Joachim Kurt Kühn (born 15 March 1944)
is a German jazz pianist.
Biography
Kühn was born in
Leipzig
Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
, Germany.
He was a musical prodigy and made his debut as a concert pianist, having studied classical piano and composition,
with Arthur Schmidt-Elsey. Influenced by his elder brother, clarinetist
Rolf Kühn, he simultaneously grew interested in jazz. In 1961, he became a professional jazz musician.
With a trio of his own, founded in 1964,
he presented the first free jazz in the
GDR. In 1966, he left the country and settled in Hamburg. Together with his brother, he played at the
Newport Jazz Festival
The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hire ...
and recorded with
Jimmy Garrison and
Aldo Romano for
Impulse!.
Kühn has largely lived in Paris since 1968 and worked with
Don Cherry,
Karl Berger,
Slide Hampton
Locksley Wellington Hampton (April 21, 1932 – November 18, 2021) was an American jazz trombone, jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. As his nickname implies, Hampton's main instrument was slide trombone, but he also occasionally played tub ...
,
Phil Woods,
Michel Portal,
Barre Phillips
Barre Phillips (October 27, 1934 – December 28, 2024) was an American jazz double bass, bassist. A professional musician since 1960, he moved to New York City in 1962, then to Europe in 1967. From 1972 he was based in southern France, where in ...
,
Eje Thelin
Eilert Ove "Eje" Thelin (9 June 1938 – 18 May 1990) was a Swedish jazz trombonist.
Biography
Thelin, who was self-taught as a musician, started playing with the dixieland group Pygmé Jazz Band, and later joined the sextet of Putte Wickman. ...
,
Ray Lema,
Hellmut Hattler
Hellmut Hattler (born 12 April 1952 in Ulm, West Germany) is a German jazz and rock bassist and composer.
Hattler took much of his early influences from Jimi Hendrix. As a child, he received violin lessons, and in the 1960s, he played guitar. ...
, and
Jean-Luc Ponty
Jean-Luc Ponty (born 29 September 1942) is a French jazz and jazz fusion violinist and composer. He is considered a pioneer of jazz-rock, particularly for his use of the electric violin starting in the 1970s. He rose to prominence for his colla ...
.
As a member of
Pierre Courbois's ''Association P.C.'', he turned to electronic keyboards. During the second half of the 1970s, he lived in California and joined the West Coast
fusion scene and recorded with
Alphonse Mouzon,
Billy Cobham
William Emanuel Cobham Jr. (born May 16, 1944) is a Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
He was inducted into the '' Mode ...
,
Michael Brecker
Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as a performer and composer, received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in ...
, and
Eddie Gómez.
Having settled near
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
again, he played in an acoustic trio with
Jean-François Jenny-Clark and
Daniel Humair
Daniel Humair (born 23 May 1938 in Geneva, Switzerland) is a Swiss drummer, composer, and painter.
He is widely renowned and became a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1986 and Officier in 1992. He has played with many jazz perf ...
since 1985. In the summer of 1996, he joined
Ornette Coleman
Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He is best known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Ja ...
for two concerts at the
Verona
Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...
and Leipzig festivals, which opened the way for his ''Diminished Augmented System''. In 2015 he formed the New Joachim Kühn Trio with
Chris Jennings and Eric Schaefer.
Discography
As leader/co-leader
As sideman
*
Gary Bartz,
Lee Konitz
Leon "Lee" Konitz (October 13, 1927 – April 15, 2020) was an American jazz Alto saxophone, alto saxophonist and composer.
He performed successfully in a wide range of jazz styles, including bebop, cool jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Konitz's ass ...
,
Jackie McLean
John Lenwood McLean (May 17, 1931 – March 31, 2006) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator. He is one of the few musicians to be elected to the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in the year of their death.
Bio ...
and
Charlie Mariano
Carmine Ugo Mariano (November 12, 1923 – June 16, 2009) was an American jazz saxophone, saxophonist who focused on the alto saxophone, alto and soprano saxophone. He occasionally performed and recorded on flute and nadaswaram as well.
Biogra ...
: ''
Altissimo'' (Philips, 1973)
*
Zbigniew Namyslowski Quartet with Joachim Kühn: ''Live at Kosmos, Berlin'' (ITM, 1965)
* The
Rolf Kühn Group: ''The Day After'' (BASF/MPS, 1972) featuring
Phil Woods
* The Rolf Kühn Group: ''Connection 74'' (BASF/MPS, 1974) featuring
Randy Brecker
Randal Edward Brecker (born November 27, 1945) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, and composer. His versatility has made him a popular studio musician who has recorded with acts in jazz, rock music, rock, and R&B.
Early life
Brecker was ...
* Association P.C. (
Pierre Courbois) and
: ''Mama Kuku (Live)'' (BASF/MPS, 1974)
*
Zbigniew Seifert: ''Man of the Light'' (BASF/MPS, 1976) with
Cecil McBee
Cecil McBee (born May 19, 1935) is an American jazz bassist. He has recorded as a leader only a handful of times since the 1970s, but has contributed as a sideman to a number of classic jazz albums.
Biography Early life and career
McBee was b ...
,
Billy Hart
Billy Hart (born November 29, 1940) is an American jazz drumming, jazz drummer and educator. He is known internationally for his work with Herbie Hancock's "Mwandishi" band in the early 1970s, as well as with Shirley Horn, Stan Getz, and Quest (b ...
, and
Jasper van 't Hof
*
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist, widely considered the "godfather of fusion". Alongside Gábor Szabó, he was a pioneer in melding jazz, country and rock ...
- Catherine - Kühn: ''Live!'' (
Elektra, 1980)
*
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson (April 24, 1937 – June 30, 2001) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and very occasional flute player. In a career spanning more than four decades, Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day an ...
Collective: ''Black Narcissus'' (
Milestone
A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway, railway line, canal or border, boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks like Mileage sign, mileage signs; or they c ...
, 1976)
*
Alan Silva: ''
Seasons
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...
'' (BYG, 1971)
☆"Jan Akkerman" ,
EA1977
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kühn, Joachim
1944 births
Living people
Jazz fusion pianists
Post-bop pianists
Post-bop composers
German jazz pianists
BYG Actuel artists
Atlantic Records artists
MPS Records artists
ACT Music artists
Avant-garde jazz pianists
Avant-garde jazz composers
21st-century German pianists
European Jazz Ensemble members
Label Bleu artists
EmArcy Records artists