"If CCK would not have existed, the record industry would have invented him." (Prinz, Germany)
Pianist Cornelius Claudio Kreusch's professional recording career started out from age 5, recording for the Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich . He then recorded on his mother's first album for the Deutsche Grammophon when he was just 9 years old .
There, his mother brought together a free jazz group called Artra to play her own songs with kids, who were Cornelius' & his brother's Johannes' friends & what was to become Deutsche Gammophon's first children's record . You can imagine the exciting we had as kids in the studio - & the fear, the a little uptight DG producers had . But this record still sells ...
Cornelius went on to gaining invaluable experience with the recording studio & recording process over all of his mother's records, which he first sang on, then played drums & piano on . As a teenager he started producing his mother's records, which were selling like hot cakes ... His first record under his own name came with a then Munich jazz label called Georg Löffler Musikverlag / Edition Collage whose first signed recording was CCK's first as well: The solo piano recording called "Talking to a Goblin" from 1990, recorded with ECM's famous recording engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug in his Rainbow Studios in Olso, Norway . The record is now available remastered as "The Oslo Tapes" & still enjoys popularity (MJM-CCK-030) . Back then, it was absolutely special to have recorded & released a CD on a legit jazz label .
He went on to record a second album for the same label . A piano duo record together Hans Poppel, one of his earliest inspirations as a pianist .
The record is called "Music for two Pianos, Part 1-17" & is a vivid example of two musicians having a lot of fun together . Check out the "score" as well . For each of the 17 Parts, there was one page designed - to leave a lot of freedom . By the way, Hans Poppel used to create stage designs for large opera productions at the Opera in Munich (Münchner Staatstoper) & illustrated a bunch of CCK's mother's books .
As a pianist, Hans Poppel played with Charlie Rouse, Ken Vandermark, Joe Morris, Amiri Baraka & a bunch other great New York & New England jazz musicians . Cornelius & Hans used to play concerts at the Kreusch's home near Munich together, when Cornelius was just about 10 years old . Musicians, artists & literaries & among other interesting people used visit the KreuschFamily home & exchange on culture, society & politics - a very inspiring climat for the young Cornelius & his brother & sister, Johannes & Carolin .
:: to be continued ::
