Excellence Out of Adversity: Keith Jarrett: The Koln Concert

I originally wrote this blog as part of an unpublished podcast back at the start of the pandemic. In true content management fashion, I'm reusing it for newer purposes, which happens to be in the wake of company-wide layoffs by my former employer.

Jazz listeners will know about Keith Jarrett's 1975 Koln Concert. Even if you're not a big fan of jazz you may be familiar with it. The Koln Concert has gotten a resurgence of attention; being featured on NPR, the BBC, and Malcom Gladwell's podcasts.

Jarrett's recorded concert also happens to be the best-selling solo album in jazz history, and the all-time best-selling piano album.

I bought the 2 album set at the start of the pandemic. It's an original pressing from '75. It's the closest I will ever get to that midnight concert nearly 50 years ago. No digital optimization. No copy of a copy of a copy. It arrived in the mail just as we were entering lockdown mode. 

The album's cover was once white. A photo in grayscale shows Jarrett hunched over a piano. The piano in the foreground is blurred, while Jarrett's head hangs down as if asleep. If his eyes were open he'd be looking directly at the keys. The white album background is now yellowed and shows signs of aging, wearing and tearing. But who doesn't after 49 years?

The sleeves are mix-matched—the first sleeve’s label hole is empty and the second sleeve has a wax paper cover. Both have tears around the edges from when the records were dropped too hard into the album cover. The second disk of the album shows signs of water damage. But after cleaning it a couple times I find that the extra static just adds character--no other copy of the album has the same pops and static.

Besides being an incredible performance, here's what else you should know about that night in Germany:

• First of all, the piano provided to Jarrett was a mess. Not only was it not the piano that he stipulated in the contract, but it was a piano in bad shape. This was a rehearsal piano--old, beaten up. The sound was thin and the pedals didn't work.
• Secondly, Jarrett was a mess. He had had a long day of driving from Switzerland to Koln, Germany. He hadn't slept well for several nights because of back issues. He was hungry, and he was tired.
• Jarrett's first reaction upon seeing the rehearsal piano was to threaten to cancel the show. But the promoter, a 17-year jazz fan named Vera Brandes, convinced him to keep the booking.

After all, the show must go on.

So they spent the next few hours trying to tune the piano--to put lipstick on that pig. They couldn't fix the issues with the upper and lower registers, and the sustain pedals still didn't work. But they did what they could.

Jarrett broke for dinner at a nearby restaurant but the kitchen was backed up. He left before ever getting his food.

Jarrett finally went out on stage at 11:30 that night--wearing a back brace--and gave a concert to last the ages.

What impresses me about the album, in addition to being a beautiful piece of music, are the sheer number of obstacles Jarrett had to overcome to give the performance of a lifetime; contract failures, exhaustion, an imperfect tool, physical pain, hunger. And you can hear him playing through all of it. Sometimes he grunts his way through it. 

This is the music I listen to in my quiet. The music is soothing and the story behind it shows how obstacles can sometimes help us to achieve greatness. And in this time when the economy is in a downturn and companies are laying off their workforces, maybe our current imperfect situations help us to be the best versions of ourselves. Maybe we do something great that makes everyone around us a little better.

Should we choose to do so.

Congratulations if you've made it this far--I would love your feedback. I'm also in the market for a new job, so if you're interested in adding leadership and storytelling to your team, send me a message.

Let's talk.