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

c. 1977-1980 · ECM Records ECM 1064/65 ST · Stereo · Germany (West Germany) · 2xLP, gatefold · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	ECM Records
Catalogue number	ECM 1064/65 ST
Year	c. 1977-1980
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	Germany (West Germany)
Format	2xLP, gatefold
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Solo Piano
Producer	Manfred Eicher
Composer	Keith Jarrett (improvised)
Musicians	Keith Jarrett (piano)

Availability

This record has been sold. Its documentation stays here.

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  1064/65-A 2301 064 S1=8 20
Side B:  ECM 1064/65-B 2301 064 S2=4 320
Side C:  ECM 1064/65-C 2301 065 S3=3 320
Side D:  ECM 1064/65-D 2301 065 S4=6 320

Condition

Cover: EX
Vinyl: NM-

Variant chronology

1975 - German first issue, 'ECM Records' wordmark label
1976 - German reissue, boxed 'ECM' logo label, no rights code, earlier rim text
1977-1980 - German reissue, boxed 'ECM' logo label, no rights code, rim text reading 'Alle Urheber- Und Leistungsschutzrechte'  <- this copy
c.1980s - German reissue, plain 'ECM' text logo label, LC 02516 rights code
1979 - Spain reissue
2010 - Europe 180g audiophile reissue

This Pressing

Later German pressing (c.1977-80) - boxed ECM logo label, no LC code, rim text dated not before 1977; postdates the 1975 wordmark first issue and 1976 boxed-logo issue, predates the LC-coded German pressing.

The Album

Recorded live at the Cologne Opera House on 24 January 1975, The Köln Concert documents a single continuous solo improvisation by pianist Keith Jarrett, performed on a small, under-rehearsed studio instrument substituted at the last minute after the promised concert grand could not be used. Jarrett, exhausted and reportedly close to cancelling the performance, went on anyway, and the resulting movements - spanning gospel-tinged vamps, folk-like melodies, minimalist ostinatos and sweeping classical figuration - became one of the most celebrated acts of real-time composition in modern music. The album arrived at a turning point in Jarrett's career, following his work with the American and European quartets and his earlier solo recordings, and it established him as the foremost unaccompanied improviser in jazz. Produced by Manfred Eicher, it went on to become the label's best-selling release, the best-selling solo piano album, and one of the best-selling jazz recordings of all time. Critics responded to its lyrical, meditative sweep and its ability to reach listeners far beyond a specialist jazz audience. Its success reshaped expectations for solo-piano concerts and helped define a spacious, introspective style of improvised music that remains a touchstone for later generations of pianists.

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

The label is teal/green with the boxed 'ECM' logo only, a GEMA rights box, the '33 M' speed marking, and rim text beginning 'Alle Urheber- Und Leistungsschutzrechte Vorbehalten'; no rights-society (LC) code is printed on this label. ECM's German pressings moved from an 'ECM Records' wordmark logo at the November 1975 launch to this boxed logo-only design in 1976, and the rim-text wording seen here was only introduced in 1977, so the design places manufacture in 1977 or later even without an LC code, which was only added on a subsequent redesign. That later redesign, with a plain-text 'ECM' logo and the LC 02516 code, appears on a later German pressing of this catalogue number and marks the next stage of the same chronology. The label on this copy is flat, with no deep-groove ring visible.

Fidelity

German pressings of The Köln Concert were cut from the same master tapes used for the US Sterling Sound cut, with ECM's house engineering producing the warm, reverberant piano sound associated with the label's mid-1970s solo recordings. Collectors on the forums generally rate vintage German and US pressings as comparable to one another and superior to the CD transfers and most later digital reissues, with stamper generation mattering more than country of pressing. As a later-1970s German repress rather than the true first issue, this copy sits a step below the earliest German and US pressings in strict seniority, though its sonic quality remains within the same well-regarded vintage tier and clearly above the 2010s 180g European reissue, which collectors treat as solid but not a clear improvement on a clean original-era pressing.

Notes

This is a later German pressing of The Köln Concert, not the November 1975 first issue. The label carries the boxed ECM logo introduced in 1976 and the GEMA rights box with no rights-society code printed, but its rim-text wording was only introduced in 1977, which places manufacture in 1977 or later rather than the 1976 window the catalogue entry assigned it. The runout numbering follows German plant conventions rather than the US Pitman or Terre Haute pressings. It therefore sits after the 1975 first issue and the plain 1976 boxed-logo reissue, and before the later German pressing that carries the LC 02516 code and a redesigned plain-text ECM logo, which its LC code dates no earlier than 1977.

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