Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

Keith Jarrett

The Köln Concert

2010 or later · ECM ECM 1064/65 ST · Stereo · Germany · 2xLP, gatefold · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	ECM
Catalogue number	ECM 1064/65 ST
Year	2010 or later
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	Germany
Format	2xLP, gatefold
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Solo Piano/Improvisation
Producer	Manfred Eicher
Composer	Keith Jarrett
Musicians	Keith Jarrett (piano)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  ECM 1064/65 AIII -1044- Kr SST
Side B:  ECM 1064/65 BIII -1044-II Kr SST
Side C:  ECM 1064/65 CIII -1045-II Kr SST
Side D:  ECM 1064/65D III -1045- Kr SST

Condition

Cover: NM
Vinyl: NM

Variant chronology

1975 - Germany ECM 1064/65 ST, script “ECM Records” wordmark label, first issue
c.1976-1980 - Germany ECM 1064/65 ST, boxed ECM logo label, no label code
c.1977-1980s - Germany ECM 1064/65 ST, plain ECM wordmark label with LC 02516, no barcode
2010 - Germany ECM Records ECM 1064/65, ECM 1064/65 ST, 264 1064, 180g gatefold reissue with barcode  <- this copy

This Pressing

2010 German 180g gatefold reissue - grey plain-wordmark ECM label with LC 02516, back-cover barcode 602527278889, ecmrecords.com address and 272 7888 reference, and a 1044/1045 runout cut by SST Brüggemann; postdates the 1975 first issue and the intervening boxed-logo and plain-wordmark-without-barcode German pressings.

The Album

The Köln Concert documents a solo piano recital Keith Jarrett gave at the Cologne Opera House on the night of January 24, 1975, under circumstances that nearly scuttled the performance entirely: a long, exhausting drive left Jarrett depleted, and the house supplied a small, out-of-tune rehearsal instrument with a thin upper register and sticking keys rather than the concert grand he expected. Rather than walk away, Jarrett built the entire concert as an unbroken improvisation shaped around the piano's shortcomings, favoring ostinato bass figures and the instrument's stronger lower and middle registers. The producer who urged him onstage captured the performance for release later that year as a double album with no pre-written material whatsoever - a pure act of real-time composition. It became the best-selling solo piano recording and the best-selling title in its label's catalog, introducing an enormous mainstream audience to extended improvised performance and establishing Jarrett as the defining solo improviser of his generation. The record is widely regarded as a defining statement of its label's aesthetic and of 1970s jazz, celebrated for melodic, folk- and gospel-tinged invention sustained across sidelong improvisations. Its influence persists both as a commercial touchstone and as a model for solo improvised concert performance well beyond jazz.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Köln, January 24, 1975 - Part I (26:15)

Side 2

1. Köln, January 24, 1975 - Part IIa (15:00)

Side 3

1. Köln, January 24, 1975 - Part IIb (19:19)

Side 4

1. Köln, January 24, 1975 - Part IIc (6:59)

The Label

This copy's labels are the grey ECM field carrying only the plain ECM wordmark, the GEMA rights line, the ℗ 1975 ECM Records GmbH credit, and the label code LC 02516 set in an oval at the foot of the label - the same design used across ECM's German catalogue from the late 1970s onward. What places this specific copy, rather than the design alone, is the back cover: it carries the UPC barcode 6 02527 27888 9, the web address www.ecmrecords.com, the Postfach 600 331, 81203 München address, “Printed in Germany” and the 272 7888 reference, none of which exist on any ECM pressing before 1980. Those marks, together with runouts reading ECM 1064/65 AIII and BIII “-1044-” and CIII and DIII “-1045-” with the Kr and SST etchings, match the 180-gram Germany-manufactured gatefold reissue issued circa 2010, the edition cut at SST Brüggemann. The label design itself only says “not before 1977”; the barcode and runout etchings are what identify this copy as the 2010 reissue rather than any of the earlier plain-wordmark pressings that share the same label artwork.

Fidelity

This is a 2010 German pressing on 180-gram vinyl, cut at SST Brüggemann (the SST and Kr etchings). Collectors on the forums generally credit this reissue with quiet, well-pressed surfaces typical of ECM's 2000s-2010s German manufacturing, though they still rate the original 1975 first-issue lacquers as the most transparent and immediate-sounding cut of the title, with the mid-1970s German reissues that followed also outranking this later pressing in overall warmth. Within the fidelity hierarchy of the title, this 2010 180g edition sits comfortably above the compact disc and above thinner later reissues, but below the 1975 original and the pressings that immediately followed it.

Notes

This is ECM's 2010 Germany-manufactured 180-gram gatefold reissue of ECM 1064/65, not the plain-wordmark German pressing of the late 1970s/early 1980s that the label design alone would suggest. The back cover carries a UPC barcode, the web address www.ecmrecords.com, the Postfach 600 331, 81203 München address, “Printed in Germany” and the 272 7888 reference, none of which appear on any ECM pressing before 1980. The runouts - ECM 1064/65 AIII and BIII “-1044-” and CIII and DIII “-1045-” with Kr and SST etchings - match this 180g edition rather than an earlier German lacquer. A boxed ECM logo pressing with no label code is an earlier, c.1976-1980 issue of this title.

Documenting collections

I do this work for other people’s collections too — documenting a collection record by record, researching individual pressings, and preparing collections for sale or for insurance. If you have a collection you would like documented, or a record you want identified properly, get in touch: email

This record’s page: https://vinylcurator.net/albums/keith-jarrett-the-cone-concert/