Cornelius Claudio Kreusch

Born in Germany, pianist and composer Cornelius Claudio Kreusch trained under Mal Waldron for his 1994 debut album The Vision, which incorporated rap poetry. The follow-up project Black Mud Sound arrived the next year and supplied the name for both his independent label BlackMudSound Records and his touring ensemble; through that imprint he has since issued nearly a dozen recordings, each highlighting his singular blend of funk, jazz, and Afro influences.

Although rooted in classical studies and known to admirers as CCK, he worked with instructors that included Waldron, Mordecai Shehori, Claude-France Journes, and jazz figure Jaki Byard before earning diplomas from the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. His mother, classical pianist Dorothée Kreusch-Jacob, started his piano lessons when he was five, and by age ten he had found jazz, an enthusiasm that stayed with him.

Kreusch also demonstrated sharp commercial foresight as founder and CEO of the digital music enterprise MUSICJUSTMUSIC. Working additionally under the name Goldfinga, he composes, records, and produces material that reaches into classical, world, ambient, new age, and film territories, yet jazz remains his central focus; in that field he has appeared and recorded alongside artists such as Herbie Hancock, Salif Keita, Kenny Garrett, Greg Osby, Anthony Cox, and Will Calhoun.