TOTAL SPACE

Description

A world-renowned German jazz musician is and remains a major exception. The now 91-year-old clarinetist belongs to this elite class. Coming from free jazz, Kühn moves toward fusion and rock-jazz with this record in 1975. A star-studded cast including Daniel Humairet Kasper Winding (drums), Albert Mangelsdorff (trombone), Gerd Dudek (saxophone) and, of course, Joachim Kühn (piano). Reissue of the 1975 funky fusion album by the Rolf Kühn group, “Total Space”, with Joachim Kühn, Philip Catherine, Gerd Dudek, Albert Mangelsdorff and Daniel Humair. That a German jazz musician should achieve international recognition as a major figure has been and remains rare. Clarinetist Rolf Kühn belongs to this elite class. No one sounds like him on the clarinet; warm, round and masterful, his tone remains incomparable whatever style he is playing at any given moment. His playing resonates with a maturity and wisdom acquired over a long and rich life of musical experiences. At MPS, Rolf Kühn had carte blanche to choose the team responsible for the recordings and therefore decided to call on Wolfgang Hirschmann, one of the most interesting sound engineers in jazz at the time. Coming from a free jazz background, Kühn ventures in a new direction toward jazz fusion with this album. “My recordings for the MPS label have always benefited from an atmosphere of artistic freedom, for which I am always grateful. MPS was the first German record company to record only jazz and was open to experimentation and new musical areas. For ‘Total Space’ I was able to try new things, such as having two drummers, Daniel Humair and Kaspar Winding, and inviting completely free-spirited musicians like Albert Mangelsdorff or Gerd Dudek to the recording.” - Rolf Kuhn, 2019.