John Kuhlman John Kuhlman

I met John in 1979 when he moved into the apartment next to mine on 620 E 6th St in New York City. He was practicing Tenor Sax so I knocked on his door. We were instant friends. Within a year I had taken a loft on 242 W 38th St and John had moved to 520 E 12th St. John became handyman of the stars, working on the apartments of Yoko Ono in the Dakota and other celebs. I hired John to help me build my loft (but that's another story). I learned a lot from John about construction. I learned a lot more from his music. John was a real composer. After a couple more years my loft became a full time music rehearsal space called Giant. John had a room for rent so I moved in. We were roommates from then on. I was in several of John's bands including Citaco???, Whose Music, Seeing The Elephant and Robert Een and John Kuhlman at Roulette. I also recorded on some of John's compositions. On St. Patrick's Day 1984 John dragged me out to Irving Plaza to hear The Major Thinkers last gig. I have been working with combinations of those musicians ever since in groups such as Copernicus, Pierce Turner, Chill Faction and Black 47.
I owe a lot to John; in fact I would say he's my brother.

I was doing a gig with Black 47 on March 16, 2012 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. I got to talking to the Stage Manager, Herr Lugus. It turns out he lived at 520 E 12th St #3C. He just sent me two CD-Discs containing 24 tracks of John's music which John had given him in 1988.

The tune list below was reconstructed from three studio tapes. The first tape is from Herr Lugus which has 24 untitled tracks. The second tape was given to my (then) girlfriend Ellin Baumel and has 12 titled tracks. The third tape John gave to me in 1990. It has 19 tracks listed as 17 titles. Notice the forward slash within two song titles. This could mean a new section added to the song arrangement. John often reworked the songs.

On October 31, 2013 I wrote a choral based on the theme of 'St. Patrick's Day', a new song for the Black 47 album 'Last Call' to be recorded the next week. It was supposed to be a cheerful ditty to match the upbeat song to follow, but all that came to me was a dirge like treatment. On the way to the recording session while looking for a plunger to be used on another tune, 'Shanty Irish Baby' I stumbled on one of John's music boxes in the back of a rarely opened drawer. I used it to begin the choral. Anyway, the choral didn't go with the song so it was decided to make it it's own track and call it 'Lament For John Kuhlman'.

If anyone has any John Kuhlman material, tapes, pictures, stories, facts, etc... Also Jim Fox from Cold Blue Music said John's mother has a box of tapes, so if there's any family member who knows about that...
Thanks,
Fred

In Broken Images by John Kuhlman for Eb Clarinet and Cymbals 4/7/1977 written for Virginia Anderson In Broken Images by John Kuhlman for Eb Clarinet and Cymbals 4/7/1977 written for Virginia Anderson

Title MP3
Intro
Ask The Dusk
Lives Away
From The Distance
Noa Noa
Time Loves You Madly
Track 6
Track 7
Track 8
Track 9
Track 10
Track 11
Murmur Of The Heart
Photograph
Track 14
Track 15
Track 16
Track 17
Forget This Soon/The Quiet Life
You Play The Fool
Last Years Valentine
Little Margaret
The Streets Of Laredo
The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over The Hills...
The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over The Hills...(Earlier version)
Fargo Live @ Roulette
Now Thats It's Over
Seeing The Elephant
As It Was, Song
John Kuhlman Copyright Fourty Second Parallel Music