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| 3.814 Ft
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| 1. | Dreierlei
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| 2. | Gospel
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| 3. | Seven 9-8
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| 4. | New No Ness
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| 5. | D. Nee No
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| 6. | Desert ... Bleue ... East
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| 7. | Almost Twenty-Eight
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Jazz
The first Basement Research project for Gebhard Ullmann was issued in 1993, and since then, he has convened many different shaped and sized ensembles. New Basement Research presents a program comprising older material that he is revisiting, recapitulating, revising, or as liner notes author Bill Shoemaker calls it, rebuilding. Retaining his sense of high drama, dense textures, layers of sound stacked on high, and an overblown harmonic drive, Ullmann has re-formed this band into a powerful quintet of old and new friends. The title is also telling in that there is a familiar underground base of operations centering this music, heightened by the emphasis of bass clef instruments that dominate. Ullmann's bass clarinet is the nucleus, with the baritone sax of the wonderful and underappreciated Julian Arguelles, and Steve Swell's trombone dipping into lower registers of primitive and modern abstractions that agreeably fit together. Gerald Cleaver's electrified, everywhere-at-once drumming style lights the fuse and keeps the fires brightly burning, while bassist John Hebert adds quite different shadings, not so much as a steadying influence as one that completely understands, and can operate sensibly amidst the chaos. Ullmann's tenor sax is in good abstracted humor as Cleaver's romping and stomping attitude during "Seven 9-8" also suggests carnival, circus-like madness. The bass clarinet and baritone sax dive into the murky waters of Atlantis during "D. Nee No," as Swell's trombone dodges sharks while the others freely explore the depths, discovering a Latin modal style similar to John Coltrane's "Ole," then building an impenetrable fortress of sound. "Desert...Bleue...East" is a pitch black waltz that flowers into a spirited song, while "Gospel" evokes the aural visage of a churchy, bluesy New Orleans funeral procession. One of Ullmann's most revered compositions is "Dreierlei," a scattered and diffuse vehicle for the horns and the soprano sax of Arguelles, injecting a New Orleans funky mishmash of dense and swirling hard bop. "Almost Twenty Eight" is a heavyweight contemporary funk piece, based on a 20/7 beat form, led by Ullmann's throaty bass clarinet, inducing clarion calls, howls, shrieks, and declarations of independence. "New No Ness" combines swing and funk rhythmically, off-the-cuff and unrestricted, except by hardcore feelings and the unexpected, drastic tandem punctuations in the irony of life. This remarkable ensemble -- extroverted to the nth degree -- is always thrilling, concentrated, and intense, non-stop in all respects. New Basement Research is a recording that should satisfy every listener inclined to appreciate this stripe of fierce creative contemporary improvised music -- faint hearts not allowed. ~ Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide
Gebhard Ullmann
Active Decades: '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: Nov 02, 1957 in Bad Godesberg, Germany
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Modern Creative, Avant-Garde Jazz, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz
Multi-instrumentalist Gebhard Ullmann (born on November 2, 1957) grew up near Bonn, studied medicine and music in Hamburg starting 1976, and moved to Berlin in 1983 to live as a professional musician. One year later, the 27-year-old was leading (and co-leading) his own bands, releasing his first albums in 1985. The next few years saw him working with Alexander Von Schlippenbach and Paul Bley (among many others) as well as touring the Middle East, East Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, Turkey, Poland, Lithuania and Estonia. In 1990, he began his Ta Lam project, whose second recording brought together musicians from East and West Berlin's jazz and new music scenes; the album was nominated Best Jazz Record of 1994 by the German Schallplattenkritik. A compilation of the two Ta Lam releases (originally released on Germany's 99 Records) was released in 1998 by the Songlines label. Since the mid-90s, Ullmann has split his time between Berlin and New York, played in Gunter Lenz' Springtime, and occasionally collaborated on projects with actor Otto Sander. The end of the '90s found Ullmann playing in the Clarinet Trio, Trad Corrosion (with Phil Haynes and guitarist Andreas Willers, (a longtime collaborator), in Basement Research (his group with Ellery Eskelin (later replaced by Tony Malaby), Drew Gress, and Haynes) and in Conference Call, a cooperative quartet with Michael Jefry Stevens, Joe Fonda and Matt Wilson or Han Bennink on the drums. In 2001, he began working with the NDR Big Band (with Tom Rainey on drums), eventually releasing the Big Band Project in 2004 featuring arrangements of his compositions by Satoko Fujii, Andy Emler and others. While recording and touring with all these various projects, Ullmann still found time to perform with the likes of Hamid Drake, Lee Konitz, Herb Robertson, Bulgarian master Ivo Papasov and Tony Buck (the Necks) among others while touring. 2004 saw still more touring with Conference Call (now with George Schuller on the drums), the Clarinet Trio (augmented by Hans Hassler on accordion), and a new quintet version of Basement Research as well as releases by Conference Call, the aforementioned Big Band Project the third CD of the Clarinet Trio and Desert Songs & Other Landscapes with the Ullmann/Swell 4 featuring Barry Altschul on the drums. 2005 was a landmark year for Gebhard Ullmann, celebrating 20 years since his first release and debuting a new project: Bass X3 with Peter Herbert and Chris Dahlgren on basses and Ullmann on bass flute and bass clarinet.
---Joslyn Layne & Sean Westergaard, All Music Guide |
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