A niche drama about one of the most important chapters in experimental jazz history arrives in cinemas. Köln 75 is watchable, well acted, and avoids typical music-movie cliches, though fourth-wall-breaking lectures on jazz improvisation feel heavy-handed and condescending, reminiscent of Adam McKay's The Big Short.
Plot Overview
John Magaro portrays Keith Jarrett, the great jazz pianist and former Miles Davis collaborator. In the mid-1970s, Jarrett was on a gruelling European solo tour, improvising nightly for adoring jazz fans more plentiful in Europe than the US, while battling depression and back pain. Mala Emde plays Vera Brandes, an incredibly precocious 18-year-old from Cologne who became a jazz promoter after an encounter with Ronnie Scott, rebelling against her grumpily conservative dentist father (Ulrich Tukur).
With extraordinary chutzpah, Vera books Jarrett to play at the Köln Opera House, putting up a DM10,000 deposit borrowed from her mother. At the last moment, she must arrange a desperate repair and tuning for the rickety, insultingly unacceptable rehearsal piano placed on stage. She then has to beg a moody Jarrett not to cancel the whole performance. It falls to this feisty, passionate teen to jolt the great genius out of his catatonic disillusionment and despair, enabling the performance that became an iconic live jazz album.
Supporting Characters and Style
Michael Chernus plays jazz critic and journalist Mick Watts, who witnesses the event and delivers the Big Short-style lessons. Oddly, we hear little or none of the concert itself, likely due to copyright restrictions; the final euphoric montage uses different music. Throughout the pre-show chaos, it seems Vera might have to give up, but her exasperated brother urges her to "Improvise!"—a moment that may be symbolic but feels authentic.
Emde delivers a likable, fizzy performance, and the film avoids any sentimental reconciliation with her disagreeable father. Köln 75 is in UK and Irish cinemas from 5 June.
