Jazz Articles about Julia Hulsmann

Julia Hulsmann Quartet: In Full View

by John Kelman
June 19, 2013

There's no denying the benefit of stable longevity, but neither is there anything wrong with change. Following three ACT recordings that featured her trio--together since Scattering Poems (ACT, 2003)--supporting a series of vocalists, Julia Hülsmann moved to ECM, where the pianist was afforded greater freedom to more fully explore her trio's potential on 2008's The End Of A Summer and 2011's Imprint. Both albums presented a trio beyond anything left to prove and functioning in thoroughly egalitarian fashion, both compositionally ...

Julia Hulsmann Trio: Imprint

by John Kelman
April 20, 2011

Longevity is tough to maintain, in a time when artists largely need to work with a variety of projects to make a living, but there are increasing (and encouraging) signs of the value placed on chemistry and the kind of collective voice that evolves naturally, over time. German pianist Julia Hülsmann has maintained the same trio lineup for 15 years, though her early releases on the ACT label were augmented with vocalists and, in the case of Good Morning Midnight ...

Julia Hulsmann: Imprint

by Jonathan Wertheim
March 12, 2011

Manfred Eicher's Munich-based ECM Records specializes in spacious, absorbing records that reveal their inner workings, labyrinth-like, over the course of many listens. Some releases reveal themselves from the first note; with others, it can take years. Pianist Julia Hülsmann's sixth record--and second for ECM--Imprint, manages both. Hülsmann's trio isn't new--it has had more than a decade to establish its stylistic identity. But when the ensemble moved to ECM, releasing its label debut, The End of a Summer, ...

Julia Hulsmann Trio: The End of a Summer

by Dan McClenaghan
December 12, 2008

ECM Records stalwarts like Bobo Stenson, Tord Gustavsen and Keith Jarrett have, over the years, helped to define the German label's high quality artistry in the piano arena. And then there are the new players who offer up gorgeously compelling debuts that point in the direction of the future. In 2007 it was Anat Fort, with her exquisite A Long Story. In 2008 the label shines its debut spotlight on the Julia Hulsmann Trio with The End of a Summer.

Julia Hulsmann Trio With Roger Cicero: Good Morning Midnight

by Chris May
February 10, 2006

Emily Dickinson isn't the first name to spring to mind when you're thinking poetry and jazz. Rural (she lived in Amherst, Massachusetts all her life), introspective, and of strict Calvinist upbringing, Dickinson and jazz sound about as likely as Baz Lurman and a biopic about St Francis of Assissi.

But the unlikeliest of bedfellows sometimes make the sweetest music, and Julia Hulsmann's Good Morning Midnight is such a union: soulful, sinewy piano trio jazz, set around ten Dickinson poems plus ...