In 1975, Vera Brandes, then an 18-year-old student and part-time promoter, organized a concert for Keith Jarrett in Cologne, a recording of which became “The Köln Concert,” the best-selling solo jazz album ever.
Half a century later, director Ido Fluk is in Berlin premiering “Köln 75” about the woman behind this monumental moment in jazz history. One that, ironically, Jarrett has no desire to revive. Fluk speaks to Variety about the fun film – starring John Magaro, recently seen in “September 5,” as Keith Jarrett and rising German star Mala Emde as Vera Brandes – and why it was important “to give Vera the attention, the limelight that she deserves.”
How did the project germinate?
I read a story somewhere in which Vera was mentioned. And I was like: “That’s kind of interesting: she really made this happen, and she’s not getting much attention for it.” I thought it would make a really interesting film. And I went and I showed a few pages to [Oscar-nominated screenwriter, director and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker-producer] Oren Moverman, who is like my personal patron saint, and produced my last film, “The Ticket.” And he said: “Huh, that’s kind of cool.” He has a background in music films with the Beach Boys movie and the Cate Blanchett, Bob Dylan thing [Todd Haynes-directed “I’m Not There”] and he sent it to Sol Bondy in Germany. Then Sol went and found Vera on a beach in Greece. And she was sitting there waiting for someone to tell her story. We realized it’s the perfect underdog story, about this woman who really changed music and she’s never gotten any credit.
Have you been in touch with Keith Jarrett and his camp on this project?
Well, when I wrote the script we reached out. They didn’t want to be involved in this. They didn’t want to give Vera credit. But Keith has a brother, his name is Chris Jarrett. And he was involved in the translation of Keith’s last biography. He read the script and he emailed back: “This is exactly what my brother says.” I was like: “O.K., great.” We kept updating that camp without hearing anything. By the way, I understand how Keith feels, I mean how I presume he feels. This is his ‘Creep.’ His Radiohead’s ‘Creep.’ The song that they can’t stand playing anymore. So I understand where his camp are coming from. At the same time, I think they should be more generous in giving Vera the attention, the limelight that she deserves, which is what we’re doing here.
How did you deal with the fact that you did not have the rights to Jarrett’s music?
Well, first of all, it’s a film about the seventies in Cologne, which was an incredible time in music history. You have bands like Can and Neu!. You have bands like Kraftwerk. You have so much stuff. Bowie and Iggy [Pop] and these guys are about to move to Berlin. It’s such a hotbed of both political action and musical development. For me, that was the scene. Vera Brandes was a jazz impresario, but she was surrounded by all of these new styles of music. Then, of course, we had to find a way to showcase Keith’s music. So for example, when we see Keith playing his first concert in Berlin, there’s a piece that Keith used to play by Gurdžiev, who was, like, a mystical philosopher but also wrote music. And Keith actually released an album with those songs. So that’s a piece that Keith actually played. In a movie, anyway, you can only have 20 seconds of a piece if music, not the whole thing. So for me, as a filmmaker, the best thing you can do is, when you walk out of the cinema, you put “The Köln Concert” record on, and you listen to it in its entirety. I think that’s what Keith would want as well.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
