Home » Jazz Articles » Gebhard Ullmann

Jazz Articles about Gebhard Ullmann

About Gebhard Ullmann

269

Album Review

Gebhard Ullmann: Basement Research

Read "Basement Research" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
October 10, 2007

On Basement Research, Berlin-based Gebhard Ullmann combines his unique brand of composition with the pre-existing American trio of saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, bassist Drew Gress and drummer Phil Haynes. The recording is remarkable in that there is no sense whatsoever of Ullmann being grafted on to an admittedly close trio. While it is true that Eskelin and company are playing Ullmann's compositions, the degree of meshing of the quartet is amazing. This version of the quartet is the ...

226

Album Review

Gebhard Ullmann: Moritat

by Budd Kopman
October 4, 2007

The outstanding Moritat represents the physical embodiment of everything that multi-reedman Gebhard Ullmann had learned during the creation of the miraculous Ta Lam (99 Records, 1993). The earlier recording was created using overdubbing and, except for the occasional use of accordionist Hans Hassler, Ullmann's conception was realized by himself alone. Enlisting the talents of six other reed players plus Hassler, and calling the group Ta Lam Acht, Ullmann could now write and arrange for people who could ...

350

Album Review

Gebhard Ullmann: Ta Lam

by Budd Kopman
October 3, 2007

Tá Lam is one of the highest achievements in composition and recording in the last forty years. Beyond description or label, this music exists out of time, as a monument to the creative impulse in man. Gebhard Ullmann has created a work that is breathtaking in its beauty, and awe-inspiring in its performance. Music such as this, whether it is considered jazz or not, just does not happen that often. To listen to it is to be ...

115

Album Review

Gebhard Ullmann: Suite Noire

Read "Suite Noire" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
October 2, 2007

Suite Noire is essentially the last recording of what could be called “early Ullmann," which however, contains some of the seeds that will flower later. Once again partnering with Andreas Willers, multi-reedman Gebhard Ullmann has created an atmospheric and, for the most part, dark work that will surely intrigue. One of the seeds is the first track, “Tapping The Foot, Tapping The Brain," which opens with both melody and accompaniment overdubbed, producing many parts, by Ullmann on ...

161

Album Review

Gebhard Ullmann: Per Dee Doo

Read "Per Dee Doo" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
September 30, 2007

Musicians are like all of us, in that who they are now is the sum total of their life experience up to that point. For a musician like multi-reedman Gebhard Ullmann, who has worked to create his own musical world, the past is still part of him and hence an album like Per-Dee-Doo is the understandable desire to express the past in the present.The tunes chosen will be familiar to most listeners and come from many different eras. ...

201

Album Review

Gebhard Ullmann: Ullmann - Rava - Willers - Lillich - Schauble

Read "Ullmann - Rava - Willers - Lillich - Schauble" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
September 23, 2007

On the very fine Ullmann-Rava-Willers-Lillich-Schäuble, reedman Gebhard Ullmann combines his longstanding trio (guitarist Andreas Willers and drummer Nikolas Schäuble) with bassist Martin Lillich and renowned trumpeter Enrico Rava. By the time of this recording, Rava was fifty years old and had been recording for more than twenty years. Despite being a stylistic chameleon, whose playing can range from the romantic to the avant-garde, his sound is immediately recognizable. Thus, he can fit right in with a tight, ...

174

Album Review

Gebhard Ullmann: No Age

by Budd Kopman
September 22, 2007

The musical world that Gebhard Ullmann's No Age inhabits is admittedly quite different from Out To Lunch (Nabel, 1985). While the vibe resides distinctly within what would be called “New Age," the music, playing and production are so well done, and with so much extra spice, that it lands outside that genre and is indeed “No Age." The immediacy of Out To Lunch has been replaced with an electronic sheen which comes predominantly from a synthesizer and ...