Paul Kuhn was born in 1928. When he was only eight years old, he performed at the 1936 edition of Berlin’s Radio Exhibition, playing the accordion. At the age of seventeen, he joined Wiesbaden’s conservatory and began to perform jazz piano music. After 1945, he had his own radio program on the American Forces Network and performed regularly in various West German jazz clubs.
Paul Kuhn composed and arranged hits sung by light music performers from the 1950s onwards. As television became widespread and music programs became ever more frequent, he was often seen on German TV screens. In 1968, he was appointed director of both the big band and the dance orchestra at SFB, West Berlin’s radio and television broadcaster. The big band was dissolved in 1980, however, and Kuhn founded his own jazz band in Cologne. From the 1990s onwards, he focused on jazz music and performed mainly with the Paul Kuhn Trio. Paul Kuhn died in 2013.
Foto © Arne Köhler
