Koln 75: Landing the Elusive Keith Jarrett

Mar 2

3 min read

Updated: Sep 30

115 minutes; NR; directed by Ido Fluk Critic’s grade: B

(Catching up on 2025 films)

A dysfunctional father-daughter relationship also sets the stage for events in “Koln 75,” a quirky sort-of biopic about veteran German-born promoter Vera Brandes (Mala Emde), centering on the drama around a legendary concert by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. The completely improvised performance, held in Cologne in 1975, resulted in “The Koln Concert,” a critically acclaimed double-LP release on ECM Records. It sold more than four million copies worldwide, becoming the most commercially successful solo piano and solo jazz album in history.

The film, from Israeli-born writer and director Ido Fluk (“The Ticket”) is ambitious, quirky and frequently funny, tapping into something of the freewheeling, anything-goes vibe of that particular time and place. It illuminates a chapter of music history that many have forgotten about, and some may not much care about, given its niche subject matter.

It also tends to trivialize the artistic and physical travails then (and later) experienced by the jazz giant, who stopped performing in public in 2018 following two strokes. Jarrett’s fascinating work and life offer plenty of grist for a compelling feature film examining his artistic achievements and impact, and personal story; this isn’t it, though.

Following an ill-fitting intro referencing the Sistine Chapel, located 700 miles from Cologne, Fluk’s film begins in earnest at Brandes’ 50^th birthday celebration, during which her father unexpectedly shows up and gives the worst kind of party toast: “She is … my greatest disappointment,” he says. Then the filmmaker breaks the fourth wall, when her lead looks at the camera and says, “Let’s do this again” and flashes back in time.

Brandes, as a teenager, becomes an avid jazz fan, counting John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins among her favorites and finding much inspiration in the concerts at the festival once known as Berlin Jazz Days. To the chagrin of her severe, even physically abusive father, a financially successful dentist, she blows off academics and parlays her jazz fandom into a career as a concert promoter. Step one: She lies about her age to London saxophonist (and club owner) Ronnie Scott (Daniel Betts) and convinces him to let her book a tour.

The heart of the film is the immediate lead-up to the Koln concert, as Fluk alternates between the reluctance of Jarrett (John Magaro) to perform, in part due to back and gastrointestinal issues and a lack of sleep, and the efforts of Brandes to bring to life what seems like a near-impossible dream: A concert by Jarrett, alone at the piano, starting at 11:30 pm at the 1,400-seat Cologne Opera House, following an opera performance earlier that evening.

Does she have the resources to come up with the $10k that the hall requires in advance, and the ingenuity to choreograph all the moving parts? Can she find a suitable piano at the last minute? Will Jarrett show up? Will anyone buy tickets?

Along the way, a fictitious music critic played by Michael Chernus offers a short course in jazz history, from big band swing to small groups playing standards to Jarrett’s approach: “(He) is doing it every night, he is departing from jazz and playing pure music undefined by anything but the player, the moment and, of course,” the piano. Not a bad summary, as far as it goes.

All that sturm und drang over making the concert happen and then … the film, made without the cooperation of Jarrett or ECM, stops short. We see images of a crowd filling the venue, but we don’t hear a lick of the history-making music from that night. Instead, a pop tune blares over those scenes.

Was that an artistic decision by the filmmaker or, as some have suggested, did she go that route because of an inability to get the rights to include the music on the soundtrack? Either way, it’s a disappointing conclusion.

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