Jutta Hipp

Jutta Hipp (4 February 1925 – 7 April 2003) was a German jazz pianist who was a pioneer of jazz in post-war Germany and was also active in the United States.

After a career of approximately ten years as a jazz musician in Germany, during which she led a quintet that introduced Germany to bebop and cool jazz, she was discovered by an Anglo-American jazz critic and record producer who encouraged her to emigrate to the United States. However, she subsequently fell out with him following a surprising rhythm and blues tour in the southern United States in 1957.

Early life Jutta Hipp was born on 4 February 1925 in Leipzig, Germany, to Karl Julius Hipp and Hulda Elisabeth Grassmann. Her family was middle class, with a Protestant background. She began playing the piano at the age of nine She was eight years old when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 and fourteen when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Jazz was disapproved of by the Nazi regime, but Hipp listened to it during "clandestine gatherings in friends' homes and [...] during bombing raids. Instead of joining her parents and brother in the basement shelter [...] she hunkered down in front of the radio transcribing jazz tunes played on forbidden radio stations." When the Second World War began, she was studying at the Academy of Graphic Arts in Leipzig.

Like millions of other German civilians, she endured the massive bombing raids on her native city of Leipzig. At the age of 21, she became a displaced person and suffered from malnutrition. Discovery of jazz under the Nazi regime (1940–1945) Jutta Hipp first encountered jazz around 1940, when her friend Ingfried Henze, a fellow art student, took her to a meeting of the Hot Club, some of whose gatherings took place even during bombing raids. German jazz musicians were continually at risk. They recorded together in 1952. In 1952, she moved with Hans Koller to Frankfurt, where American army clubs provided numerous opportunities for young jazz musicians.

In 1954, Hipp played with Attila Zoller. In January of the same year, critic Leonard Feather heard Hipp in Germany, around three years after being sent a recording of her playing by one of her friends. He booked an April recording session for her; the resulting album was released two years later.

Discovery by Leonard Feather (1954)

The Anglo-American jazz critic and record producer Leonard Feather received a tape recording of Hipp playing, sent to him by an American soldier, and became eager to meet her in person.

Jazz career in the United States (1955–1956)

Considering her to be of world-class caliber, Leonard Feather assisted Jutta Hipp with her immigration to the United States in November 1955, after which she settled in New York. Three albums were released on the label in 1956: Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims and two volumes of Jutta Hipp at the Hickory House. The rift may also have been due to Feather making advances toward her while she was still engaged to Attila Zoller; Hipp herself mentioned such advances to trumpeter Iris Kramer in August 1986. She may have regarded playing the piano as a way of making money in difficult post-war circumstances rather than as an artistic vocation. although apart from Jutta Hipp and Rolf Kühn, there were virtually no German musicians in America at the time. but a later account indicates that she "prepare frayed or torn men's pants for alterations". In 1995, the "German magazine Jazz Podium reproduced her painted caricatures of some jazz musicians; Hipp commented that, "With painting, they look at the work, not you".

In his 2012 book Jutta Hipp. Ihr Leben & Wirken. Malerin – Pianistin – Poetin. Eine Dokumentation, Gerhard Evertz documents 65 watercolors in the chapter "Paintings", consisting of landscapes, village and city scenes, and figures; however, only one, entitled "The Pianist", is directly related to music.

Another chapter of the book documents Hipp's activities as a photographer: "There are views from the window of her apartment, friends in a restaurant, musicians at outdoor concerts, the house of Charlie Parker, the grave of Louis Armstrong, but also landscapes that appear to be motifs for her watercolors." She suffered from depression and struggled to maintain relationships. Around 1986, she restarted giving interviews. Lee Konitz was one of a few musicians who kept in touch with her until her death.

Death (2003) Hipp died of pancreatic cancer on April 7, 2003, in her apartment in Sunnyside, Queens.

In 2011, a street in Leipzig was named after Hipp – Jutta-Hipp-Weg.

Tributes

Since 2011, there has been a street named after Jutta Hipp in Leipzig (Jutta-Hipp-Weg), at the initiative of jazz historian Katja von Schuttenbach, who has long been interested in the artist's life. In 2013, the Ilona Haberkamp Quartet released Cool Is Hipp Is Cool: A Tribute To Jutta Hipp, marking the tenth anniversary of her death. 1953 – 1954 Leonard Feather Presents Cool Europe MGM 1955 Split album with Mike Nevard's British Jazzmen in B-side: In A-side with Emil Mangelsdorff (alto sax), Joki Freund (tenor sax), Hans Koller (tenor sax), Albert Mangelsdorff (Trombone), Hans Kresse (bass), Karl Sanner (drums) 1954-04 New Faces – New Sounds from Germany Blue Note 1954 Studio recordings: trio with Hans Kresse (bass), Karl Sanner (drums); some tracks quartet, with Jaki Freund (tenor sax) or Emil Mangelsdorff (alto sax) added; some tracks quintet; released as 10-inch LP 1954-04, 1954-06, 1954-07 The Legendary Jutta Hipp Quintet: Frankfurt Special - 1954 Fresh Sound 2006 Compilation of a couple of German recordings of Jutta Hipp from 1954: Emil Mangelsdorff (Alto Sax), Joki Freund (Tenor Sax), Hans Kresse (bass), Karl Sanner (drums) 1955-01 Jutta Hipp with Lars Gullin Karusell 1955 Quartet, with Lars Gullin (baritone sax), Simon Brehm (bass), Bosse Stoor (drums); EP; reissued as part of the Gullin CD 1954/55 Vol 3 Late Summer (Dragon) 1956-04 At the Hickory House Volume 1& Volume 2 Blue Note 1956 Live trio recording, with Peter Ind (bass), Ed Thigpen (drums) 1956-07 Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims Blue Note 1957 Quintet, with Zoot Sims (tenor sax), Jerry Lloyd (trumpet), Ahmed Abdul-Malik (bass), Ed Thigpen (drums)

1956: New Faces – New Sounds from Germany (Blue Note BLP 5056; recorded in 1954 in Germany) 1955: Jutta Hipp with Lars Gullin (Karusell) 1956: Jutta Hipp at the Hickory House Volume 1 (Blue Note 1515), with Peter Ind (double bass) and Ed Thigpen (drums) 1956: Jutta Hipp at the Hickory House Volume 2 (Blue Note 1516), with Peter Ind (double bass) and Ed Thigpen (drums) 1956: Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims (Blue Note 93178), with Zoot Sims (saxophone), Jerry Lloyd (trumpet), Ahmed Abdul-Malik (double bass), and Ed Thigpen (drums) 2012: The German Recordings 1952–1955 (Jazzhaus/Arthaus Musik/SWR), comprising recordings from German radio archives made between 1952 and 1955 in Baden-Baden, Stuttgart, and Koblenz, with Jutta Hipp (piano), Franz "Shorty" Roeder (double bass), Hans Koller (tenor saxophone), Albert Mangelsdorff (trombone), Rudi Sehring (drums), Joki Freund (tenor saxophone), Attila Zoller (guitar), and Harry Schell (double bass)

Biographical set

Hipp Is Cool: The Life And Art Of Jutta Hipp (BE! Jazz, 2015)[6CD + DVD-Video] – on Hipp's music and life