The Köln Concert (1975)

Recorded on 24 January 1975 at the Cologne Opera House, this solo concert was born from adversity. Given a small, worn piano instead of the instrument he had asked for, and exhausted from travel, Keith Jarrett leaned on repeated, rolling left-hand vamps that kept him away from the weak upper register. You can hear him turning those limits into an hour of mesmerising, spontaneous lyricism.