Real Jazz again

Last Friday I had a very moving music experience you seldom get in nowadays commercialized music world.

I love Jazz for years. I was on several live events from Zurich, NY to London, but there was often a missing link – most of the Jam sessions have been staged or were just otherwise part of the event. I was always in the search of something like the "The Köln Concert", the probably best Jazz happening ever. This concert took place in January 1975 – sadly I was not quite allowed to go to concerts at this time. If you ever happen to listen to that record, you may agree that this concert somehow catched the real soul of Jazz:  

In a few words: Keith Jarrett was convinced by a 17-year-old concert promoter (!!) to play on a wrong, defect piano after an exhausting long drive from Zurich. Worse, the concert took place at the unusually late hour of 11:30 PM. But Jarrett adapted to the substandard piano, played different as usual during his performance to cover the weakness of the piano. Jarrett's performance was not just enthusiastically received by the audience, the recording of " The Köln Concert" became the all-time best-selling piano album with sales of more than 3.5 million.

That’s what makes Jazz unique to me - a few guys playing fantastic music, they improvise, they include the audience and just have fun! And believe me, this concert in St. George's was just similar. It was not staged, way from perfect. Some of the musicians were outstanding – some simply not. But they provided a platform for all kind of artists, playing together, everybody could participate with different topics. All in a warm, friendly “jazzish” environment.

I highly doubt, that any record of this evening would ever be a best-seller. But for sure, it had more soul than many concerts I have seen in the past. I know now why they say Grenada is the music capital in the Caribbean!