Kühn's Open Vision in the Early Eighties
Kühn and Nauseef push past conventional trio vocabulary into something restless and exploratory.
By 1983, Joachim Kühn was already established as a pianist with strong European credentials, but I'm Not Dreaming represents something different—a moment when he steps fully into his own sound rather than refining an inherited one. This is early in his international profile, recorded for a small label when he still had something to prove. The album pairs Kühn with Mark Nauseef, whose percussion work here is anything but decorative. They're not playing straight-ahead trio jazz. Instead, the music moves through odd angles—modal passages that don't resolve where you expect, rhythmic disruptions that feel purposeful rather than chaotic, and Kühn's left hand doing architectural work beneath his right. Nauseef's touch is crucial. He's not keeping time; he's a second soloist, adding texture and pushing back against Kühn's lines rather than supporting them. The chemistry between them has an experimental edge without sounding academic. Kühn's touch at the keyboard is precise and unhurried, sometimes delicate, sometimes assertive, always in control. This isn't a record trying to sound like anyone else. It has the confidence of a musician who knows what he wants to say and has found the right collaborator to say it with. For listeners curious about where Kühn comes from before his later Blue Note work, this is an honest answer—a pianist still in motion, still discovering his language.
Who's playing
Joachim Kühnpiano
Mark Nauseefpercussion
