Q: «Are there times when you wish you would have chosen another profession?»

CCK: «Music is my calling in life. That question does not occur.»

Q: «When you choose musicians to work with, what qualities do you look for?»

CCK: «They are highly original, "crazy" in a positive sense, found their own musical language . They are willing to integrate, but still break free. That makes for creative tension. They are open(hearted), people who have respect for one another. You can get along with them off the bandstand as well. Ideally, they are friends. Then the band becomes family & the music our bond - & is as a result much more intense.»

Q: «How to listen?»

CCK: «Music is, above all, feeling. If you do not let go of your thinking mind, you will not really "listen". Then you will block your path to contact, to being touched & gaining inner knowledge & joy.»

Q: «Is there music that makes you sad?»

CCK: «Yes... for instance Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier played so beautifully by Sviatoslav Richter. My brother's guitar playing touches me so very much & the melodies of my mother as well. Though, this sad feeling in music ultimately becomes uplifting & turns into joy.»

Q: «What piece of music would you like to hear, when you leave the stage of this life one day ?»

CCK: «An orgiastic symphony existing of music by Miles Davis, Mozart, Chopin, Jimi Hendrix & other greats, my mother's, my brother's & my sister's music, the laughter of my father (loud), the sounds of love of my wife, my kids, my friends & ancestors as well as the sound of my heart, with all that it was allowed to see, hear, feel, live & play.»

Q: «When you play, it seems like you are making love to the piano. Do you feel that way?»

CCK: «The piano is my lover & I am its inspiration. Ideally, we then wake up to embrace each other with fulfillment.»

Q: «Is breathing important when you play piano?»

CCK: «Breath is of central importance to me. Life, & with it music, is & exists in the rhythm between breathing in - & breathing out. You absorb energy from your environment & then release your own back into the world. This is a cosmic cycle we are embedded in & that we must absolutely respect. Being an asthmatic, for me, air/freedom/breath are both, the driving force & counterbalance in my life - &, in the end, the reason why I live & breathe jazz.»

 

Q: «How do you feel when the applause is gone & you are alone with yourself?»

CCK: «I am.»

Q: «How do you feel without a piano?»

CCK: « I am still music.»

Q: «You have unusual technical confidence & command of the piano. Do you think they could be even more intense?»

CCK: «There is never a limit. Music always involves working to expand your emotional & technical boundaries. Strangely enough, as a young student, I never was one who would «practice« a lot. What I like instead, is really to make music & to go playfully on a journey. That was & has always been my goal & biggest joy in music. In the end, technique is just a tool I use to express all the emotions & ideas I feel in that very moment.»

Q: «What principles guide you?»

CCK: «'No risk, no fun' (Hewlett Packard's claim from way back); 'I welcome whatever happens next.' (John Cage's famous words); 'Blind are those that only see what they (are able to) see.' (Jakques Goldgrub, the New York poet).»

Q: «What makes you go up a palm tree? What makes you come back down?»

CCK: «Up: The hope for a delicious coconut. Down: It's much easier to dance on the ground.»

Q: «You are one of the first settlers on a new planet. What would you carry with you?»

 

CCK: «My family, my Steinway, a recording system, all the memories - & all my senses (as well as enough to eat & drink for a long time).»

Q: «What is your greatest wish for yourself?»

CCK: «Spiritual depth, mental flexibility, physical health - for me, my family, friends & partners.»

Q: «If you were a color, what would you be?»

CCK: «The rainbow of all colors at daytime; the white stars & black sky at night. All shades of the above at dawn & dusk.»

 

These questions have been drawn from interviews conducted
by Uta Petersen, Jean Fergus & Nadine Girstenbrey.
Translations by J.M. Hardacre, Jakques Goldgrub, Jim Beason.

MJM Photography by
Mark Higashino, Times Square & Mercer Street in New York City (actual photographs).