Paul Kuhn: The LA Session

Paul Kuhn (1928-2013) was a German jazz pianist who was well known in his own country, but much less so in the United States. All things considered, given that he spent the formative year of his adolescence in Nazi Germany, he was probably lucky to have survived at all. The Nazis, like most authoritarians, frowned on swing and jazz. They considered it the product of a degraded race and gateway drug of sorts to all sorts of perversions of which they ostensibly disapproved. But Kuhn did get through the war, in part because of his musical ability. It landed him on Armed Forces Radio.

In time, he was recognized as one of Germany's leading jazz talents, in the 1950s, alongside Jutta Hipp. He apparently did not make it to the United States until 1955, although his models and heroes were basically American. At one point, he was the leader of the SFB Big Band at the television station of then West Berlin, later moving to Cologne in 1980. Search diligently enough for Kuhn's earlier recordings, or live appearances on YouTube going back a few decades, and one hears a pretty capable jazz pianist who played well with musicians like Johnny Griffin. He was a good soloist and could comp too. He sang a bit, although that was not his strong point. Kuhn was a household name in Germany, where he was accorded the sobriquet, "Mr. Piano."

This recording, apparently one of his last was made in Los Angeles. It apparently fulfilled a lifetime dream to record there, where he was backed by the terrific rhythm section of John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton. The repertoire is a wide variety of standards and a few originals ("Griff," "My World of Music,") competently executed for the most part, although their level is about what one might hear at a Sunday brunch in a good hotel in a major American city. Clayton and Hamilton support Kuhn, but never get in the way. One suspects this was a deliberate choice.

There are some vocals, best left for the many true fans of Kuhn.

Time has a way of catching up with all of us, so, as they saying goes, be careful for what you wish for. Perhaps recording in Los Angeles well past the point of time's diminishing returns.

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