Jutta Hipp

Jazz pianist Jutta Hipp was born on February 4, 1925 in Leipzig, Germany. Her music career was remarkably brief but appreciation for her recordings has grown over the years. At the age of nine, she began playing the piano while also expressing a talent in paining. The Nazi regime disapproved of jazz music, so she had to secretly gather with friends to listen or tune into forbidden radio stations. She was a student at the Leipzig Academy of Graphic Arts but when Russia occupied Leipzig in 1946, she was forced to move to Munich as a refugee. She experienced a period of displacement, which led to great strife in her life for several years. By 1951, she was performing live with saxophonist Hans Koller, touring Germany and other European countries. In 1953 and 1954, she was based in Frankfurt, Germany and leading her own band. She made several recordings for local labels and gained  a lot of respect, earning her the title ‘Europe’s First Lady of Jazz’. British jazz pianist Leonard Feather discovered her and booked her for a studio session in April 1954. With interest from Blue Note Records – who released those studio recordings as New Faces – New Sounds from Germany (1954 - Jutta Hipp moved to New York in November 1955. During the first half of 1956, she had a residency at the Hickory House, where she recorded two albums for Blue Note – At the Hickory House, Vol. 1 and At the Hickory House, Vol. 2 – both released in 1956.  Her next album, Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims (1956), featured the pianist joined by saxophonist Zoot Sims, trumpeter Jerry Lloyd, bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, and drummer Ed Thigpen. The album proved to be her last. She began working in the garment industry to earn more income and only performed weekends and on days off. By 1960, she stopped performing altogether. Jutta Hipp died on April 7, 2003.