Avant-garde jazz pianist Joachim Kühn was born on March 15, 1944, in Leipzig, Germany. Trained as a classical musician, he began performing jazz in 1961 and left East Germany in 1966. During the decades that followed, he played an active role in the jazz fusion scene, collaborating with everyone from Michael Brecker to Naná Vasconcelos. In 1997, he collaborated with Pulitzer Prize-winning saxophonist Ornette Coleman on the critically-acclaimed Colors: Live from Leipzig. An instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer, Kühn continued recording at a rapid pace during the 21st century, too, regularly releasing albums for the German-owned jazz label ACT.
