Keith Jarrett: The Köln Concert

"On 9 July Manfred Eicher will be 70. He does not look his age, more like an amiable ascetic with a tidy moustache, medium-length grey hair, dressed in a shirt and jeans. Not a man of many words, his eyes casting slightly anxious glances here and there, but he is very attentive to others. In 1969 he founded Edition of Contemporary Music, aka ECM, in Munich. Okwui Enwezor, the head of Munich's Haus der Kunst, recently curated ECM – A Cultural Archaeology, assisted by historian Markus Müller. ... Now the ECM catalogue boasts 1,515 items, spanning 11 centuries of music, a vast range of styles and genres. It is home to the Art Ensemble of Chicago and some very loyal contributors including Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Carla Bley, Charlie Haden, Jan Garbarek, Ralph Towner, Jack DeJohnette and Pat Metheny. ... Eicher – quite rightly – opted to treat the soundtracks of Nouvelle Vague films as a form of modern-day opera. But there was Arvo Pärt's ground-breaking Tabula Rasa too. ... The album was a revelation. The same could be said of Facing You, Jarrett's 1972 solo recording, and of course the Köln Concert three years later, which sold 4 million copies" (Francis Marmande, "ECM: In Search of Free Jazz and Free Expression," Guardian, 3/26/13).

View catalog record here!