He’s presented papers on subjects as varied as “air guitar and the music of Sigur Rós” and the “sound of a rock record” but now Hull university academic Peter Elsdon has turned his attention to Keith Jarrett, and has written a book called Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert, named after the pianist’s groundbreaking concert recorded on 24 January 1975.

It’s to be published next month just under 38 years on from the groundbreaking concert Jarrett gave in the Cologne opera house when he was just 29.

The concert began late in the evening, a half an hour before midnight, and was the first jazz concert ever to be staged in the North Rhine Westphalian city’s 1950s-era opera house, sited on Offenbachplatz.

The highest selling solo piano album in recorded music, with more than 3 million copies sold, the record finds Jarrett compensating for a less-than-satisfactory Bösendorfer following a backstage mix-up, as well as feeling back pain and the effects of heavy touring including tiredness from a recent concert in Zurich. The record nonetheless has changed people’s lives by the power of its improvising and unique atmosphere.

According to publishers OUP the 192-page book is the “first detailed study” of The Köln Concert, and it explores the “musical construction” of the Cologne improvisations in particular, as well as examining the reception and success of the record along with its “importance as a cultural symbol.” SG

Keith Jarrett top. The album sleeve of The Köln Concert, and above the cover of the new book