Jazz Articles about Gebhard Ullmann

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Gebhard Ullmann: The Big Band Project

by Rex Butters
August 8, 2005

Brooklyn/Berlin resident Gebhard Ullmann takes time off from his seven working ensembles to run six of his compositions through the venerable NDR Big Band. With heavyweights like Satoko Fujii, Andy Emler, Chris Dahlgren, and Guenter Lenz handling the arranging chores, the band roils and boils, simmers and sighs.

The Fujii-arranged “Think Tank" churns in orchestral slabs between soft flute interludes. The orchestra diffuses and Ullmann wails through on soprano. Dahlgren arranges “Tá Lam" as a driving ensemble piece. ...

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Gebhard Ullmann: BassX3

by Dan McClenaghan
February 26, 2005

BassX3, reedman Gebhard Ullmann's exploration of soundscapes dwelling in the lower end of the sonic spectrum, huffs in on on a low tone, a bass flute rumination joined shortly by the elastic sound of a bowed bass.Two basses--Chris Dahlgren (Jazz Mandolin Project), and Peter Herbert, internationally known for his film and dance scores--join Ullmann, who plays bass clarinet and bass flute here. The mood throughout has a brooding and introspective feel--darkly passionate, hypnotic at times, and always deeply ...

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Gebhard Ullman-Steve Swell Quartet: Desert Songs & Other Landscapes

by Derek Taylor
November 24, 2004

Economical improv groups are CIMP's stock and trade. Rare are the sessions that employ ensembles larger than quartet size. For this reason critics often complain of a relative homogeneity amongst the label's roster of projects. The responsibility falls on tapped bands to say something fresh within instrumental formats that quite often have reams of precedence. Producer Bob Rusch has an uncanny knack of picking groups able to rise to the challenge.

The jointly officiated Ullman-Swell unit certainly contains ...

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Gebhard Ullmann: Variations on a Master Plan

by Kurt Gottschalk
December 22, 2003

It’s probably obvious to say that German saxophonist Gebhard Ullmann’s master plan is to keep jazz alive, but it’s hard not to draw such a conclusion from his new quartet record. The title seems an obvious take on the classic Pharoah Sanders piece and the music within follows Ullmann’s history of working the tradition like a lump of clay, stretching and molding it but retaining the essential material. Ullmann’s bands are generally split between New York and European ...

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Ullmann/Stevens/Fonda/Bennink: Variations on a Master Plan

by Frank Rubolino
August 25, 2003

Gebhard Ullmann, Michael Jefry Stevens, and Joe Fonda, who have had close association in recent years working in the band Conference Call with drummer Matt Wilson, performed in 2001 at a Munich club with drummer Han Bennink. The event turned into a synergistic meeting of the minds. Ullmann appears to be in a pensive mood for this set, released as Variations on a Master Plan. He opens with a soulful bass clarinet flight through Stevens’ melancholy “Quiet,” which establishes a ...

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Meet Saxhophonist/Clarinetist Gebhard Ullmann

by Glenn Astarita
February 8, 2003

Submitted by Glenn Astarta on behalf of Vittorio Lo Conte for AAJ:Italy.

All About Jazz: Regarding your CD Kreuzberg Park East - Will you keep developing your musical ideas with this group in the future?

Gebhard Ullmann: The CD Kreuzberg Park East was an advancement of my composition concept for quartet (two horns and piano-less rhythm section). While I composed all the music for the first CD Basement Research in Berlin, everything on Kreuzberg Park East are new compositions and ...

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Gebhard Ullmann featuring Carlos Bica: Essencia

by Glenn Astarita
September 1, 2001

Saxophonist/clarinetist Gebhard Ullmann’s latest venture is based upon his musical associates’ compositional backgrounds and styles, as the trio renders a potpourri of highs, lows, peaks and valleys throughout this altogether attractive production. With “Sombras E Nevoeiro/A Luz Da Sombra,” the artist’s introspectively stated bass clarinet lines are contrasted by Jens Thomas’ ever so delicate plucking of his acoustic piano strings and subliminally executed lower register voicings. Thus, simple in appearance, yet subtly complex under the hood as the band seamlessly ...