Paul Kuhn (band leader)
Paul Kuhn ( born March 12, 1928 in Wiesbaden, † September 23, 2013 in Bad Wildungen ) was a German -Swiss pianist, bandleader and singer.
- 2.1 crooner
- 2.2 pianist
- 2.3 bandleader
- 2.4 producer
- 2.5 entertainers
Life
Paul Kuhn was born in Wiesbaden, Germany as the son of a croupier. Even the age of eight he joined in 1936 in Berlin at the radio exhibition as an accordionist. The boy who almost disappeared behind his instrument, got the nickname Paulie. He later played in the Wiesbaden wine bar "bucket " the guests on. In his time as Hitler Youth, he discovered the jazz music. In 1944, he worked as a military advisor for the Wehrmacht in Paris. On August 25, 1944, the commandant of the city of Paris capitulated almost without a fight; the Wehrmacht retreated quickly back from France.
After his training with Kurt Thomas at Musician High School Frankfurt Kuhn attended from the age of 17 the Conservatoire in Wiesbaden. In parallel, he was already publicly as a pianist, also in the field of jazz music. 1945, Germany was divided into occupation zones; today Hesse belonged to the U.S. occupation zone. Kuhn appeared in front of American GIs and was employed by the soldiers Radio AFN. He was there on consignment Almost every day, playing live from the studio with his band. He lent itself to the repertoire of Glenn Miller (1904-1944) and was based on its sound.
Kuhn played in the Berlin Femina bar with Freddie Brocksieper and also appeared in the early West German jazz clubs. In the fifties, composed and arranged Kuhn entertainment music. From the mid- 1950s he joined increasingly with hits sung in appearance. His biggest success was the Horst - Henning Heinz 1954 Schlager wrote The man at the piano. Three years later, Kuhn took part with the song The piano above me on the German preliminary decision to Euro Vision Song Contest, but only reached the third place. In 1963 he sang with jazz singer Greetje purchase box Every day I love you a little bit more; it became a hit, followed by Kuhn's solo performance There is no beer in Hawaii ( 1963).
With the advent of music programs in public television Paul Kuhn became the musical permanent guest on German screens. His most important work as arranger and bandleader was the line of the Big Band of Radio Free Berlin (SFB Big Band ) from 1968. During this time he was head of the SFB - dance orchestra in numerous television shows as a guest, so among other things in the big international show row gala evening of the record in 1969 (Conference: Vivi Bach and Dietmar Schönherr ), 1971 (Conference: Eva Renzi and Paul Hubschmid ) and 1973 (Conference: Rudi Carrell ); were the legendary dance music shows on the screen and the number of Paul's party. 1980 was a difficult year for Kuhn: The SFB Big Band is resolved, the record company EMI Electrola announced him; his television show Gong Show was canceled after four episodes, the second marriage failed. For a new beginning Kuhn moved to Cologne, founded his own orchestra and was in October of 1981 at your gala in Cologne its debut. With his orchestra, he accompanied, among others, Peter Alexander on the tour in 1983 and later on his last tour in 1990-1991.
From the mid- 1990s he was again active in jazz. The Paul Kuhn Trio which consisted of him on the wing, Willy Ketzer on drums and Martin Gjakonovski or Gary Todd on bass. Increasingly she were Benny Bailey on trumpet, Gustl Mayer on saxophone and the Dutch singer Greetje purchase box. Since the summer of 2000, he was with Max Greger, Hugo Strasser and the SWR Big Band Swing as legends. 2008 Paul Kuhn took on the CD man Berlin together with Mario Barth.
The end of 2011 Kuhn flew to Los Angeles and played at Capitol Studios, the album The LA Session one, accompanied by John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton. The 2013 released album received excellent reviews: " full of grace improvisation - and the merging of three really big in their field " wrote about the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Private life
Since the 1970s, Kuhn had an apartment in Switzerland. In 1980 he moved to Switzerland Lenzerheide in the canton of Grisons. There he lived with his third wife Ute Heller man, whom he married in 1988, until his death together. In November 1994, the couple was sentenced to one year probation for tax evasion of nearly one million DM.
In 2005, Kuhn had to undergo heart surgery, 2007, he became ill with shingles. In the following years, his hearing and his eyesight subsided.
Paul Kuhn died on September 23, 2013 during a spa stay in the Hessian town of Bad Wildungen. He is survived by his wife Ute and its coming from his first marriage son Daniel.
Artistic development
Kuhn learned successively accordion, piano and clarinet. He had his first television appearance at the age of eight years at the radio exhibition in Berlin in 1936. His career as a jazz pianist began shortly after the war in the clubs of the U.S. Army and earned him a permanent position for a few years at the transmitter AFN.
Crooner
As a pop singer Kuhn played titles such as The man at the piano (1954 ), There is no beer in Hawaii ( 1963) and The Colour of Love (1958 in the charts ) a. Produced by Nils Nobah mood song The man at the piano sold over 250,000 copies.
Pianist
As a pianist counted Kuhn Art Tatum and George Shearing, and - particularly in terms of style, with often more economical single notes and chord setting - Hank Jones to his models. Trips to the Bebop are occupied by pieces like Stitt 's Tune (2002) and Ornithology (1999).
Bandleader
As an arranger and bandleader Kuhn oriented mainly to Count Basie. " Basie is the base ," said Kuhn. And: " I'm playing the piano, but my particular instrument is my band. " His first arrangement he wrote to friends about With me you 're beautiful as a 15- year-old. He accompanied many top stars of the German entertainment on their concert tours, including Peter Alexander, in his 1979 tour already Paul Kuhn's wife, Ute Hellermann, participated as a choir director of her Ute Mann Singers. The orchestra management had Dieter Reith.
Producer
As a producer, promoted Kuhn from the late 1950s, young talent - including Ralf Bendix, Rocco Granata, Howard Carpendale - and produced her recordings.
Entertainer and actor
As an entertainer and actor Kuhn appeared in a number of television programs, including with Willy Maertens, Walter Richter and Hanns Lothar in Biedermann and the Arsonists (1958), in the comedy of triplets on board (1959 ), playing with fours, Hi Paulie, Paul Part'y. In a televised series of sketches entitled The Forest Doctor ( 1992) Harald Juhnke with Kuhn appeared in the role of a director.
In 1985, he played himself in the TV movie The man at the piano, together with international singing stars such as Gilbert Becaud, Marlène Charell and Bibi Johns. Kuhn played in 2010 on the side of Peter Lohmeyer and Mina Tander in the tragicomedy Schenk me. Thy heart from Nicole Weegmann which he tailored to the body part of an old jazz pianist For this film, Kuhn also composed some songs. He started on 5 May 2011 nationwide in theaters, was on June 16, 2011 Opening of the Festival of German Films and was later aired repeatedly on German television. In 2012, gathered author Christoph Simon for his documentary Paul Kuhn - The man at the piano friends and companions Paul Kuhns front of the camera, so Götz Alsmann, Till Bronner, Helge Schneider and his longtime drummer Willy Ketzer.
Filmography (selection)
Awards
His many awards include: