At the end of a long career between Germany and the United States, he left behind a more than imposing discography. He died at the age of 92.
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Born in Cologne, on September 29, 1929, the clarinetist Rolf Kühn died in Berlin, Thursday, August 18, from a stupid fall. At 92, he was in excellent health. His career and his discography, in the United States as in Germany, are more than imposed, even if, in France, he does not appear, especially in the jazz dictionary (“Bouquins”, Robert Laffont, 1994), that Through the article devoted to his brother, fifteen years younger – the famous pianist (and saxophonist) Joachim Kühn (Leipzig, 1944).
Both “left” Leipzig – City, at the time of the Wall, from Eastern Germany. Rolf, in May 1956, went to New York, where he fixed for six years. Already very well known as a saxophonist in his country, “he makes a good place in the jazz swing and BOP circles on the east coast, won numerous prizes and performs, among others, at the Newport festival and in the big clubs from New York and Chicago “: information signed Marc Sarrazy, musician and biographer of the brother in Joachim Kühn. A history of modern jazz (Editions Syllepse, 2003).
After a season with Tommy Dorsey, then Benny Goodman, whose orchestra runs when the illustrious leader is absent, Rolf Kühn recorded his first disc, Be My Guest (Panorama, 1960), with, among others, Jim Hall (guitar) and two bassists: George Duvivier and Henry Grimes. Connoisseurs and lovers of modernity will appreciate.
Back to Germany in 1961: he headed the Hamburg television orchestra (1962-1968). International tours with the trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff and the German All Stars, inviting Friedrich Gulda passing… October 1962, a new very noticed disc with the saxophonist Klaus Dogrider. In 1964, he recorded with his brother Joachim (plus Michal Urbaniak, Sax) an album that is a date, Solarius (Amiga): “Long and rich musical collaboration which will be spread over almost sixty years, Modal jazz hatching in Germany East “(Sarrazy).
Modern biases 2>
In addition to their classic high-level training, the two brothers share and share, because success is there, their resolutely modern biases, as evidenced by their crowned albums, in 1965, by Re-Union in Berlin. Rolf composes for the theater, cinema or successful TV series, Derrick understood, going both to “Easy-listening” as towards “funky jazz with wadding sounds”, dixit Sarrazy (City Calling, 1974).
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