Joachim Kühn

Curiosity stands out as the defining trait throughout the extensive career of the German pianist, composer, producer, and painter Joachim Kühn. His musical explorations span across classical traditions, avant-jazz, post-bop, contemporary compositions, stride blues, spontaneous improvisation, worldwide folk elements, and rock influences alike. Vehemence merges with sensitivity in his unpredictable manner, coupled with creative vision and dynamic fluidity. Abandoning his structured classical education, Kühn pursued jazz by joining his elder sibling, clarinetist Rolf Kühn. The pair recorded Impressions of New York during 1968, and in the subsequent year they merged avant-jazz elements with psychedelic rock for Bloody Rockers. Bold Music came out under Joachim's name in 1969. From 1976 through 1980, four jazz fusion albums emerged on Atlantic, among them Springfever, while he also delivered the now-classic Hip Elegy via MPS. The 1980s brought the trio release Easy to Read from Kuhn, which introduced his enduring group featuring drummer Daniel Humair alongside bassist Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark. Dynamics, his notable solo project, arrived in 1990. Verve put out Colors: Live from Leipzig in 1997, a duo effort involving Ornette Coleman. ACT handled both 2005's Piano Works I: Allegro Vivace and the well-received Out of the Desert from 2009. Wo! Man, a 2011 duo recording with Archie Shepp, preceded the 2019 appearance of Melodic Ornette Coleman: Piano Works XIII. Touch the Light, another solo endeavor, surfaced in 2021.

Born in Leipzig, Germany in 1944, 100 miles south of Berlin, Kühn started piano at age five and earned recognition as a prodigy. Over more than a decade he pursued formal classical instruction on piano and alto saxophone. His relentless curiosity drew him toward jazz through his older brother, clarinetist Rolf Kühn. In 1963, two years after the Berlin Wall confined him to the GDR, he made his initial jazz recording as pianist on the Werner Pfüller Quintett's single "Sack O' Woe" b/w "Grog." The next year his own trio staged the GDR's first free jazz concert. CBS issued Reunion in Berlin in 1965 under the Rolf & Joachim Kühn Quartet, presenting six original compositions divided between the brothers; they also recorded Solarius as the Rolf Kühn Quintett for Amiga, showcasing the young Polish violinist Michael Urbaniak as soloist.

Kühn departed the GDR in 1966 and established himself in Hamburg. That year he appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival with Rolf. In 1967 the Rolf + Joachim Kühn Quintet, featuring guest Karl Berger on vibes, released Transfiguration on Saba. Late that year Joachim relocated to Paris. He ventured into jazz-rock in 1968 as part of Barney Wilen & His Amazing Free Rock Band on the MPS album Dear Prof. Leary, where drummer and future collaborator Aldo Romano also participated. The Kühn Brothers issued Impressions of New York for Impulse!, which included Romano and bassist Jimmy Garrison.

The year 1969 proved both prolific and daring. Joachim and Rolf first released The Kühn Brothers & Mad Rockers on Metronome, featuring guitarist Volker Kriegel, drummer Stu Martin, and bassist Gunter Lenz; two months later they followed with Bloody Rockers for BYG, credited to Joachim and Rolf Kühn. While the former blended rock structures with free improvisation, the latter presented a mirrored set that set modal and vanguard jazz against beat-driven psychedelia. Monday Morning also appeared that year, an avant-jazz session with Barre Phillips, John Surman, and trombonist Eje Thelin. Under his own name Joachim issued Bold Music for MPS and Sound of Feelings for BYG. He contributed significantly to Michel Portal's classic Our Meanings and Our Feelings, Don Cherry's Eternal Rhythm, and The Fabulous Slide Hampton Quartet.

The pianist put out Paris Is Beautiful for BYG in 1970 and Solos in 1971. He also participated in the Rolf Kühn Jazzgroup on Going to the Rainbow and Devil in Paradise. In 1972 he joined Jean-Luc Ponty's studio and touring ensembles, released the trio date Interchange, and delivered Piano Solo for MPS. Kühn further performed in Anthony Braxton's Creative Music Orchestra, sessions that surfaced in 1977 as the triple-LP RBN----3° K12.

Rejoining Kriegel in 1973 after replacing keyboardist Jasper Van't Hof in the jazz-rock outfit Association P.C., Kühn appeared on Rock Around the Cock and the 1974 live album Mama Kuku, a collaboration with flutist Jeremy Steig. He also joined the recording sessions for Altissimo alongside Gary Bartz, Lee Konitz, Jackie McLean, and Charlie Mariano. Cinemascope, a jazz-funk release on MPS, came out in 1974. Produced by Rolf and engineered by Conny Plank, it highlighted a complex electric quartet with drummer Gerry Brown, bassist John Lee, and guitarist Toto Blanke. Over the next two years Kühn worked as sideman and collaborator before resurfacing as leader with the 1976 jazz-fusion classic Hip Elegy. Lee stayed on bass, yet Alphonse Mouzon took the drum chair, joined by guitarist Philip Catherine, trumpeter Terumasa Hino, and percussionist Nana Vasconcelos. Kühn signed with Atlantic for the 1977 solo piano outing Charisma and immersed himself in fusion, appearing on albums by Billy Cobham, Alphonse Mouzon, Larry Coryell, Zbigniew Siefert, and Jan Akkerman. In 1979 he released the jazz-funk and R&B outing Don't Stop Me Now for Atlantic, credited to the J. Kühn Band.

He opened the 1980s with the solo piano release Snow in the Desert, followed in 1983 by his CMP debut I'm Not Dreaming, whose lineup included percussionist Mark Nauseef and trombonist George Lewis. Easy to Read appeared in 1985, marking the first recording by Kühn's most celebrated collaborative trio with bassist Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark and drummer Daniel Humair. Several further dates emerged over the next couple of years, each credited to a different member. Humair also prompted Kühn to begin painting by escorting him to outsider art exhibits in galleries and museums; the pianist now exhibits his work worldwide. In 1987 Kühn issued the solo synth/piano album Time Exposure on Entente, and a year later Dark, a collaboration with composer/violinist Walter Quintus. The Humair and Jenny-Clark trio released the live 9-11 P.M. Town Hall in 1988, featuring guests Martial Solal, Marc Ducret, and Portal, followed the next year by Live: Théâtre De La Ville, Paris, 1989 as a trio. Kühn also appeared as sideman on Just Friends by Helen Merrill and Stan Getz.

Get Up Early, his second project with Quintus, surfaced in 1991, along with Signed By, a duo outing with saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi. He performed on Eartha Kitt's Thinking Jazz, Harry Beckett's Passion and Possession, and with his brother's trio on As Time Goes By. Kühn remained in Kitt's band for 1992's Something May Go Wrong and recorded the Euro African Suite in duo with Congolese pianist/guitarist Ray Lema. His trio also released Carambolage from their live collaboration with the WDR Big Band and the studio date Usual Confusion. Kühn issued the solo Plays Lili Marlene in 1994, a collection of standards, and the vanguard solo improv set United Nations. That year he relocated to Ibiza, where he continues to reside. The following year he led a trio with Jenny-Clark and drummer Jon Christensen in collaboration with Mike Gibbs and the Radio Philharmonie Hannover NDR on Europeana: Jazzphony No. 1.

Two successive solo piano outings, Famous Melodies and Abstracts, followed in 1995 and 1996. Brothers for Intuition appeared from Kühn and Rolf on Intuition in 1996, and the pianist performed an improvised concert with Ornette Coleman, one of the very few pianists ever to perform or record with the saxophonist. Verve released the concert the next year as Colors: Live from Leipzig. Kühn had spent many hours in Coleman's New York apartment over the years, improvising and taping. The saxophonist's systemic harmolodic theory inspired him, and Coleman encouraged Kühn to develop his own. In 2000 Kühn released Diminished Augmented System, a solo album of his own and Coleman's compositions for Emarcy, showcasing his systemic strategy. Universal Time followed in 2001, leading a pair of quartets with bassist Scott Colley, drummer Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, and saxophonists Portal and Chris Potter; the pianist also played alto on the date. Bach Now! appeared in 2002 in collaboration with the Thomanerchor Leipzig, a boys' choir founded in 1212 by Johann Sebastian Bach himself.

After Love Stories with Rolf in 2005, Kühn issued Piano Works I: Allegro Vivace and collaborated on a pair of trio outings: Journey to the Center of an Egg with Rabih Abou-Khalil and Jarrod Cagwin, and Poison with Jean-Paul Cela and Wolfgang Reisinger. Kalimba followed in 2006 with Majid Bekkas and Ramon Lopez, then Out of the Desert in 2008 and Chalaba in 2010. In 2011 Kühn and saxophonist Archie Shepp released the duo outing Wo! Man on the tenor's Archieball label; the solo piano offering Free Ibiza came next. Lifeline appeared in 2012 in a quartet with Rolf, Brian Blade, and John Patitucci on Boutique. During 2011 and 2012 the pianist undertook a series of intermittently scheduled recording sessions in Morocco and Paris with Bekkas, Lopez, Shepp, and a handpicked group of young North African musicians. ACT released the resulting Voodoo Sense in 2013 to global acclaim.

After the label issued Moscow in 2014, a live duo with saxophonist Alexey Kruglov, Beauty and Truth followed a couple of months later, marking the debut of Joachim Kühn New Trio with bassist Chris Jennings and drummer Eric Schaefer. The group continued with the charting Love & Peace in 2017. Kühn released the celebrated Melodic Ornette Coleman: Piano Works XIII in 2018. Speaking Sound appeared in 2020 in duo with violinist Mateusz Smoczyński, followed a year later by the solo piano outing Touch the Light.