The Köln Concert

I read the entire background of this record, and while it sounds impressive and really feels like the stars aligned to make it, it was just relatively drab. His piano playing must be more technical than I can perceive, because oftentimes I found specific passages oversimplistic and repetitive. These passages were so cheesy they sounded like they could act as the opener of an 80s sitcom. I also had the weird grunting and breathing sounds throughout the album - very immersion-breaking.
I'll give props for the accolades this album received and the unlikely way it was recorded, and acknowledge that many of the passages were more interesting and technical. But I can only go to a 3 for it's shortcomings. 3/5

Music to have on in the background but nothing more. I have nothing really to say about this apart from this is why this project is amazing as I would have never listend to this otherwise.

In summary 1 hour of solo piano playing is boring!!!

Thankfully not too many moans and groans in here. Some masterful piano improvisation, though sometimes a little too meandering for me. When he locked into a groove, it was great.

I liked this. Chill and interesting piano for an hour. There were some random moans or something that was a little weird, but overall rather enjoyable. 3.5/5

Jazz is always a daunting genre for me, as I find myself either bored, hating it, or very rarely, in love. However, I feel like I've not gotten to encounter a lot of piano-focused jazz, let alone solely piano. I know how to play piano, or at least I like to think I do, so listening to this album, I was just in awe the entire time by the moments packed here. Many, MANY fantastic little ambient interpolations among chord progressions and passages of pure euphoria among Keith Jarrett's playing, and you can tell he is certainly into it as well, with his moaning and the such, which reminds me a little of Robert Wyatt. The first track, despite its length, has a ton of stuff to love, and is worth the price of admission, so the next three tracks are just cool bonuses. They capture the concert hall feeling perfectly, where you are solely focused on the playing, and very little else, and it can be entrancing. It is pretty long, and because of that parts of songs can feel unnecessary, but whenever a moment pops up I truly adore it all feels worthwhile. This may be a bit different of a jazz record, but it is pretty far up my alley, and I'm glad to have enjoyed it.

YES I knew I had encountered this album before! A fucking monster of a solo piano record. With all the vamping that occurs, this feels very close to a funk record, basically stripped right down to the studs.

No doubt the man can tickle the ivories with the best of them, but this is never gonna be my kinda thing.

Haven't listened to an album that made me want to cry in a long time. Absolutely beautiful performance

Beautiful piano mastery

No. Every roommate I've had that thought they were better than everyone else had this on vinyl. It's terrible.

Very meditative - lots of long repetitions of pretty simple vamps to establish a harmonic center and rhythm and then free ranging exploration of the melodic possibilities that affords. Some cool emergent stuff where ideas from one hand feed into the other and impromptu phrases turn into repeated figures and themes. Like a lot of long-form improvisation you can focus in on the details or passively let it absorb you to set a mood. Perfectly suited to the work I needed to get done this morning. I've listened to this a lot over the years without ever knowing the background story behind it.

I went into this expecting not to be impressed. After all, how can an album of improvised jazz piano be one of the most essential albums to listen to?

But it was beautiful, exciting, and full of ideas. I actually quite liked it. Nonetheless, Keith Jarrett didn’t spend hours crafting the pieces, so it’s not as noteworthy, right?

Lately I’ve been watching “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” It’s one of the funniest shows ever made—so quotable, memorable, hilarious. It is great largely BECAUSE it was improvised.

It has made me realize my bias with this album. Just like “Whose Line,” this album is great because it is improvised. That is part of what makes it so special.

Enjoyable piano album, doesn't sound like jazz to me, but maybe because it's solo piano. The story and how it was fully improvised, especially for what the final product sounds like, is amazing. 4*.
Good background music, had to listen to it twice. The random yells are weird though.

It was fine . Uneventufl

Love this album. Reminds me of a more improvised George Winston. It's wonderful to imagine him just really getting into playing and having such a great time doing it. I had never heard of this album or Keith Jarrett before but I will definitely be looking up more from him. This is the kind of thing I was hoping for when starting on these 1001 albums - new (to me) music that I can explore deeper.

Of course it's extremely excellent playing by an extremely talented person. Just not the kind of album I am going to revisit.

Very nice piano music. I could have used a little something else added to it. An hour plus of piano is a lot of piano.

Super interesting at times. A lot of what you hear about this album revolves around the story of the bad piano and how everyone overcame their problems to produce one of the best Jazz albums ever. It's like the Michael Jordan \"flu game\" in the 1998 NBA finals. You won! Why belabor it? If I didn't know any of the story, I think I might like it better. Is the story making excuses for a poor performance? Doesn't sound like it.

The music itself plows vigorously through a wide range of feelings, tempos, techniques. I don't know a lot about music theory but I'm sure there's tons to dissect in this. It really is an impressive work. Verges on stepping into uncharted territory sometimes, but is a little timid in that regard - I would like to here more experimental sounds. I really like some of the atonal harmonics the piano gives off, especially apparent in the first minutes of Part I. I hear a lot of influence, from Bob James to Radiohead. Interesting album and pleasant. A little like a soundtrack, as Keith Jarret himself has said, but transcendant nonetheless (felt like pretentiousness was appropriate for this one).

great performance, sometimes the voice sfx threw me off but still a strong 4

Great performance, but it’s not something I would ever really listen to again. Nice piano skills though.