April 08, 2010

By By Wolfgang Spahr, Berlin

The pianist and band leader Paul Kuhn will receive the ECHO Jazz award for lifetime achievement.

Kuhn will receive the award on May 5 at the inaugural awards ceremony at the Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum.

The German Phono-Academy, the cultural institute of the German association of the German music-industry association (BVMI), will present the award to the 82-year-old artist, who will perform live at the event. Also performing at the show are pianist G?tz Alsmann, saxophone player Klaus Doldinger, Vijay Iyer Trio, trombonist Nils Landgren, singer Silje Nergaard and vocalist and saxophone player Curtis Stigers.

"I am very proud about this award and that ECHO for the first time gets its own platform for jazz," said Kuhn in a statement. "Even in my trips into pop music there has always been the motto: it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing."

Alongside the ECHO award and the ECHO Klassik, the ECHO Jazz is the third award of the German Phono-Academy. The ECHO Jazz is awarded in 31 categories to national and international artists.

"In Germany jazz has a great tradition," said Prof. Dieter Gorny, CEO of the BVMI in Berlin. The nominated records must have been released between Nov. 1 2008 and Oct. 31 2009 and registered in the industry's Phononet data-bank under the genre jazz. In addition two outstanding reviews about the product have to be filed. All labels that distribute records on the German market can participate.

The winners are named by a jury of 12 people. The West German TV station in Cologne will be broadcasting the event at 10.30 pm on May 8.

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