Keith Jarrett: The Concert in Koln Arrangement for Big Band

From a Piano sheet into a Big Band score

by Stefano Gullo

1. Keith Jarrett: The Concert in Koln (1975)

Before starting with the arranging process, I believe that is important to speak about the album and the Author I’m going to take as example: the album recorded in the 1975 during a solo piano concert in Koln executed by Keith Jarrett. Is important to consider what are the peculiarities of the composer and what are the characteristics of his music; for example would help the reader/listener to know more about the background of Keith Jarrett, mentioning about his works, the musical environment he was surrounded by, describing the sonority of his playing and describing the performance in Koln, what was the context; you know it was a improvised concert?, part of the charactristics in the musicality of Keith Jarrett, basing his style in “the relation between the composition and the improvisation,… a rigorous freedom, showing that the improvisation is something more complex, structured and organized then we think”. ^[1]

2. First steps

The first thing to consider in doing an arrangement, is to define in which direction I aim to go. I want to respect the artistic choice of the original composer or do I want to give my person-al interpretation in the arrangement? This was the first barrier I had to face; wasn’t a technical dilemma, but has been something that I had to clear before starting, this choice would definitely guide me during the all pro-cess. I believe that this choice is often personal, due to how much you’re attached to the original piece and what you’re imagination gives you during the hearings. In the work I’m doing on the Album of Keith Jarrett, I decided to keep settled with his artistic choice in the sonority and intensity.

Once cleared all this is time to make a sketch of the arrangement:

• FORM, the first thing that I’m going to define is the structure of the arrangement; I decided that every piece needs a solo section for a soloist and a solo for the sax & brass sections. I will keep the exposition of the theme played from Keith Jarrett as it is. I will use all the theme’s variations and some solo elements to make saxophones and brass backgrounds and make some intro and outro of every piece
• ANALYSIS; after fixed the Form of the arrangements, I’ll start doing the analysis of the compositions. My approach is based on listening the tunes while reading the scores and defining 4 elements from where I can start my orchestration:

1. Melody
2. Counter-melody
3. Harmony voicing
4. Bass

^[2]

3. Instrumentation

The choice of the ensemble has an important role in the orchestration of the arrangement, the choice of the instruments can affect the sonority of the result, my goal is to use “the fundamentals of the modern orchestration, keeping as a point of reference the brightness and the creativity, and giving space to the resonance of the timber and to the combination of the orchestra sections” . ^[3]

Personally listening to the piano solo concert in Koln gave me the impression that it could be adapted for a modern Big Band. Many are the elements in Keith Jarrett music that guided me to this choice. The strong sense of rhythm in his solos and the themes. The use of modal progressions and really open sounds. Melodic and rich bass lines.

For this reason I decided to arrange for:

Rhythm section: Drum, D. Bass, Piano, Vibraphone.

Sax Section: Soprano/Alto, Alto/Flute, Tenor/Clarinet, Tenor/Clarinet, Baritone/B. Clarinet

Brass Section: 4 trumpet, 4 Trombone

(…)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Nikolaj Rimskij-Korsakov, Principi di orchestrazione, Ruggimenti Editore, Milano, september 2012

• Giovanni Bietti, La libertà rigorosa – lezioni di musica della Filarmonica Romana, Rai Radio 3, 17/04/2019

• Yukiko Kishinami & Kunihiko Yamashita, Keith Jarrett The Koln Concert original transcription, Rissing Inc, Tokyo, 1991