East German pianist. He was born in 1944. He is a classical musician by training, who shifted to hard-bop in 1961, possibly under the influence of his brother, clarinetist Rolf Kühn. After defecting to West Germany in 1966, the brothers formed a free-jazz quartet. Relocating to France in 1968, Joachim Kühn joined JeanLuc Ponty for his album Experience (1969) and stayed with him till 1972.

After moving to California, Kühn adopted a more atmospheric fusion style that led to Hip Elegy (1975), featuring Japanese trumpeter Terumasa Hino, American drummer Alphonse Mouzon, bassist John Lee, Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos and British guitarist Philip Catherine, and to Springfever (1976). Night Time In New York (1981), featuring tenor saxophonists Michael Brecker and Bob Mintzer, bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Billy Hart, achieved perhaps the most sophisticated sound. These were pieces that straddled the border between progressive-rock and jazz-rock. Other highlights of this period were the nine-minute Horror Dream, of Don't Split (1982), a collaboration with Rolf Kühn, and the ten-minute Heavy Birthday, of I'm Not Dreaming (1983), a chamber experiment with cellist Ottomar Borwitzky, trombonist George Lewis, percussionist Mark Nauseef and marimba player Herbert Foersch.

Back in Germany, Kühn rediscovered his classical upbringing and turned to the grand piano and composed some austere pieces for solo piano such as Norddeutschland on Distance (1984), Italienische Sonate and the Wandlungen on Wandlungen/ Transformations (1986), and Bank Of Memory on Dynamics (1990), besides the ballet music of Quintus - Dark (1988) in collaboration with Walter Quintus. At the same time he also led a conventional be-bop trio that also flirted with free-jazz on Easy To Read (1985), From Time To Time Free (1988), and especially Carambolage (1991). Let's Be Generous (1990), in a quartet with guitarist Miroslav Tadic, was his boldest attempt yet at fusing jazz, classical and rock music.