NEW YORK, NY.- Keith Jarrett’s legendary performance in January 1975 nearly didn’t happen. Based on a true story, Köln 75 follows how the concert was conceived and orchestrated by the efforts of a teenage up and coming concert promoter, Vera Brandes, (played by German actress Mala Emde). Her enthusiasm set her to multitasking – from organizing the concert venue (the Cologne Opera House), promoting the event, and selling the tickets, to convincing Jarrett to perform when he almost dropped out when the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand piano he was promised was nowhere to be found. John Magaro plays Jarrett with his own intensity, a sublime counterpoint to Mala Emde’s joyful portrayal of the enthusiastic and unstoppable Vera. Köln 75 captures the compelling, entertaining and, until now, unknown back story about Jarrett’s one hour, entirely improvised concert, which became the best-selling solo album in jazz history.
Fifty years have passed since that legendary concert on January 24, 1975, at the Cologne Opera House. Keith Jarrett improvised alone on a grand piano — one that, as it later turned out, was a damaged Bösendorfer baby grand, not the Bösendorfer Imperial 290 he usually insisted on. The recordings from that evening were released by ECM under the title THE KÖLN CONCERT and became a bestseller. With more than four million copies sold, the double album, with its iconic white cover, remains the best-selling solo jazz album and solo piano recording of all time. This is all the more remarkable considering that both Keith Jarrett himself and ECM Records — the contemporary jazz label founded in 1969 by Manfred Eicher, Manfred Scheffner, and Karl Egger, based in Gräfelfing — have long distanced themselves from the release, regarding it as inferior.
In fact, the concert almost didn’t happen, and over time, legends have grown around it. It was thanks to the persuasive skills of the then 18-year-old promoter Vera Brandes that it took place at all — that Keith Jarrett sat down at a baby grand piano whose flaws forced him to completely rethink his improvisation. By that time, Vera Brandes was already well known in Cologne: Born in 1956, she had organized her first tour at the age of 16 for British jazz musician Ronnie Scott. In 1974, she launched the „New Jazz in Cologne“ series, which had already featured performances by the group Oregon, Dave Liebman’s Lookout Farm, the band Pork Pie with Charlie Mariano and Jasper van’t Hof, and Gary Burton’s quartet. Then she managed to bring Keith Jarrett to Cologne. It was her remarkable story that caught the attention of New York filmmaker and music aficionado Ido Fluk, who, in turn, brought it to the attention of his mentor and production partner Oren Moverman.
“For us, the project began in April 2019 with an email from Oren Moverman,” recalls Sol Bondy, founder and partner (alongside Fred Burle) of the dynamic Berlin-based production company One Two Films, known for acclaimed films like THE HAPPIEST DAY IN THE LIFE OF OLLI MAKI (2016) by Juho Kuosmanen, THE TALE (2018) by Jennifer Fox, and Cannes winner HOLY SPIDER (2022) by Ali Abbasi. In fact, the connection to the renowned filmmaker Moverman had been established through THE TALE.
Moverman had produced Ido Fluk’s second film, THE TICKET (2017). At the time, Fluk had a two- page pitch paper outlining the third act of what would eventually become KÖLN 75. “After working on a series of international projects, we were looking for a German project that would be a good fit for us, but we hadn’t found one,” says Sol Bondy. “Then this came along — material with a clear German DNA, a German story, but realized as a major international co-production with us as the lead production company. We were electrified. We immediately recognized what a unique opportunity this film represented.”
The name Keith Jarrett alone guarantees worldwide attention, but the nature of the story also suggested to the producers that they might be able to finance and complete the entire production from within Germany. “It was a no-brainer that we wanted to make this film,” Bondy states. His colleague Fred Burle adds, “A few compelling elements came together: a great story, a film filled with music, and a fascinating female protagonist who was far ahead of her time. From the outset, Ido wanted to tell the story of The Köln Concert from her perspective — not from the point of view of Keith Jarrett, the superstar, but through the eyes of Vera Brandes, the 18-year- old promoter at the heart of it all.”
The producers’ first step was to reach out to Keith Jarrett’s management. “The response came immediately: a polite but firm ‘Sorry, but no—ain’t gonna happen,’” Bondy recalls. “That was the moment when most producers would have walked away. But we found the idea so compelling, so exciting, so unique that we decided to push forward anyway: Let’s write the script first and try again later. KÖLN 75 is a film that celebrates Keith Jarrett — his genius, his music.”
Meanwhile, Bondy had managed to track down Vera Brandes. During a phone call, he told her about the planned film project, in which she would be the central figure — if she agreed to it. “There was a long pause — probably much shorter, in reality, than it felt — but I knew that everything hinged on her answer,” Bondy remembers. “Then, after that long silence, she let out a deep sigh and said: “Finally!”
He continues: “I immediately sensed how emotional this was for her. She started talking right away— and, in a way, she hasn’t stopped since. She became our rock, our unwavering ally — just as she must have been back then when she single handedly organized jazz concerts in Cologne.” Soon, Vera Brandes was in direct contact with Ido Fluk, sharing every detail of what had happened in the early 1970s in a series of Skype conversations that lasted a total of eight hours. These discussions became the foundation for the script written by the New York- based filmmaker. “That’s why, at the very beginning of the film, you see the title card: „KÖLN 75 – as told by Vera Brandes herself.“ It is her story, her perspective — without question,” explains Fred Burle.
The script was outstanding from the start. Ido wanted to shape the storytelling in a way that felt like jazz itself — mirroring its essence, making it feel loose, as if the script itself were improvised.” Appropriately, the script’s cover page at the time read: „KÖLN 75 – improvised into words by Ido Fluk.“ “We loved the spirit of it,” Burle says. “We immediately knew that producing this film would be a challenge. It seamlessly shifts from fiction to near- documentary, breaks the fourth wall, plays with narrative techniques, jumps through different timelines, embraces chaos — and then, at its core, it takes a radical turn, switching to a new setting and introducing a new protagonist. There was so much going on. We were completely hooked.”
It was during this period that ECM Records officially declined to be part of the project. “Strangely, that didn’t discourage us,” says Bondy. “If anything, it reinforced our conviction that we were on the right path by putting Vera Brandes at the heart of the story. Keith Jarrett is an important figure, but the real protagonist is Vera — and what she experienced in the early 1970s, culminating in The Köln Concert. She was the reason we wanted to make this film in the first place.”
If anything, the project now had an even sharper focus. The next step was securing financing — a challenge in an already difficult climate for filmmakers. This process went hand in hand with finding a filming location that could stand in for the Cologne Opera, where key scenes would take place. “This location was crucial,” explains Sol Bondy. “Once we knew where we could shoot these scenes, we’d have a final budget and could determine how to structure the financing beyond the usual funding institutions.” The producers quickly realized that filming at the real Cologne Opera was not an option. “It had been an ongoing construction site for years and would remain so for the foreseeable future,” says Fred Burle. “We simply weren’t allowed to shoot there.”
The main challenge in the search wasn’t the stages themselves — most historic opera houses are protected landmarks and look much the same as they did 50 years ago — but the backstage areas. “Every door, every window, every cable — nothing looked like the 1970s,” Bondy recalls. “And it was essential for Ido to move freely with the camera throughout the opera house — from backstage to the stage and back again. The unity of time and space was meant to heighten the ticking-clock tension as the concert approached.” The team explored countless options, even considering building a set at Studio Babelsberg. “Eventually, we had exhausted every possibility in Germany,” Bondy says with a shrug. “We went on multiple location scouting trips with Ido Fluk but couldn’t find the right place. So, we decided to expand our search abroad.”
The production eventually moved to Poland, turning KÖLN 75 into an international co production — first with Poland and Oscar-winning producer Ewa Puszczyńska (IDA, THE ZONE OF INTEREST) and later with Belgium as a third partner.
Ido Fluk secured two major names for key roles: John Magaro, fresh off the success of PAST LIVES (2023) and SEPTEMBER 5 (2024), signed on to play Keith Jarrett. Michael Chernus, known from Apple TV’s SEVERANCE (2022–2025), joined as jazz journalist Michael Watts, a fictional character who serves as the film’s omniscient narrator. In Germany, the cast included Ulrich Tukur and Jördis Triebel as Vera Brandes’ parents, Alexander Scheer as ECM Records founder Manfred Eicher, and Susanne Wolff and Marie-Lou Sellem as the older versions of Vera Brandes and her best friend Isa. The film’s cinematography was entrusted to Jens Harant, best known for his work with Lars Kraume, while Jutta Freyer handled production design, Ola Staszko designed the costumes, and Anja Siemens took on editing.
The most crucial casting decision, however, was finding the right actress to play Vera Brandes. “We needed a young, fearless woman who could carry this film on her shoulders,” recalls Ido Fluk. “I wasn’t very familiar with the new generation of German actors, so I started watching everything Sol and Fred recommended. The first time I saw Mala Emde was in 303. Her screen presence was disarming — authentic and strong. Then I saw “And Tomorrow the Entire World” where she carried the entire film. It was incredibly impressive. We went through many rounds of casting, and she consistently won everyone over. When Mala walks into a room, the atmosphere shifts. You instantly feel that you’re in the presence of a star.”
Filming ultimately took place primarily in and around Cologne. “This turned out to be yet another major challenge,” recalls Fred Burle. “There aren’t many areas left in the city where you can still shoot historical scenes. And in those that remain, getting filming permits is nearly impossible.” The highway scenes depicting the journey from Switzerland to Cologne were shot in Bavaria.
The opera house scenes were ultimately filmed in Łódź, Poland, at a historic theater that had previously hosted the annual Camerimage Festival. “We had an agreement that we could rehearse there for two weeks and then have another two weeks for shooting,” says Burle. “Unfortunately, that didn’t work out as planned, and we found ourselves in a situation that eerily mirrored the story of the film itself: we had to improvise nonstop.”
Each day, the team had to reassess whether they could shoot on the stage, on one of the staircases, or behind the scenes. “It was like a continuous puzzle; we had to create a new shooting schedule every single day. It was frustrating, but in the end, it was also incredibly inspiring because the challenges forced us to bond as a team like never before.
