Queen of The Desert

This "Middle-Eastern", or rather a Central-Asian action film, about the Red Army fighting the counter-revolutionary robber bands has become not only a cult movie, but also one of the favorites for several generations of viewers. With Russian cosmonauts, it is a tradition to view this film before going to outer space. The film’s success paved the way for a genre of national “Eastern”. A demobbed soldier, Fyodor Sukhov, is making his way through the desert to his home village. The band of the brutal Abdulla is raging in that area. Sukhov is charged with escorting the chief’s harem, because Abdulla intended to kill his women rather than let them go free. Sukhov’s mate, a young soldier Petrukha, dies at the hand of Abdulla. But at the decisive moment, Sukhov gets help from the former customs officer Vereshchagin and a poor peasant, Said.

In 2009, together with Moroccan oud and guembri virtuoso Majid Bekkas and Spanish percussionist Ramon Lopez, Joachim Kühn recorded "Out of the Desert", the follow-up to their celebrated debut "Kalimba" which was described as "pure magic" (Jazzthetik). "Out of the Desert", praised for its "previously unheard sound" (Kulturspiegel) went on to win the German Record Critics Award. It was this "desert jazz", which culminated in 2011 with the powerfully organic and incredibly intense "Chalaba", that Stötzler suggested that Kühn transpose this to a greater dimension, that the trio’s African inspired improvisations should fuse with the diverse sound repertoire of the big band. Kühn was immediately taken with the idea of playing with the Frankfurter big band because, as he says, "they put their whole heart and soul in it"…