Steve Kuhn | Artist
Steve Kuhn is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader born 1938 in New York City. A highly regarded jazz pianist and composer, Kuhn is known for his sophisticated ear for harmony and lyrical, motivic approach to improvisation, as soloist and leader of the Steve Kuhn Trio. At the age of five, Kuhn began studying piano under Boston piano teacher Margaret Chaloff, mother of jazz baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff. At an early age he began improvising classical music, but by his teens, he was appearing in jazz clubs in the Boston area with Chet Baker, Coleman Hawkins, Vic Dickenson, and Serge Chaloff. After graduating from Harvard, he attended the Lenox School of Music where he was associated with Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, and Gary McFarland. The school's faculty included Bill Evans, George Russell, Gunther Schuller, and the members of the Modern Jazz Quartet. This allowed Kuhn to play, study, and create with some of the most forward-thinking innovators of jazz improvisation and composition, leading to him joining trumpeter Kenny Dorham's group for an extended time and, briefly, John Coltrane's quartet at New York's Jazz Gallery club. Kuhn also has appeared with Stan Getz, Art Farmer, Oliver Nelson, Gary McFarland, Ron Carter, Scott LaFaro, Harvie Swartz, vocalist Sheila Jordan, Billy Drummond, David Finck, and Miroslav Vitous. From 1967 to 1971 Kuhn lived in Stockholm, Sweden where he worked with his own trio throughout Europe. In 1971 he moved back to New York City and formed a quartet but continued doing European gigs and appearing at the Newport Jazz Festival. He worked with bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Pete La Roca during the 1960s on several notable recordings: Three Waves, Basra, and Sing Me Softly of the Blues. Also notable was Kuhn's inclusion in the quartet on the landmark recording Sound Pieces led by saxophonist, composer, and arranger Oliver Nelson. Another critically acclaimed recording is The October Suite composed by Gary McFarland, which included strings, woodwinds, and reeds. For decades, Steve Kuhn led all-star trios alongside such players as bassists Ron Carter and David Finck, and drummers Al Foster, Jack DeJohnette, Buster Williams and Joey Baron. As a recording artist, Kuhn has released over 40 studio albums, including collaborations and works by the Steve Kuhn Trio. Standout albums include Watch What Happens! (1968), Steve Kuhn (1971), Ecstasy (1975), Trance (1975), Motility (1977), and Remembering Tomorrow (1996). His works span genres, from swinging acoustic post-bop to classical-influenced chamber jazz and the avant-garde. Kuhn signed with the ECM label in 1975, becoming part of their stable of bands producing a brand of ruminative, melancholy, delicate and also cerebral, jazz with hints of a new-age sound. However Kuhn also retained his exploratory edge, returning to his love of classical composers like Debussy and Ravel on 2006's Pavane for a Dead Princess, and jazz reworkings of classical compositions featured on his 2008 trio album, Baubles, Bangles and Beads. In 2009, Kuhn revisited his time as a member of John Coltrane's quartet with Mostly Coltrane, featuring saxophonist Joe Lovano. In late 2022, Kuhn announced that he had retired from touring.
Artist Website: wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Kuhn
Featured Albums: Steve Kuhn
Related Artists: Steve Kuhn Trio, Joe Lovano
