Keith Jarrett ranks among the most accomplished and influential pianists in jazz history. His Koeln Concert stands among the most important jazz recordings of the past four decades, not only because of the music on the record, but also because of the remarkable reception it has received from musicians and lay-listeners alike. Since the album's 1975 release, it has sold over three million copies: a remarkable achievement for any jazz record, but an unprecedented feat for a two-disc set of solo piano performances featuring no well-known songs. In Keith Jarrett's The Koeln Concert, author Peter Elsdon seeks to uncover what it is about this recording, about Keith Jarrett's performance, that elicits such success. Recognizing The Koeln Concert as a multi-faceted text, Elsdon engages with it musically, culturally, aesthetically, and historically in order to understand the concert and album as a means through which Jarrett articulated his own cultural and musical outlook, and establish himself as a serious artist. Through these explorations of the concert as text, of the recording and of the live performance, Keith Jarrett's The Koeln Concert fills a major hole in jazz scholarship, and is essential reading for jazz scholars and musicians alike, as well as Keith Jarrett's many fans.

About the Author
Peter Elsdon is a lecturer in Music at the University of Hull, where he teaches Jazz and Popular Music. He also works as a jazz musician in his spare time.

Reviews
a thought-provoking, tightly focused and scholarly piece of work, of considerable interest not only to Jarrett aficionados, but also to anyone fascinated by the processes involved in playing, listening to and marketing music. * Chris Parker, LondonJazz *
Elsdon is very good at exploring the recurring motifs and styles of Jarretts improvisations, his rhapsodic virtuosity, lengthy groove passages ... He is strong on the theory of music and its performance * Simon Adams, Jazz Journal *
REVIEW: C. Wadsworth Walker, Choice (August 2013). Quote loaded, 14/08/13



Book Information
ISBN 9780199779253
Author Peter Elsdon
Format Hardback
Page Count 192
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 332g
Dimensions(mm) 145mm * 218mm * 15mm