This thoroughly entertaining girl power film is based on a very improbable true story. In 1975, against enormous odds, German teenager Vera Brandes (Mala Emde) brought American pianist Keith Jarrett to the Cologne Opera House to perform what would become one of the most famous jazz recordings of all time. At the time she was just 18-years old, though she’d been booking jazz performers since she was 16!
As a young jazz enthusiast, Vera hangs out with her bestie Isa in the clubs of Cologne. There one night she meets Ronnie Scott, a British jazz musician who’s so taken with her take-charge energy that he asks her to book him a German tour. And so she does. And she is good at it and starts working with a lot more jazz musicians, making a name for herself, which doesn’t go over well with her strict father who calls her a whore after a magazine does a story on her calling her a “jazz bunny.” But that only makes her work harder. She moves out of her house and gets an office/apartment with the money she’d making.
But it is when she hears Keith Jarrett play at the Berlin Jazz Days festival that she is blown away and decides that she has to bring him to Cologne. And nothing can stop her! Venue? She goes for big with the Opera House, which has never had a jazz musician play there and isn’t sure it should. She and her band of friends (and her brother) paper the city with posters and wrangle mentions on the radio stations, and just hope that they can fill that great arena.
But when Jarrett finally gets to the venue for a sound check, the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand he stipulated he had to have is nowhere to be found. Instead, the concert hall has left a broken down baby grand and no way to get in touch with the manager. And the whole venture seems in jeopardy. But what follows demonstrates precisely why Vera Brandes deserves this film. And the concert that ultimately does come off and was recorded is still the best selling solo jazz album in history.
There is a side story going on while Vera’s doing her thing. An American music journalist (Michael Chernus, “Severance”) is in Germany and becomes a de facto narrator, albeit somewhat unreliable, giving us insights into jazz in general and Jarrett himself through a fictional car ride with him on the way to the concert.
While the film is set squarely in the jazz world, it isn’t really about the music. It’s about an indomitable young woman, her joy in the music and her amazing ability to persuade and improvise. Mala Emde’s energy is infectious, and you’re pull for her every step of the way. It is a really fun film with an inspirational story and I highly recommend it!
In German and English with subtitles.
Opening October 17 in New York with more cities following.