Keith Jarrett Beyond "The Köln Concert": Three Solo Piano Performances You Might Explore Next

Pianist Keith Jarrett has produced a massive body of work spanning six decades as a solo performer and bandleader. Naturally, there is substantial breadth of sound and style represented within this oeuvre, but there are several main categories within it to guide you in your exploration. Jarrett's solo piano concerts, improvised on the spot, are some of his most popular recordings, the best-known of course being his Jan. 1975 performance at the Opera House in Cologne. Here are three suggestions to further explore Jarrett's solo works on stage if you're fond of the Köln recording and curious about others. While he is recognized as a jazz musician principally, Jarrett's improvisations glide through genres to the extent that it's not easy to classify these showcases in just one or two tidy descriptors. Jazz, minimalism, blues, impressionism, abstract and beyond in the space of an hour per improvisation.

Suggested play order in terms of most immediate to most demanding: Bremen > La Scala > Lausanne > Vienna

Solo Concerts: Bremen / Lausanne (1973)

The first solo piano concerts released by Jarrett, this album is a two-fer, giving you a pair of very different presentations in improvisation on the instrument.

Bremen - rollicking, stately, beguiling, jubilant, ruminating, ascending

Lausanne - strutting, wandering, triumphant, mystifying, roiling, entrancing

Stream: YouTube | Apple Music | Spotify | Qobuz

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Vienna Concert (1992; recorded 1991)

A masterclass of tension & release in art. Part I begins plaintive, but slowly the walls close in as the music becomes heavier, sterner, then frantic. When it is nearly unbearable, a trapdoor opens and through it we fall into a vast, tranquil space. Part II resumes with a memory of earlier passages, again pursuing something ominous in the distance until the mood has, in creeping degrees, turned cold. Then, with a sudden pause, everything begins to move in reverse, but this time, the return is a reflection of what came before.

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La Scala (1997; recorded 1995)

Part I: Watching the street outside through glass dappled with rainwater, waiting for the arrival of something expected in the mail, but there is nothing that will be delivered here today. You have no memory of making tea earlier, but you are about to pour a third cup from the kettle.

Part II: An impromptu ballet performed in chasing an umbrella across a park that was blown out of hand by a generous autumn wind. Another gust forms behind you each time your grasp is about to close in upon the runaway object to send it once more out of reach. You eventually give up pursuit and find yourself relieved to be parted with that umbrella, upon which you go knock-kneed with unintended laughter.

Stream: YouTube | Apple Music | Spotify | Qobuz

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Jarrett, currently 81, has sadly been unable to play piano as he once did since suffering a pair of strokes in 2018 that resulted in partial paralysis.