Jutta Hipp
| Jutta Hipp | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | |
| Born | February 4, 1925 Leipzig, Germany |
| Died | April 7, 2003 (aged 78) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer |
| Instruments | Piano |
| Years active | 1940s–60 |
Jutta Hipp (February 4, 1925 – April 7, 2003) was a jazz pianist and composer who also had some success as a painter.
Hipp was born on February 4, 1925 in Leipzig, Germany. Her family was middle class, with a Protestant background. She began playing the piano at the age of nine. She first studied painting in Germany. Jazz was disapproved of by Nazi Germany, so 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." She studied at the Leipzig Academy of Graphic Arts before moving as a refugee to the western zones of Germany in 1946 after Russia occupied Leipzig.
"After the war she became a displaced person and suffered from malnutrition and lacked most basic necessities." She had a son, Lionel, in Germany in 1948, named after Lionel Hampton. He was fathered by an African-American GI. As African-American GIs at that time could not accept paternity to a white woman, the specifics of Lionel's father are unknown. Hipp soon gave him up for adoption.
Hipp worked with saxophonist Hans Koller from 1951, touring in Germany and other countries. They recorded together in 1952. In Germany she also led a quintet between 1953 and 1955;Albert Mangelsdorff's brother Emil was one of the members. 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 a friend of hers. He booked an April recording session for her; the resulting album was released two years later. Later in 1954, Hipp played at the Deutsches Jazzfestival in Frankfurt.
Feather arranged a visa for Hipp, and found her a piano job at the Hickory House club in New York. She moved to the United States in 1955, where she spent most of her life. She played at the Hickory House for six months from March 1956. She played at the Newport Jazz Festival in the same year and recorded for Blue Note Records, again with Feather's help. One of these albums was with saxophonist Zoot Sims. This was her final recording.
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