Gebhard Ullmann: New Conference Call

In May 2000, at Acoustic Recording, Brooklyn, a quartet entitled Conference Call recorded together for the first time to produce the album Final Answer, which was released on the Soul Note label in 2002. The quartet at that recording session comprised the German Gebhard Ullmann playing bass clarinet and soprano saxophone (he could also play clarinet, as his membership of The Clarinet Trio demonstrated), alongside Americans Joe Fonda on double bass, Michael Jefry Stevens on piano and Matt Wilson on drums. Of the four, Ullmann and Fonda would be ever-present in the quartet's history, Stevens was around for a long time, but Wilson only made that one appearance, as did several other drummers.

Conference Call recorded together again in March 2001, with the notorious Dutch drummer Han Bennink, live at the Unterfahrt, Munich. The resulting album, Variations (Leo, 2003), was the first of a string of albums, predominantly live, that the quartet released on 482 Music or Not Two until 2013. In October and November 2016, with Dieter Ulrich on drums for the first time, Conference Call studio-recorded Prism, their last album under that name... the end of an era.

Now we welcome New Conference Call to pick up the baton and continue where its namesake left off. The new version is comprised of some familiar players: Gebhard Ullmann on tenor saxophone, Joe Fonda on upright bass, and drummer Dieter Ulrich returning, having added bugle to his instruments—alongside Uwe Oberg appearing here for the first time, on piano. Of the album's eight tracks, the opener "Elastic Joy," lasting 10' 48" is an Oberg composition, "You Failed Us" is a Fonda composition; five tracks are Gebhard compositions, some paying homage as their titles reveal -"Maneri-sms—for Joe," "To Be Ornette To Be—for Ornette," "Salt and Pepper—for Jim Pepper," while one track "Quiet Call" is credited to all four quartet members, very fittingly. 

Refreshingly, rather than the four quartet members taking it in turn to solo, the baton seems to be passed around so that each of them is heard loud and clear. Everything about this album augers well for the quartet's future. We must hope that they stay together and record often.