Totally agree.

But the best part of the story, which I wasn't aware of until recently, is this: when they organized the concert, they actually brought the wrong piano, and instead of a performance-ready piano, they brought a piano that was very bad ("The instrument was tinny and thin in the upper registers and weak in the bass register, and the pedals did not work properly" per Wikipedia).

When Jarrett arrived and tried the piano a few hours before the concert, he almost refused to play. There were other terrible circumstances (he had barely slept in a few days, because of mixups hadn't eaten properly, etc). In the end he was convinced to go on, and played differently than he was used to to try and get the most out of the piano.

What followed is widely hailed as a masterpiece, and remains his most popular work.

What's even more fascinating to me is that the Köln Concert is just one of many long-form improvisations he did and, arguably, far from the best one.

In roughly the following order, I recommend:

Paris, 1988

Vienna, 1991

Lausanne, 1973

Sun Bear Concerts, 1976 (5(!) concerts in 14 days)

Bremen, 1973

La Scala, 1995

Munich, 1982

...and so on.

If you _get_ Jarrett, it's a love affair for life.

I had a Keith Jarret casaste last century. It was just him at the piano, and parts were ok but other parts were mesmerizing. It was also when I discovered that when you listened through headphones you could hear him singing along.

I’ll check out this concert. Sadly he’s not well and can no longer play.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/arts/music/keith-jarrett-...

Seconded. The Koln Concert can't be oversold.

https://youtu.be/Pd_Kti6jvy8