Köln 75 (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

Köln 75

KÖLN 75 (2025)

Starring Mala Emde, John Magaro, Michael Chernus, Alexander Scheer, Susanne Wolff, Ulrich Tukur, Jördis Triebel, Marie-Lou Sellem, Mala Emde, Enno Trebs, Shirin Lilly Eissa, Daniel Betts, Ilse Brandes, Leo Meier, Leon Blohm, Moritz Heidelbach, Michael del Coco, Gisela Walter, Uwe Preuss, Lea Draeger, Tobias Lange, Ana-Marija Markovina and Alexander Scheer.

Screenplay by Ido Fluk.

Directed by Ido Fluk.

Distributed by Zeitgeist Films. 113 minutes. Not Rated.

“It’s 1974. The Ramones just formed in New York. Disco is about to get huge. But in Berlin, it’s all about Jazz.”

These words are spoken about a half-hour into Köln 75 by Vera Brandes (Mala Emde), an 18-year-old German aspiring concert promoter who is working to put together a show by Jazz fusion pianist Keith Jarrett, a legendary concert which became the artist’s album The Köln Concert, the best-selling solo album and piano album in Jazz history.

However, while Jarrett is central to the story of Köln 75 and well-played by American actor John Magaro (September 5), this movie is not his story. In fact, he doesn’t show up on screen until soon after Vera made the above statement and isn’t in the film with any regularity until the second half.

Köln 75 is more of a behind-the-scenes take on the concert and all of the mishaps which occurred leading up to it. This is why Köln 75 mostly revolves around the story of Brandes, a young girl and fan of Jazz who got into concert promotion by chance when British saxophonist (and famous club owner) Ronnie Scott challenged her to set up a short German tour for him.

At the time she is still living at home with her parents – her overbearing father is one of the more obnoxious dad characters in recent film, and I only hope that he was made worse for the film than his real-life counterpart. Brandes learns concert promotion on the fly and quickly becomes successful setting up shows for other world-class Jazz artists. (Perhaps a bit too quickly, honestly, the movie never really shows how she hooks up with all these other artists.)

Her Holy Grail moment is when she first hears the music of Keith Jarrett. Jarrett was a prodigy piano player – he was performing professionally at around 13 – who had played in the bands of Art Blakey, Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. He went solo and started his own groups in the 1970s.

Jarrett had a very specific improvisational style in his music. No two shows would be the same. In fact, every solo performance would be 100% made up on the spot. Jarrett would just let the music move him and take him wherever. It was a difficult way to work, but it could bring some exceptional results. And, honestly, it was a hard-sell in Jarrett’s native United States, where music was expected to have more structure and form, and where fans wanted to hear their favorite songs.

By the time this film is taking place – in 1974 and 1975 – Jarrett was somewhat reduced to driving around Europe going from town to town, playing a gig and then driving overnight to his next show. He was very tired, sort of cynical on the road, not sleeping enough and suffering from severe back pain.

Still, Brandes borrowed money from her mother to put the Jarrett show on at a local opera house – on the condition that if she couldn’t pay the loan back, she would have to give up the music business and go back to school to become a dentist like her father.

This, of course, leads to a series of complications. There is a show at the Opera House on the same night, so she has to take a late 11:00 show time. Brandes is having trouble getting radio stations to promote the show, working hard to sell tickets, all the while fighting with her family. Eventually it turns out that the piano she has specified for the show is not there, and Jarrett refuses to play on the one that is on stage, which is too small for the room, out of tune and has a broken pedal.

Much of the film has Brandes scurrying around trying to make everyone happy and have the show come together.

One odd, though probably necessary stylistic choice though, rather than actually play any of the music from the triumphant concert, the film plays Nina Simone’s cover of The Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody” over the visual depiction of Jarrett playing and the audience taking in and becoming enthralled with his mastery. It’s a great rendition, granted, but it is at odds with the visuals.

It's not exactly the film’s fault. They couldn’t get the rights to the original music. In fact, the director has apparently claimed that because the concert was completely improvised there were no rights to get. (I’m not sure that’s how it works, I would think once it was recorded rights could be given, but I’ll take his word for it.)

More to the point, Jarrett has always dismissed The Köln Concert as one of his lesser works. Jarrett, who is still alive but is partially disabled due to a couple of strokes in the 2010s, did not care to cooperate with the filming. In a recent interview with The Guardian, director Ido Fluk compared it to the rock band Radiohead. “I get why Keith wants nothing to do with us. The Köln Concert is his ‘Creep,’ his big hit that he wants to disown. That’s why the film isn’t really about him. It’s about Vera Brandes.”

But still it blunts the argument of Jarrett’s genius to use the music of Nina Simone – who is, granted, another genius artist – over his supposed crowning achievement. Perhaps they could have come up with some original jazz improvisation in the style of Jarrett. But that’s not what they did, and I suppose that’s okay. It may have been a bit of a risk, if the new music were not adequate it would blunt the power of the film, so perhaps it was better to play it safer.

Still, Vera Brandes and her friends are very good company. And there is an entertaining extended interlude here revolving around freelance music journalist’s (Michael Chernus) attempt to get an interview with the uncooperative Jarrett.

Like Brandes herself, Köln 75 wears its love of the music on its sleeve and turns out to be a quite charming look at some of the less romantic and less-celebrated parts of the creative process.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2025 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: October 21, 2025.