Music Bloodline

Steve Kuhn

Steve Kuhn is a quintessential post-bop jazz pianist, thoroughly modernist in approach.

Biography

After studying with Margaret Chaloff (mother of baritonist Serge Chaloff), the Brooklyn-born pianist Kuhn starting playing professionally in local Boston jazz clubs while still a teenager. After attending the John Lewis-sponsored Lenox School of Music, Kuhn began an off-and-on association with the jazz avant-garde, playing with Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry, and even joining the newly formed John Coltrane for a short while in 1961. During the '60s, Kuhn mainly played in Europe but returned to the United States in the '70s, recording for the ECM label with a celebated quartet that included the singer Sheila Jordan. Steve Kuhn is a quintessential post-bop jazz pianist, thoroughly modernist in his approach but never leaving the jazz standard tradition too far behind.