Rolf Kuehn

About Rolf Kuehn

Since the release of his duo album “Brothers” together with his younger brother Joachim, the clarinetist Rolf Kühn has once again achieved prominence in this country. Rolf has been an active musician for more than fifty years and has played with endless jazz greats, going back to his work as musical director for Benny Goodman in his youth. The Kühn brothers’ free jazz quartet left a lasting impression at the Newport Jazz Festival in the sixties and served to greatly increase awareness of European jazz in the USA. After many years’ active work in the theater and numerous big band projects, he has finally returned as a recording artist – and proved to be better than ever. His first ‘summit-meeting’ with musical friends such as Ornette Coleman, Dave Liebman, Randy Brecker and Albert Mangelsdorff, which was recorded on the album “Affairs”, won him the German Record Critics’ prize. It was followed by “Inside Out”, another quality album which combined lyrical tones with the best of swing in a highly varied and exciting way. Whether together with star saxophonists such as Randy Brecker, Lee Konitz, or his brother Joachim Kühn, or with the celebrated ‘young lion’ Till Brönner on the trumpet: Rolf Kühn proves that he is a brilliant, stylistically skillful master of his instrument.
2009 Rolf Kühn has been awarded the highest honour of the German Record Ciritcs’ Award, the Certificate of Special Merit.