Biography
Curiosity marks the defining characteristic running through the entire professional path of German pianist, composer, producer, and painter Joachim Kühn. His approach fuses classical music, avant-jazz, post-bop, modern composition, stride blues, free improvisation, global folk traditions, and even rock. Vehemence and sensitivity, imagination, and a fluid sense of dynamics coexist in his mercurial manner. After abandoning formal classical studies, Kühn followed his older brother, clarinetist Rolf Kühn, into jazz. The pair recorded Impressions of New York in 1968, and the next year they merged avant-jazz with psychedelic rock on Bloody Rockers. Joachim issued Bold Music in 1969. From 1976 to 1980 he completed four jazz-fusion albums for Atlantic, among them Springfever, and delivered the now-classic Hip Elegy for MPS. During the 1980s he brought out the trio recording Easy to Read, which introduced his enduring group featuring drummer Daniel Humair and bassist Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark. In 1990 he released the classic solo album Dynamics. In 1997, Colors: Live from Leipzig, a duo project with Ornette Coleman, came out on Verve. ACT issued 2005's Piano Works I: Allegro Vivace and followed it with the widely praised Out of the Desert in 2009. He brought out Wo! Man, a duo effort with Archie Shepp, in 2011, and issued Melodic Ornette Coleman: Piano Works XIII in 2019. The solo album Touch the Light appeared in 2021.
Born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1944, 100 miles south of Berlin, Kühn began piano studies at age five and was recognized as a prodigy. He pursued more than a decade of classical instruction on piano and alto saxophone. Relentlessly inquisitive, he absorbed jazz through his older brother, clarinetist Rolf Kühn. In 1963, two years after the Berlin Wall confined him to the GDR, he made his debut jazz-piano recording on the Werner Pfüller Quintett single “Sack O' Woe” b/w “Grog.” The following year his own trio gave the first free-jazz concert ever held in the GDR. In 1965 the CBS album Reunion in Berlin appeared under the Rolf & Joachim Kühn Quartet name, presenting six original compositions divided between the brothers; they also recorded Solarius as the Rolf Kühn Quintett for Amiga, featuring the young Polish violinist Michael Urbaniak as soloist.
Kühn departed the GDR in 1966 and settled in Hamburg. That year he performed at the Newport Jazz Festival with Rolf. In 1967 the Rolf + Joachim Kühn Quintet, with guest Karl Berger on vibes, released Transfiguration on Saba. Late that year Joachim moved to Paris. In 1968 he explored jazz-rock with Barney Wilen & His Amazing Free Rock Band on Dear Prof. Leary for MPS, a session that also included drummer and future collaborator Aldo Romano. The Kühn Brothers then issued Impressions of New York for Impulse!, again with Romano and bassist Jimmy Garrison.
The year 1969 proved both prolific and daring. Kühn and Rolf first released The Kühn Brothers & Mad Rockers on Metronome, a band that included 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 mirrored it by pairing modal and vanguard jazz with beat-driven psychedelia. They also issued Monday Morning, an avant-jazz date featuring Barre Phillips, John Surman, and trombonist Eje Thelin. Under his own name that year, Joachim released Bold Music for MPS and Sound of Feelings for BYG. He further contributed significantly to Michel Portal's classic Our Meanings and Our Feelings, Don Cherry's Eternal Rhythm, and The Fabulous Slide Hampton Quartet.
In 1970 the pianist issued Paris Is Beautiful for BYG and followed with Solos in 1971. He also appeared on Going to the Rainbow and Devil in Paradise with the Rolf Kühn Jazzgroup. Joining Jean-Luc Ponty's studio and touring ensembles in 1972, he released the trio album Interchange and Piano Solo for MPS. Kühn additionally participated in Anthony Braxton's Creative Music Orchestra, whose sessions later surfaced in 1977 as the triple-LP RBN----3° K12.
Reuniting with Kriegel in 1973, Kühn replaced keyboardist Jasper Van't Hof in the jazz-rock group Association P.C. for Rock Around the Cock and the 1974 live album Mama Kuku, recorded with flutist Jeremy Steig. He also took part in the Altissimo sessions alongside Gary Bartz, Lee Konitz, Jackie McLean, and Charlie Mariano. The 1974 jazz-funk release Cinemascope appeared on MPS, produced by Rolf, engineered by Conny Plank, and spotlighting an intricate electric quartet with drummer Gerry Brown, bassist John Lee, and guitarist Toto Blanke. Over the ensuing two years Kühn worked extensively as a sideman and collaborator before re-emerging as a leader with the 1976 jazz-fusion landmark Hip Elegy. Lee remained on bass while Alphonse Mouzon took the drum chair, joined by guitarist Philip Catherine, trumpeter Terumasa Hino, and percussionist Nana Vasconcelos. Signing with Atlantic, Kühn delivered the solo-piano outing Charisma in 1977 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 album Don't Stop Me Now for Atlantic under the J. Kühn Band name.
Opening the 1980s with the solo-piano album Snow in the Desert, Kühn followed in 1983 with his CMP debut I'm Not Dreaming, which featured percussionist Mark Nauseef and trombonist George Lewis. Easy to Read surfaced in 1985, launching Kühn's most celebrated trio with bassist Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark and drummer Daniel Humair. The group issued several further recordings over the next few years, each credited to a different member. Humair also prompted Kühn to begin painting after escorting him to outsider-art exhibitions; the pianist now shows his work worldwide. In 1987 he released the solo synth/piano album Time Exposure on Entente and, a year later, Dark, a collaboration with composer/violinist Walter Quintus. In 1988 the Humair–Jenny-Clark trio issued the live album 9-11 P.M. Town Hall with 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 a sideman on Just Friends by Helen Merrill and Stan Getz.
The pianist brought out Get Up Early, his second project with Quintus, in 1991, along with the duo album Signed By with saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi. He also contributed to Eartha Kitt's Thinking Jazz, Harry Beckett's Passion and Possession, and his brother's trio album As Time Goes By. Remaining with Kitt's band, he appeared on 1992's Something May Go Wrong and recorded the Euro African Suite in duo with Congolese pianist/guitarist Ray Lema. Kühn's trio additionally released Carambolage, drawn from a live collaboration with the WDR Big Band, and the studio album Usual Confusion. In 1994 he issued the solo collection of standards Plays Lili Marlene and the vanguard solo-improvisation set United Nations, then relocated to Ibiza, where he still resides. The following year he led a trio with Jenny-Clark and drummer Jon Christensen on the collaboration Europeana: Jazzphony No. 1 with Mike Gibbs and the Radio Philharmoníe Hannover NDR.
Two consecutive solo-piano albums, Famous Melodies and Abstracts, appeared in 1995 and 1996. That same year Kühn and Rolf released Brothers for Intuition, and the pianist performed an improvised concert with Ornette Coleman—one of the very few pianists ever to do so. The concert surfaced the next year on Verve as Colors: Live from Leipzig. Over the years Kühn had spent countless hours in Coleman's New York apartment improvising and taping. Inspired by the saxophonist's systemic harmolodic theory, Kühn developed his own approach at Coleman's encouragement. In 2000 he released Diminished Augmented System on Emarcy, a solo album of his own and Coleman's compositions that demonstrated this systemic strategy. He followed it with 2001's Universal Time, leading two quartets that included bassist Scott Colley, drummer Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez, and saxophonists Portal and Chris Potter; Kühn also played alto on the date. In 2002 he issued Bach Now! in collaboration with the Thomanerchor Leipzig, a boys' choir founded in 1212 by Johann Sebastian Bach himself.
Following the 2005 release of Love Stories with Rolf, Kühn brought out Piano Works I: Allegro Vivace and joined two trio projects: Journey to the Center of an Egg with Rabih Abou-Khalil and Jarrod Cagwin, and Poison with Jean-Paul Cela and Wolfgang Reisinger. The next year he released Kalimba with Majid Bekkas and Ramon Lopez, then followed in 2008 with Out of the Desert and in 2010 with Chalaba. In 2011 Kühn and saxophonist Archie Shepp issued the duo album Wo! Man on the tenor's Archieball label; the solo-piano offering Free Ibiza appeared shortly afterward. Lifeline, recorded with Rolf, Brian Blade, and John Patitucci, came out on Boutique in 2012. During 2011 and 2012 the pianist undertook a series of recording sessions in Morocco and Paris with Bekkas, Lopez, Shepp, and a select group of young North African musicians; the resulting Voodoo Sense was released by ACT in 2013 to global acclaim.
After issuing the live duo album Moscow with saxophonist Alexey Kruglov in 2014, the label released Beauty and Truth a few months later, introducing the Joachim Kühn New Trio with bassist Chris Jennings and drummer Eric Schaefer. The group followed with the charting Love & Peace in 2017. In 2018 Kühn released the celebrated Melodic Ornette Coleman: Piano Works XIII. Speaking Sound, a duo album with violinist Mateusz Smoczyński, appeared in 2020, succeeded a year later by the solo-piano outing Touch the Light.
Born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1944, 100 miles south of Berlin, Kühn began piano studies at age five and was recognized as a prodigy. He pursued more than a decade of classical instruction on piano and alto saxophone. Relentlessly inquisitive, he absorbed jazz through his older brother, clarinetist Rolf Kühn. In 1963, two years after the Berlin Wall confined him to the GDR, he made his debut jazz-piano recording on the Werner Pfüller Quintett single “Sack O' Woe” b/w “Grog.” The following year his own trio gave the first free-jazz concert ever held in the GDR. In 1965 the CBS album Reunion in Berlin appeared under the Rolf & Joachim Kühn Quartet name, presenting six original compositions divided between the brothers; they also recorded Solarius as the Rolf Kühn Quintett for Amiga, featuring the young Polish violinist Michael Urbaniak as soloist.
Kühn departed the GDR in 1966 and settled in Hamburg. That year he performed at the Newport Jazz Festival with Rolf. In 1967 the Rolf + Joachim Kühn Quintet, with guest Karl Berger on vibes, released Transfiguration on Saba. Late that year Joachim moved to Paris. In 1968 he explored jazz-rock with Barney Wilen & His Amazing Free Rock Band on Dear Prof. Leary for MPS, a session that also included drummer and future collaborator Aldo Romano. The Kühn Brothers then issued Impressions of New York for Impulse!, again with Romano and bassist Jimmy Garrison.
The year 1969 proved both prolific and daring. Kühn and Rolf first released The Kühn Brothers & Mad Rockers on Metronome, a band that included 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 mirrored it by pairing modal and vanguard jazz with beat-driven psychedelia. They also issued Monday Morning, an avant-jazz date featuring Barre Phillips, John Surman, and trombonist Eje Thelin. Under his own name that year, Joachim released Bold Music for MPS and Sound of Feelings for BYG. He further contributed significantly to Michel Portal's classic Our Meanings and Our Feelings, Don Cherry's Eternal Rhythm, and The Fabulous Slide Hampton Quartet.
In 1970 the pianist issued Paris Is Beautiful for BYG and followed with Solos in 1971. He also appeared on Going to the Rainbow and Devil in Paradise with the Rolf Kühn Jazzgroup. Joining Jean-Luc Ponty's studio and touring ensembles in 1972, he released the trio album Interchange and Piano Solo for MPS. Kühn additionally participated in Anthony Braxton's Creative Music Orchestra, whose sessions later surfaced in 1977 as the triple-LP RBN----3° K12.
Reuniting with Kriegel in 1973, Kühn replaced keyboardist Jasper Van't Hof in the jazz-rock group Association P.C. for Rock Around the Cock and the 1974 live album Mama Kuku, recorded with flutist Jeremy Steig. He also took part in the Altissimo sessions alongside Gary Bartz, Lee Konitz, Jackie McLean, and Charlie Mariano. The 1974 jazz-funk release Cinemascope appeared on MPS, produced by Rolf, engineered by Conny Plank, and spotlighting an intricate electric quartet with drummer Gerry Brown, bassist John Lee, and guitarist Toto Blanke. Over the ensuing two years Kühn worked extensively as a sideman and collaborator before re-emerging as a leader with the 1976 jazz-fusion landmark Hip Elegy. Lee remained on bass while Alphonse Mouzon took the drum chair, joined by guitarist Philip Catherine, trumpeter Terumasa Hino, and percussionist Nana Vasconcelos. Signing with Atlantic, Kühn delivered the solo-piano outing Charisma in 1977 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 album Don't Stop Me Now for Atlantic under the J. Kühn Band name.
Opening the 1980s with the solo-piano album Snow in the Desert, Kühn followed in 1983 with his CMP debut I'm Not Dreaming, which featured percussionist Mark Nauseef and trombonist George Lewis. Easy to Read surfaced in 1985, launching Kühn's most celebrated trio with bassist Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark and drummer Daniel Humair. The group issued several further recordings over the next few years, each credited to a different member. Humair also prompted Kühn to begin painting after escorting him to outsider-art exhibitions; the pianist now shows his work worldwide. In 1987 he released the solo synth/piano album Time Exposure on Entente and, a year later, Dark, a collaboration with composer/violinist Walter Quintus. In 1988 the Humair–Jenny-Clark trio issued the live album 9-11 P.M. Town Hall with 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 a sideman on Just Friends by Helen Merrill and Stan Getz.
The pianist brought out Get Up Early, his second project with Quintus, in 1991, along with the duo album Signed By with saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi. He also contributed to Eartha Kitt's Thinking Jazz, Harry Beckett's Passion and Possession, and his brother's trio album As Time Goes By. Remaining with Kitt's band, he appeared on 1992's Something May Go Wrong and recorded the Euro African Suite in duo with Congolese pianist/guitarist Ray Lema. Kühn's trio additionally released Carambolage, drawn from a live collaboration with the WDR Big Band, and the studio album Usual Confusion. In 1994 he issued the solo collection of standards Plays Lili Marlene and the vanguard solo-improvisation set United Nations, then relocated to Ibiza, where he still resides. The following year he led a trio with Jenny-Clark and drummer Jon Christensen on the collaboration Europeana: Jazzphony No. 1 with Mike Gibbs and the Radio Philharmoníe Hannover NDR.
Two consecutive solo-piano albums, Famous Melodies and Abstracts, appeared in 1995 and 1996. That same year Kühn and Rolf released Brothers for Intuition, and the pianist performed an improvised concert with Ornette Coleman—one of the very few pianists ever to do so. The concert surfaced the next year on Verve as Colors: Live from Leipzig. Over the years Kühn had spent countless hours in Coleman's New York apartment improvising and taping. Inspired by the saxophonist's systemic harmolodic theory, Kühn developed his own approach at Coleman's encouragement. In 2000 he released Diminished Augmented System on Emarcy, a solo album of his own and Coleman's compositions that demonstrated this systemic strategy. He followed it with 2001's Universal Time, leading two quartets that included bassist Scott Colley, drummer Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez, and saxophonists Portal and Chris Potter; Kühn also played alto on the date. In 2002 he issued Bach Now! in collaboration with the Thomanerchor Leipzig, a boys' choir founded in 1212 by Johann Sebastian Bach himself.
Following the 2005 release of Love Stories with Rolf, Kühn brought out Piano Works I: Allegro Vivace and joined two trio projects: Journey to the Center of an Egg with Rabih Abou-Khalil and Jarrod Cagwin, and Poison with Jean-Paul Cela and Wolfgang Reisinger. The next year he released Kalimba with Majid Bekkas and Ramon Lopez, then followed in 2008 with Out of the Desert and in 2010 with Chalaba. In 2011 Kühn and saxophonist Archie Shepp issued the duo album Wo! Man on the tenor's Archieball label; the solo-piano offering Free Ibiza appeared shortly afterward. Lifeline, recorded with Rolf, Brian Blade, and John Patitucci, came out on Boutique in 2012. During 2011 and 2012 the pianist undertook a series of recording sessions in Morocco and Paris with Bekkas, Lopez, Shepp, and a select group of young North African musicians; the resulting Voodoo Sense was released by ACT in 2013 to global acclaim.
After issuing the live duo album Moscow with saxophonist Alexey Kruglov in 2014, the label released Beauty and Truth a few months later, introducing the Joachim Kühn New Trio with bassist Chris Jennings and drummer Eric Schaefer. The group followed with the charting Love & Peace in 2017. In 2018 Kühn released the celebrated Melodic Ornette Coleman: Piano Works XIII. Speaking Sound, a duo album with violinist Mateusz Smoczyński, appeared in 2020, succeeded a year later by the solo-piano outing Touch the Light.
Albums
