Seven hundred miles away from Cologne,
where Keith Jarrett played a concert in 1975,
stands the Sistine Chapel,
where, 400 years before Keith took the stage,
Michelangelo stood on a scaffolding
painting the ceiling,
Today, anyone can visit the chapel,
But imagine having been there,
having seen Michelangelo up on that scaffolding,
That's an entirely different thing, isn't it?
This is not a film about the Cologne concert
It's not about the mural, or the ceiling,
or Michelangelo,
It's about the scaffolding,
Why am I starting here?
Happy birthday, Vera!
♪ Birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday, dear Vera ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
Woo!
- Yeah! Woo! - Speech!
Oh, no, no, no, no!
Let's do this again,
In the music business,
a false start is when
a recorded track is stopped midway,
usually when someone messes up
or when things just don't feel right,
My personal favorite false start has to be
The Cramps,
What are you doing?
No! We're recording a fucking album,
get the fuck outta here or sit down!
Man, nobody fucking stops the tape
of The Cramps in the fucking studio!
Oh, they sound like lovely people,
The point is that you can tell a lot about a musician
by the way they stop their recording,
Uh, Dylan just laughs it off on the false take
for "Highway 61,"
Okay, okay, let's try it again,
Stan Getz apologizes,
Fleetwood Mac argue,
Lee Hazlewood can be heard spitting,
But Bird, Miles,
They just whistle,
Let's try this again, younger,
I'm Ronnie Scott, I'm gonna take a short break
before I turn into a puddle on the floor,
Hm?
What kind of ice cream do you want?
The cold kind?
Can I get you lovely ladies anything?
I'm asking because I hear
they do a seniors discount at the bar,
Shall we?
Sure!
How old are you?
Twenty-five,
I remember being 25,
Very long time ago, no?
You like jazz?
When it's good,
Mm-hm, Who do you like?
Coltrane,
Is that,,,
It starts and ends with Coltrane,
is that right?
Miles,
Mingus, Gordon,
Sonny,
- Monk, - What about my jazz?
You
need a better drummer,
I'm offended,
Good,
Are you like this with everyone?
Just the good-looking ones,
You are an old man playing in an ice cream parlor,
How do you want me to talk to you?
Kindly,
Like a grandparent?
I would never let my grandchild
in a place like this,
- Why is that? - There's too much sax,
With an "A,"
Why, what were you thinking?
I know, that was terrible,
- It was a present, - Ah, I see,
Oh, hello, this is it, my hotel,
- Yeah, your hotel, - Yeah,
Can I ask you something?
You're not trying to ask me to kiss you, right?
Will you book a tour for me?
A tour?
Mm-hm, In Germany,
Why should I do that?
I'll pay you 10 percent my cut,
Why me? I never booked a tour before,
Because I can't imagine anyone turning you down,
Good night,
Vera Brandes,
A tour?
Good night!
He's a dentist,
Best thing about my dad's clinic?
A separate phone line,
Fine,
- Hello? - Hi,
I'm booking a tour for Ronnie Scott,
Who's Ronnie Scott?
- The jazz musician, - Oh,
Terrible man, I hate his music,
Please never call here again, thank you, bye,
Uh, "I am manager,"
I am the concert, um,,,
um, chef, concert booker, concert,,,
",,,to promote,"
I am the concert promoter of Ronnie Scott,
Are you actually asking
if people will come for Ronnie Scott?
Of course they will!
They'll pack the house, and they will dance,
Vera!
Do you know who I am?
Vera Brandes!
Yes, hello, this is Vera Brandes,
I'm calling from London,
I am-- can I talk to your booking manager, please?
- I'm on the phone, - Oh, great,
So, I'm booking a tour for the Ronnie Scott Trio,
He'll be in town October 9th to October 13,
- The 10th, we'll be free, - Tenth!
Okay, uh, yeah, okay, great, um,,,
How much is your split?
How much? Um, just a moment,
Um, six,,, 650?
I'm gonna give you a 20 percent cut
from the door,
Twenty percent cut, perfect,
Sounds perfect to me,
Sound check is at 3:00, door's at 7:00,
and show at 8:00,
What? Sorry, I didn't understand that,
It's very loud here, I'm on the tour bus,
Sound check, yes,
,,,starts at 8:00,
- You got that? - I got that, absolutely,
I got that so much, yes,
- 8:00, - We'll see you then,
Okay, yeah, we'll see you then,
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,
Bye,
Hello, this is Vera Brandes, I'm calling from London,
Can I talk to your booking manager, please?
Yeah, hi, I'm booking a tour for Ronnie Scott,
He'll be in town October 15,
Ronnie Scott, I'm his booking agent,
Uh, 40 percent of your take,
See you,
Vera Brandes, I'm booking a tour for Ronnie Scott,
He'll be in town--
13th of October,
Sound check needs to be at 4:00,
See you then,
Can I talk to your booking manager?
- It's very urgent, - Fantastic!
Um, amazing,
What did you say? I couldn't hear you,
Ah, there she is,
Well, there's still some money in jazz, apparently,
Apparently,
I gotta go, Bye, Ronnie!
Can I get another, a triple, in case she comes back?
I'd say 50 percent of the bar and 10 percent of the door,
Explore the god in you
by working the animal in you,
Thank you,
Mm-hm,
Soon enough, I was making enough money
to rent a small
"office,"
- Yeah! - Wow!
Hmm,
It's 1974,
The Ramones just formed in New York,
disco is about to get huge,
but in Berlin, it's all about jazz,
Berlin is the best jazz festival
in the entire world,
You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?
Huh?
I said, are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?
I don't know; what are you thinking?
If somebody dropped a bomb here,
there'd be no more jazz left in the world,
Why should anyone drop a bomb here?
I don't know, maybe they hate jazz,
I'm Michael,
Okay,
I know what this looks like,
but just let me assure you,
I'm about to become an integral part of this story,
That's Miles-fucking-Davis,
In Berlin, I saw Keith Jarrett
play for the first time,
And you always remember your first time,
The Cologne Opera House was originally built in 1902,
The building was bombed and destroyed during the war,
then rebuilt like the rest of the city
in Modernist style,
One thing's for sure:
A prestigious establishment like this is not in the habit
of hosting a,,,
♪ Inside a silent tear ♪
♪ I have a silent dream ♪
♪ That sometimes sails across ♪
♪ The patterns of my mind ♪
♪ For silence follows me ♪
♪ And dreams just disappear ♪
♪ What is reality ♪
♪ And can it be defined ♪
♪ When you're a fool like me ♪
♪ It's never really clear ♪
♪ So ♪
Oh,
Mm,
Where did you get your ideas from?
Ideas?
Oh, man, I got a million dreams,
That's all I do is dream,
All the time,
I thought you played piano,
No, this is not piano, this is dreaming,
It's been a year since we've last seen each other,
I'm here in Lausanne, attempting to write a story
about Keith Jarrett for Jazz World magazine,
Whoo, it's kind of a big deal assignment,
Jarrett has just embarked on a European tour
of improvised solo concerts,
But what does that mean?
Well, you could look at the evolution of jazz
as a process of elimination,
First, there was the composition
and the big band to play it,
The Count Basie Big Band, ladies and gentlemen,
The band later arranges the score,
conducts the players,
Solos are pre-defined,
Oh, look at that, there's one,
He's playing on a pre-defined key,
improvising on a theme,
He's only allowed to go as far
as the number of bars allotted,
Then, bands got smaller,
Quintets, quartets, trios,
all improvising within a set chord progression,
which leads us to the next step in the process,
The band leader has been eliminated,
Now they're equal, just following a blueprint,
We call that blueprint a standard,
These musicians, they're just throwing paint
on a sturdy foundation,
But it doesn't stop there because after that,
someone decided to do away with the foundation,
Free jazz,
Complete improvised freedom,
No one knows where this is headed,
It's free and, yet, it requires a deep connection
between the players,
A virtuosity,
And frankly, some of it sounds like crap,
The final elimination leaves nothing in place,
Keith Jarrett steps up onstage
and he has no one to improvise with,
no one to bounce ideas off of,
no preconceived notion of what he's going to play,
He's alone,
His mind is empty,
So, you try it,
Yeah, you,
Get up, wherever you are,
In the movie theater, in your bed, on your couch,
Stand up and sing something,
but it can't be anything you know,
It has to be brand new,
Nothing you've ever, ever heard before,
Nothing you've ever thought of, nothing you've ever hummed,
No? Yeah, I didn't think so,
And imagine that you have to do it for an hour
every other night, never once repeating yourself,
And imagine that you are so good at it
that each and every concert you play
could become an actual record, an actual album,
You think you understand how hard this is,
but you have no idea,
In fact, here's Ana-Marija Markovina,
In case you haven't been following Piano Digest,
Markovina is a world-renowned,
Grammy-nominated classical pianist,
Here she is tackling C,P,E, Bach's "Solfeggio No, 1,"
Pretty impressive, right?
But watch what happens,
Hey, Ana-Marija, um, can you play something
nobody's ever heard before?
No?
What are you waiting for?
Go for it,
Yeah, I'll let you think about it,
Phew, it is so much harder than it seems,
And yet, Keith Jarrett 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,
Okay,
How was it?
It was good,
Where to next?
Cologne,
It's an eight-hour drive,
Fuck!
You can sleep in the car,
No, I can't sleep in the car,
- And we're recording you, - No,
Martin is coming over from Berlin,
No, no, no, no, No, call 'em off,
If it happens again, I'm gonna stop playing,
It's not gonna work tonight,
Oh,
But I flew in just for this,
- I'm sorry, - Oh,
Please, Please, I have to do this interview,
He's in no state to talk to anyone right now,
Okay, so when will he be able to talk to me?
We can try tomorrow in Cologne,
Tomorrow?
Come on, help me,
Okay, lift him up, slowly,
Easy, easy,
Easy,
We got you,
I'll go and try and find a doctor,
Uh,,, uh, hey, Keith, it's great to meet you,
I'm Michael Watts,
You have a back like a 60-year-old factory worker,
I pushed a car up a hill once,
Slipped a disc,
With the way you've been playing,
it doesn't help,
You know who I am?
Of course I know you,
You played for Miles Davis,
Yeah,
It's gonna be on my gravestone,
You should probably stop,
Playing?
Moving,
You play well enough,
You don't need the gimmick,
How long has he been having back problems?
He's a very private person,
You cannot write about any of this,
Of course,
What about the coughing in the audience?
Does he always complain about it?
You don't get it,
Okay, help me get it,
To reach that level of playing,
he needs to be hyperconcentrated
and, at the same time, totally relaxed,
He's so into the moment
that every little thing
around him
shapes the music,
Every camera snap feels like a bat to the head,
Man, that's-that's good,
that's very good,
You can't use it,
Yeah, no, of course not,
- I'm fine, - Hm?
I'm fine,
- No, stop, - Okay,
It's, uh, here,
Oh, God,
Are you good?
Okay,
Thank you for your help,
Oh, of course,
Uh,,,
If you like, we can try and do the interview
tomorrow in Cologne,
Yes, right, Cologne,
Um, I'll just have to find a way to get there,
Okay then,
Um,,,
Goodbye, Keith,
Maybe I'll see you in Cologne,
Um, wait,
Wait!
Oh, thank God,
Hi, Hi, sorry,
Look, the truth is, I don't have a car here,
It's late, and I'd really appreciate if I could
ride with you to Cologne,
No interviews,
No interviews, of course,
Great, thank you,
Oh, my God, thank you,
It's nice and warm in here,
So, are we headed to the bus?
The bus?
Your tour bus or van or,,,
Are you,,,
You're touring in this car?
Look, man, you gotta stop,
Right, sorry,
We've got a long drive ahead of us,
You gotta be quiet,
Right, yes,
I can be quiet,
By the time he was three,
everyone knew Keith Jarrett was a prodigy,
And everywhere he went, people noticed,
At 15, he was already touring with players double his age:
Art Blakey, Charles Lloyd, Wayne Shorter, his own trio,
And finally, the holy motherfucking grail,
They say Miles asked Keith to join his band three times
before Keith said yes,
Imagine the balls,
Turning Miles down twice?
Like turning down an invitation to Andy Warhol's factory,
Like saying no to Michael Jordan
if he asked you to join the '93 Bulls,
But eventually, Keith said yes,
And everyone thought that was it,
He had arrived,
And, now, here he was,
out of the Miles train,
out of his Columbia Record deal,
in Europe with a broken back,
I can hear you think,
Who did you say you wrote for again?
Uh, Jazz World, on a freelance basis,
So, what'd you think of the show?
- Me? - Yeah,
You heard it, right?
I did,
So?
It was great,
You can tell me,
I thought parts of it were just brilliant,
What about the other parts?
Some parts felt like you got stuck on an idea
and you kept repeating it,
Jesus Christ,
You asked,
I didn't know we had Lester Bangs in the car,
I do want to ask something now that we're talking,,,
We are not talking,
What?
I'm trying to understand why,
Why?
Why you're doing this,
Doing what? Making music?
No, I mean, you could be in New York,
You know what Dexter Gordon said
when they asked him why he moved to Copenhagen?
The weather,
That's very funny,
I'm not sure it answers my question, but,,,
Why are we at the airport?
I need to do something,
You get something to eat and I see you later,
I can't eat this,
Do you ever play between concerts?
- No, never, - Why not?
That's rehearsing, man,
It would seep in,
Mm, Is that why you don't listen to music in the car?
- Mm-hm, - You empty yourself?
I try,
And how do you start?
You get up on stage,
you sit in front of the piano, and then what happens?
I put my hand down,
- It's that easy? - It's not easy,
But it's random?
No, no, there's nothing random about it at all,
Well, isn't putting your hand down
kind of the definition of random?
Who is going to even care about any of this?
People care about what you have to say,
My back is killing me,
I know that you're a follower of the mystic Gurdjieff,
and he believes that we walk through life asleep
like automatons,
My spiritual journey is nobody's business,
I'm just trying to understand, man,
You realize understanding
isn't as important as you think it is?
Look, have you ever gotten into your car
and driven to work, and then you get there
and you have no memory of getting there?
And music can wake us up?
Maybe that's what good music can do,
But when you play, you seem to get lost somewhere,
You go someplace,
Isn't that the opposite of being awake?
Maybe we have different definitions
of what being awake is,
Oh, that's good,
Yeah,
Can't use any of this,
No, of course not,
Manfred,
I gotta piss,
I'll meet you at the car,
Hi, Keith,
This was a mistake,
Mm-hm,
You okay?
Want to pull over?
No,
Thank you for doing this,
Hey! Hey! Hey!
Hey,
Where are we?
Not sure,
Ooh, it's cold,
- Do me a favor? - Mm,
Don't talk,
Just listen,
Shh,
Stop thinking,
I have one last question,
Heard that one before,
Do you ever worry about failing?
Every night,
This actually happened?
Well, not really,
Keith and Manfred did drive from Lausanne to Cologne,
I just wasn't in the car with them,
And so, in accordance with the fine journalistic tradition
of making up stories,
Um, this next part though, that-that did happen,
I don't want to do this,
You have to do the soundcheck,
I don't want to play tonight,
You ought to get some rest,
You will feel better,
Oh, there she is,
- That's the promoter? - Hey!
Recruiting from high schools now?
Don't forget, I just picked you up at the airport,
Hi, sorry I'm late,
Hi, I'm Vera Brandes, Welcome to Köln,
How was the flight?
Um, we should go,
Yes, Yes, follow me,
- Come here, Yeah, - Um,,,
Just around the block,
Is the piano tuned?
Yes, it should be,
The opera promised it will be ready,
Just go ahead,
I'll catch up,
It's beautiful, isn't it?
I'll wait downstairs,
Uh,,,
- Okay, - Okay,
Hey, Everything all right?
Will Keith play?
Maybe,
You get any sleep?
Maybe I'm asleep right now,
Huh, We all are, right?
You ask him why he's doing this,
Why he tours like that, away from home
in a tiny car with his back the way it is,
You know why we stopped at the airport?
We were cashing in the plane tickets
the promoter sent us so we have money for the tour,
Oof,
Artists like Keith,
they show up maybe once a generation,
And now the world doesn't seem to care,
Museum's music, dead,
No one shows up,
Is that why Columbia Records dumped him?
They want standards,
He's a risk,
In America, the business eats the artist,
Right?
In Europe, we still have some respect for them,
So, you're saying it's American music
for a European audience?
It's music for people with ears,
Who is it?
Vera Brandes,
What happened to you?
I'm sorry, Were you sleeping?
I haven't slept in two days,
Find a piano?
I'm having the broken one fixed,
It's not gonna help,
Wait, if you don't play,
I'm-- I have to stop booking shows,
I have to leave the music business,
Good, I'll be doing you a favor,
I'm begging you,
You're begging me to fail,
I'm asking you to save me,
If you don't play, my life is gonna be over,
I'm sorry, I can't,
Fuck!
What?
Can I ask you one thing?
How long has it been that you're playing
on expensive pianos,
the Grand Imperial with nine extra keys?
You know what I think?
I think you are spoiled, I think you're scared,
I think inside of you, you don't know
if you can do it to-- to play a note
without knowing exactly how it will sound,
To-- to really improvise,
Maybe you should thank me,
Maybe I'm giving you an opportunity,
An opportunity to what?
To go somewhere new,
How old are you?
Twenty-five,
You're not twenty-five,
Twenty,
I'm eighteen,
You're an eighteen-year-old kid
and you walk around the world
acting like people owe you something,
I'm just a girl who booked a concert,
On a broken piano,
On a broken piano with a fixed pedal,
You've got a lot of balls,
I've got a lot of experience dealing with narcissistic men,
Cologne tap water, can I drink this?
Yes,
All right,
Just for you, remember that,
For me?
If the pedal's fixed,
You'll play,
If it's in tune,
You'll play,
And if you leave,
Yes,
Yes!
You're still here,
It was a strange dinner,
Like a wake, but for a disaster that was about to take place,
Vera tried to breathe,
Thoughts were buzzing around her head,
Will the piano be fixed in time?
Will anyone even show up?
And Fritz,
Fritz was wrestling with this new feeling inside of him,
something closely resembling love,
Jan, He just kept thinking about the man
that Vera slept with,
It kept him up at night,
And Oliver, he was hoping the piano fiasco
hadn't ruined his chances with Isa,
who was busy pretending that she didn't notice,
I'll see you there,
Keith, meanwhile--
Stop,
It's like a hundred degrees in here,
There's something I need to tell you,
Don't get mad,
Martin is here with the equipment,
No, I told you, I don't want him to,
He's going to tape the concert,
There's not going to be a concert,
It's going to be a fucking car crash,
We already paid him,
So, what? Send him home,
We will not release it, I-I promise,
Oh, no,
Our famous strawberry à la mode,
Oh, Go-- oh, man,
This is a fucking disaster,
Hmm?
It's time,
Let's get this over with,
Oh,
♪ There's a light ♪
♪ A certain kind of light ♪
♪ It's never shone on me ♪
♪ I want my whole life to be ♪
♪ Lived with you ♪
♪ There's a way Everybody say ♪
♪ Do each and every little thing ♪
♪ What good does it bring If I ain't got you? ♪
♪ I ain't got you ♪
♪ Ain't got you ♪
♪ I ain't got you ♪
♪ You don't know What it's like ♪
♪ Baby, you don't know What it's like ♪
♪ To love somebody ♪
♪ Love somebody The way I love you ♪
♪ In my brain See your face again ♪
♪ I know my frame of mind ♪
♪ You ain't got To be so blind ♪
♪ And I'm so blind ♪
♪ So blind ♪
♪ But I'm a woman ♪
♪ Can't you see what I am? ♪
♪ I live and breathe For you ♪
♪ What good does it do If I ain't got you? ♪
♪ If I ain't got you? ♪
♪ I ain't got you ♪
♪ Say You don't know what it's like ♪
♪ Baby, you don't know What it's like ♪
♪ To love somebody To love somebody ♪
♪ The way I love you ♪
♪ Oh, you don't know What it's like ♪
♪ Baby, you don't know What it's like ♪
♪ To love somebody To love somebody ♪
♪ The way I love you ♪
♪ And my friend-- ♪
♪ If I ain't got you ♪
♪ I ain't got you ♪
♪ Say You don't know what it's like ♪
♪ Baby, you don't know-- ♪
♪ Oh, you don't Know what it's like ♪
Where to next?
Boden,
In Switzerland again,
Oh, God,
How do you think it went?
Tonight?
Yeah,
It was good,
♪ And my friend ♪
♪ See your face again ♪
♪ I know my frame of mind ♪
♪ You ain't got to be so blind ♪
♪ And I'm so blind ♪
♪ So blind ♪
I would say that was a disaster,
♪ What good does It do if I ain't got you? ♪
♪ If I ain't got you ♪
♪ I ain't got you ♪
♪ Say You don't know what it's like ♪
♪ Baby, you don't know What it's like ♪
♪ To love somebody To love somebody ♪
♪ The way I love you ♪
♪ Oh, you don't know What it's like ♪
♪ Baby, you don't know What it's like ♪
♪ To love somebody To love somebody ♪
♪ The way I love you ♪