Köln 75

Based on a true story, this dramedy tells the tale of Keith Jarrett’s concert arrangements with delightful humor and vivid detail, while revealing the unusual origin of the world’s most famous jazz album.

The energetic Mala Emde plays Vera Brandes, a real-life figure who, by chance, becomes a concert promoter at the age of 16. Vera immediately gets a taste of the job’s relentless demands when she’s tasked with organizing a performance by top pianist Keith Jarrett in Cologne. Time is short, and in 1975—long before the internet, social media, or even mobile phones—success required creative madness, good fortune, and unwavering belief in the concert’s possibility.

Vera manages to secure the Cologne Opera House as the venue, but where can she conjure up a Bösendorfer Imperial grand piano, without which Jarrett refuses to even step on stage? Fortunately, the concert was recorded, and Jarrett’s one-hour, fully improvised performance became the best-selling solo album in jazz history.

Timo Kuismin