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Steve Kuhn

Biography

An extremely regarded jazz pianist and composer, Steve Kuhn is well known for his advanced ear for harmony and lyrical, motivic method of improvisation. Emerging in the Boston jazz picture, Kuhn’s adaptive, forward-thinking abilities have discovered him shifting across several styles from swinging acoustic post-bop to classical-influenced chamber jazz as well as the avant-garde. Blessed in Brooklyn, NY in 1938 to Hungarian immigrant parents, Kuhn initial became thinking about music at a age while hearing his father’s jazz record collection on 78s. Beginning piano lessons at age group five, he quickly shown his present for ideal pitch. After shifting to Boston along with his family members, Kuhn started taking lessons using the renowned Boston-area pedagogue Margaret Chaloff, whom he credits with engendering his solid traditional piano technique. Also during this time period, he befriended Chaloff’s kid, saxophonist Serge Chaloff, who inspired his curiosity about jazz. By his teenagers, Kuhn had progressed into an adept jazz pianist, inspired with the recordings of jazz luminaries like Duke Ellington, Bud Powell, Fatty acids Waller, and Artwork Tatum. He produced his very own trio with drummer Arnold Smart and bassist Chuck Israels and started playing local night clubs. Even while going to Harvard, Kuhn kept down a six-nights-a-week gig in Harvard Square and obtained valuable experience dealing with the myriad jazz celebrities who arrived through the town, including Chet Baker, Coleman Hawkins, and Vic Dickenson, amongst others. After graduating Harvard, Kuhn continuing his studies in the Lenox College of Music, where he rubbed shoulder blades with fellow college students Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry and researched under esteemed jazz scholars like Gunther Schuller and George Russell. It had been also while at Lenox that he fulfilled trumpeter Kenny Dorham, who employed the pianist to get a yearlong tour. Parting methods with Dorham in 1960, Kuhn following joined famous saxophonist John Coltrane’s quartet to get a stint at New York’s Jazz Gallery. While short (Kuhn was changed by McCoy Tyner after eight weeks), the knowledge motivated Kuhn and would inform a lot of his afterwards work. Also through the ’60s, Kuhn started appearing on documenting dates with performers like Stan Getz, Oliver Nelson, and Artwork Farmer; he also spent per year touring with Farmer and potential collaborators bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Pete La Roca. Being a head, Kuhn debuted alongside pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi on 1963’s THE UNITED STATES and Western Audio of Jazz Pianos. Then implemented up with 1966’s Three Waves offering Swallow and La Roca. Also in 1966, he matched with fellow Lenox pupil Gary McFarland for the landmark chamber jazz record The Oct Suite. In the past due ’60s, Kuhn relocated to Stockholm, Sweden, where he resided and performed until 1971. Ironically, it wasn’t until time for the State governments that Kuhn agreed upon with Manfred Eicher’s after that fledgling Western european jazz label ECM. Notably, Kuhn’s focus on The Oct Suite have been among Eicher’s early inspirations in founding the label. With ECM, Kuhn released many probing and atmospheric albums including Ecstasy (1974), Trance (1974), Motility (1977), nonfiction (1978), Playground offering vocalist Sheila Jordan (1979), and Last Year’s Waltz (1981). Within the ’80s, Kuhn continuing to refine his audio, often playing within a trio with bassist Ron Carter and drummer Al Foster. A lot of his albums out of this period, including 1984’s Mainly Ballads, 1987’s Life’s Magic, and 1988’s Porgy, display a variety of well-curated criteria together with his inventive primary compositions. It had been a template that Kuhn would stick to throughout the following 10 years as he discovered himself employed in several trio configurations with performers like David Finck, George Mraz, Buster Williams, Billy Drummond, Lewis Nash, Costs Stewart, Kenny Washington, among others. As the trio continued to be Kuhn’s preferred structure, his 1995 record, Seasons of Love, found him employed in an all-star quintet with tenor saxophonist Bob Mintzer and trumpeter Tom Harrell. A lot more expansive was his 2004 go back to ECM, Claims Kept, which discovered him backed by way of a little string orchestra. Kuhn also maintained his exploratory advantage, time for his like of traditional composers like Debussy and Ravel on 2006’s Pavane to get a Deceased Princess. Jazz reworkings of traditional compositions were presented on his 2008 trio recording, Baubles, Bangles and Beads. In ’09 2009, Kuhn revisited his period as an associate of John Coltrane’s quartet with Mainly Coltrane, offering saxophonist Joe Lovano, on ECM. Also for ECM, Kuhn combined with bassist Swallow for 2012’s Wisteria. In 2016, Kuhn was once more became a member of by Swallow and drummer Joey Baron for AT THE MOMENT… on Sunnyside.

Quick Facts


Full Name Steve Kuhn
Profession Composer, Bandleader, Jazz Pianist
Education Harvard University
Nationality American
Music Groups John Coltrane Quartet
Music Songs Oceans in the Sky, The Meaning of Love, Life's Backward Glance, A Change of Face, Something Everywhere, Two By Two, The Drinking Song, 'Round Midnight, Ladies In Mercedes, The Young Blade, How High the Moon, Deep Tango, Don't Explain, Wisteria, The Sandhouse, Yesterday's Gardenias, Poem For #15, Lonely Town, Body And Soul, Permanent Wave, Dance only with me, Airegin, Two for the Road, Little Old Lady, Gentle Thoughts, Little waltz, Thoughts of a Gentleman - The Saga of Harrison Crabfeathers, I Know A Man, Music prayer for peace, Ulla / Trance, Pearlie's Swine, All That's Left
Albums Trance, Ecstasy, Last Year's Waltz, Playground, Childhood Is Forever, Remembering Tomorrow, The Country and Western Sound of Jazz Pianos, Promises Kept, Non-Fiction, Steve Kuhn Live in New York, Watch What Happens!, The Vanguard Date, The October Suite, Life's Magic, Mostly Ballads, Steve Kuhn: Mostly Ballads, Quiereme Mucho, Home, Oceans In The Sky, So There, Break of Day, Together Again, Pastorale, At This Time..., Two By Two, Life's Backward Glances - Solo and Quartet
Movies The Giant Buddhas


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Actor

Actor

TitleYearStatusCharacter
A Troll's Bridge 2002 Video Bobby Bully
The Punisher 1989 Reporter
Mission: Impossible 1988 TV Series The Policeman
Badlands 2005 1988 TV Movie Delaney (as Steven Kuhn)
Touch the Sun: Peter & Pompey 1988 TV Movie Chuck Lederstein
Anzacs 1985 TV Mini-Series Yarborough
Prisoner 1984 TV Series Philip Cleary
Special Squad 1984 TV Series

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