Rolf Kühn & TRI-O feat. Joachim Kühn live at JazzBaltica 2011

Rolf Kühn - Clarinet
Joachim Kühn - Piano
Ronny Graupe - Guitar, Electronics
Johannes Fink - Bass
Christian Lillinger - Drums
Jazzbaltica Salzau, July 3, 2011

1. Mamarazzi (Rolf Kühn)
2. Lifeline (Rolf Kühn)
3. Auf Tauris (Ronny Graupe)
4. Changing The Umbrella (Joachim Kühn)
5. Spacerunner (Rolf Kühn)

Blättert man in der von Maxi Sickert vorgelegten und im Rahmenprogramm von Enjoy Jazz 2009 auch vorgestellten Kühn-Biografie „Clarinet Bird“, dann staunt man nicht schlecht, hat dieser Musiker doch eine – zumal für deutsche Verhältnisse – ganz exzeptionelle internationale Karriere hingelegt. Entdeckt wurde der in Köln geborene Rolf Kühn Ende der 1940er Jahre in Leipzig, ging dann erst in den Westen und bereits 1956 in die USA, wo er mit Oscar Pettiford, im Benny Goodman Orchestra, aber auch mit Ornette Coleman spielte. Es folgten Free Jazz- und Fusion-Experimente, Filmmusiken, Engagements beim NDR und als Musicaldirigent und immer wieder Aufnahmen mit seinem viel jüngeren Bruder Joachim. Dass Rolf Kühn am 29. September 2009 seinen 80. Geburtstag feierte, wird zudem kaum glauben können, wer die sehr dynamische, swingende, melodiöse und auch ins Freie drängende Musik hört, die der Klarinettist an der Seite ganz junger Musiker der Berliner Szene wie Christian Lillinger, Ronny Graupe, Johannes Fink spielt. Die kristalline Klarheit seines Tones auf dem gemeinsam eingespielten und beim Berliner Jazzwerkstatt-Label erschienenen Album „Close Up“ zeugt von ungebrochener Abenteuerlust und zeigt keinerlei Berührungsängste gegenüber jugendlichem Sturm und Drang.

Rolf Kühn / Joachim Kühn / John Patitucci / Brian Blade: Impressions Of New York Revisited live at 42nd German Jazzfestival Frankfurt 2011

Rolf Kühn | cl
Joachim Kühn | p
John Patitucci | b
Brian Blade | dr

recorded live at HR-Sendesaal, Frankfurt, October 29, 2011

Impressions of New York is an album by German jazz clarinetist Rolf Kühn and his brother, pianist Joachim Kühn, featuring performances recorded in 1967 for the Impulse! label
Although throughout much of his career Rolf Kuhn has been a swing-based clarinetist, he also has had an open mind toward much more adventurous jazz, possibly inspired a bit by his younger brother, pianist Joachim Kuhn. On this recently reissued album, the two Kuhns, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Aldo Romano perform a 33-minute suite titled "Impressions of New York," which is divided into "Arrival," "The Saddest Day," "Reality," and "Predictions." The music flows with a strong momentum, never losing one's interest. Rolf Kuhn easily keeps up with his younger sidemen, and the overall results feature strong development and some surprises. Recommended.
For the 42nd German Jazzfestival Frankfurt the Kühn brothers joined forces with John Patitucci and Brian Blade (followed by a recording session one day later, to be released on cd next January).

Archie Shepp & Joachim Kühn: Pulse Beat live at 42nd German Jazzfestival Frankfurt 2011

Archie Shepp | ts
Joachim Kühn | p
recorded live at HR-Sendesaal, Frankfurt, October 28, 2011

1. Introspection/ Lonely Woman (Joachim Kühn/ Ornette Coleman)
2. Stablemates (Benny Golson)
3. Drivin´ Miss Daisy (Archie Shepp)
4. Nina (Archie Shepp)
5. Improvisation/ Sophisticated Lady (Archie Shepp & Joachim Kühn/ Duke Ellington)

There’s no end to the different ways two great jazz musicians can interact. In the case of German pianist Joachim Kühn and American saxophone player Archie Shepp, the collaboration is especially intriguing. They both came to maturity during the heady days of the Sixties free jazz scene and have played together often since.

The deep rapport between them is instantly apparent, but so are the differences. Kühn’s natural tone is compellingly dark, both as a pianist and a composer. He pursues a melodic idea in a concentrated way, and isn’t much interested in bright colours or fancy pedal-work.

Shepp tends more towards limpid arabesque, and his lovely husky tone is as instantly recognisable as Kühn’s wiry energy. Shepp’s compositions, such as Nina, leaven Kühn’s European seriousness with a sauntering American swing. They complement each other perfectly, which is just as it should be.
At first glance, the pairing of American saxophonist Archie Shepp and German pianist Joachim Kühn may seem an unlikely one. But Wo!man is not the first time the two have performed together. Two or three decades back—Shepp writes in the liner notes that he cannot now remember the year exactly—the saxophonist worked with Kühn in a band led by Finnish drummer Edward Vesala. It was a real pleasure, Shepp says, to have been reunited.
The pleasure is not, moreover, entirely Shepp's, or Kühn's, for Wo!man is a resplendently lyrical album. It is programmed over five sinuous Shepp/Kuhn originals and three jazz standards, Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady," Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman" and Earle Hagen and Dick Rogers' "Harlem Nocturne." Shepp's signature rough edges and periodic free flights are intact, but so too are his retentions of balladeers Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster, both formative influences: this is above all an album of lush romanticism.

hr-Bigband feat. Joachim Kühn Trio: Out of the Desert live at Jazzfest Berlin 2010

Ed Partyka conductor
Frank Wellert, Martin Auer, Thomas Vogel, Axel Schlosser trumpet
Günter Bollmann, Peter Feil, Christian Jaksjø trombone
Manfred Honetschläger bass trombone
Heinz-Dieter Sauerborn, Oliver Leicht, Tony Lakatos, Julian Argüelles reeds
Peter Reiter Fender Rhodes
Martin Scales guitar
Thomas Heidepriem bass
Jean Paul Höchstädter drums

Joachim Kühn piano
Majid Bekkas vocals, guembri, oud, kalimba
Ramon Lopez drums, percussion
recorded live at Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Main Stage, November 6, 2010

1. Night in the desert
2. Klangzeit
3. Der Wanderer
4. Fresh Air
5. Lichtquelle   

The great avant-garde pianist Joachim Kühn celebrated his 64th birthday in March, 2008, and spent it in the desert doing what he does best – making music. He played in the middle of the Sahara with Moroccan Berbers, the desert musicians of the “Source Bleue des Meski”, a small oasis near the Algerian border. This is documented on his album Out of the Desert. Kühn, his trio members and the North African musicians share the Maghreb’s heat, its richness of colours and its variety of forms. Departing from this experience and this fundus of material, Kühn wrote a special programme for the hr-Bigband. The 2009 premiere at Deutsches Jazzfestival Frankfurt was an overwhelming success and Frankfurter Allgemeine magazine even praised the stirring performance a “musical miracle”.
Joachim Kühn, first and foremost world-renowned as an imaginative virtuoso, in this project also impressively bears witness to his capabilities as a composer and big band-arranger. His input is the perfect starting point for the vibrant attacks of one of Germany’s longest-serving jazz orchestras which happily contributes all of its wealth of experience reaching from swing to avant-garde.
The new album by Joachim Kühn "Chalabas" will be released on ACT on February 25.

HR Big Band feat. Joachim Kühn Trio - Out Of The Desert live in Frankfurt 2009

Joachim Kühn, piano, comp. & arr.
Majid Bekkas, oud, guembri, vocals, kalimba
Ramon Lopez, drums
HR Big Band
cond. by Örjan Fahlström

recorded live at HR Sendesaal Frankfurt, Jazzfestival Frankfurt 2009, October 29, 2009

1. Fresh Air
2. Lichtquelle
3. Night in the Desert
4. Der Wanderer
5. Klangzeit

The great avant-garde pianist Joachim Kühn celebrated his 64th birthday in March, 2008, and spent it in the desert doing what he does best – making music. He played in the middle of the Sahara with Moroccan Berbers, the desert musicians of the “Source Bleue des Meski”, a small oasis near the Algerian border. This is documented on his album Out of the Desert. Kühn, his trio members and the North African musicians share the Maghreb’s heat, its richness of colours and its variety of forms. Departing from this experience and this fundus of material, Kühn wrote a special programme for the hr-Bigband. The 2009 premiere at German Jazzfestival Frankfurt was an overwhelming success and Frankfurter Allgemeine magazine even praised the stirring performance a “musical miracle”.

Joachim Kühn, first and foremost world-renowned as an imaginative virtuoso, in this project also impressively bears witness to his capabilities as a composer and big band-arranger. His input is the perfect starting point for the vibrant attacks of one of Germany’s longest-serving jazz orchestras which happily contributes all of its wealth of experience reaching from swing to avant-garde. 

Joachim Kühn & Michael Wollny live at JazzBaltica 2009

Photo © by: Eva Baales / ACT

Joachim Kühn, piano
Michael Wollny, piano

recorded live at Große Konzertscheune, Salzau, JazzBaltica July 4, 2009

1. Secret Service (Joachim Kühn) 9:43
2. More Tuna (Joachim Kühn) 18:18
3. Hexentanz (Michael Wollny) 19:14
4. Source Bleu De Meski (Joachim Kühn) 4:29

A meeting of generations on two grand pianos: Joachim Kühn and Michael Wollny live at JazzBaltica. Duo magic from two musicians who have no need for ostentation
Critics, music colleagues and the public raved about Joachim Kühn and Michael Wollny’s joint appearance at the “Jazz and Friendship” festival at Schloss Elmau on September 2008. This wonderful musical encounter had a particularly special depth to it and was released on CD on ACT. It was a concert that rocked with unbridled intensity, and showed the profound respect these two outstanding German jazz pianists, each with their own individual style, have for each other. In this case it’s no exaggeration to say that it was simply a moment of musical glory.

Rolf Kühn: Blues for Swingers - The Hamburg Tapes

Rolf Kühn Combo: Hamburg Souvenirs 1962
Rolf Kühn, clarinet
Line up unknown
recorded live at Studio Hamburg, May 1962

1. Just Friends (Klenner)
2. Hämmerchen-Polka (Gietz/Bradtke)
3. Steeplechase (Charlie Parker)
4. If I should lose you (Rainger/Robin)
5. Bag's Groove (Milt Jackson)
6. Star eyes (Raye/dePaul)
7. Blues for Swingers (R.Kühn)
8. Striptease-Susie (R.Kühn)
9. Little Girl Blue (Rodgers/Hart)

Rolf Kühn is a living legend among Germany´s top jazz musicians. Having played with Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Friedrich Gulda, Jimmy Garrison, Albert Mangelsdorff, Chick Corea, Randy & Michael Brecker, Eddie Daniels and his younger brother Joachim Kühn, just to name a few, he masters a wide range of styles.
Rolf Kühn recently celebrated his 80th Birthday with a great concert with the NDR Big Band. His latest record with some of Germany´s finest young jazz musicians is called "close up", released on Jazzwerkstatt.