell phones existed in 1975. Jarrett was supposedly already back in his car, ready to leave after announcing he would not play, when Vera Brandes opened the passenger door and supposedly said something like: “please play, otherwise I am done”. Jarrett’s answer is somewhat legendary: “Okay, I’ll play. But never forget – just for you!”. The tone-engineers had already setup the recording equipment, and started to record anyways. They did not expect a great recording with that piano. Were they ever wrong. It turned out to be the most sold Jazz-Solo recording and the most sold piano solo recording. It is known now as “The Köln Concert”. Jarrett improvised around the notes G D C G A D, which supposedly form the melody of the bell that announces the beginning of a concert in the Köln opera house.
Why is this a great christmas story? — The tools are only secondary. If you are in the zone, interesting things will emerge.
