Köln 75, directed by
Ido Fluk, is a documentary that doesn't seem like a documentary. It's about this legendary German music promoter,
Vera Brandes, and her production of a
Keith Jarrett concert in
Cologne (Köln) Germany in 1975. Which just happened to result in the best selling live jazz piano concert recording of all time. Yes, it's an against all odds kind of story but this actually happened. Brandes was a hell-raising 18-year-old when she met famed Brit jazz saxophonist
Ronnie Scott, who made romantic overtures in a local club. Nothing came of it but he saw her fearlessness and drive and hired her to book club dates. Learning literally on the job - and by the skin of her teeth - her recognition grew as Cologne became the centre of Germany's jazz scene. While the rest of the world was caught up in mid-1970s rock and roll (remember the
Doobie Brothers?) and jazz was seen as old hat Köln and Vera were tuned to a different vibe. The film is creatively made, at turns with a third person narrator, but cutting sharply to a fictionalize style drama. The movie, of course, is about Brandes, and also her rebellion against her staid authoritarian parents, her father especially who despised what she was doing and made no effort to conceal his disdain. But Brandes's "bratty" personality underlined her goal of moving in the moment of the jazz world. When the famed pianist Keith Jarrett came to Germany she was chosen as his promoter. Jarrett, a prodigy and pianist with legendary
Myles Davis but who struck out on his own, agreed to come to Köln. But tired and physically in pain and hearing the concert piano was poorly tuned he adamantly refused to play. That put Vera on the spot as she had paid upfront 10K Deutsche Marks and promised her mother (who lent her the money) she would quit music promotion if the concert failed. It didn't. But the excitement builds as Brandes and her friends work to a frenzy to see the concert - with a tuned if otherwise deficient piano - come off. Brandes is played by Mala Emde, Jarrett by John Magaro and Michael Chernus as jazz journalist Mick Watts (the last two of
Orange is the New Black fame), who hitches a physically uncomfortable car ride across Europe with Jarrett and his producer Michael Eicher (Alexander Scheer), who'd go on to found
ECM Records.
