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Gebhard Ullmann

Recording artist for Soul Note, Leo Records, Intuition Records, Clean Feed, WhyPlayJazz, Jazzwerkstatt, Between The Lines a.o.

I released about 60 CDs as a leader/co-leader.

I have been listed in Downbeat's Critics Poll in 2005 for the first time (Rising Stars Clarinet) and my CDs "Final Answer" and "The Big Band Project" received 4 1/2 stars and were listed in Downbeat with the best CD releases of 2004 and 2005.

Please go to my website for all infos, an extensive mp3 library, downloadable sheet music and photos, bio information and news, concert dates, a discography with covers/titles/soundsamples and liner-notes for every CD, a CD order form and much more. Website: www.gebhard-ullmann.com MySpace: www.myspace.com/gebhardullmann

Neil Tesser (Chicago Reader '02) about Gebhard Ullmann:

" He has what critic Bill Shoemaker has called a 'razor-sharp diction' but he's also fluent in the smeary, loose-fitting phraseology that distinguishes the last quarter century of American reed work. He knows when to pull which tool out of the chest, and he uses the many devices at his disposal as means to an end, shaping his improvisations like a sculptor."

Steven Loewy in Cadence Magazine (4/'05):

" Few improvising artists can boast the stream of creative ideas that seem to bubble from Gebhard Ullmann. Ullmann focuses on the fundamentals of improvised jazz: melody, sound, syncopation and technical excellence, but what makes his writing and playing so successful is his seemingly neverending innovative nature: without grasping for neoteric straws, Ullmann's performances are grounded in the past but plunge forward deliberately toward modernity. Ullmann leaves the strong mark of a disciplined sculptor of sound, who speaks his own compelling language."

Mark Patel in One Final Note (8/'05) about Gebhard Ullmann's CD releases:

" While it would take other artists years to arrive at one of these albums, Ullmann has seemingly done it simultaneously. His music is a jumping-off point for the listener to take his sounds and textures, his colors and shapes and form them into something new and original with each listening. It is a gift, and one to be cherished in this era of commercialism and cookie-cutter art. The most we can ask of the creative musician is what Ullmann delivers, and that is to ask more of us, to take the work further and create endless possibilities which help us to accentuate, rather than escape from, our existence."

Gebhard Ullmann: New Conference Call

Read "New Conference Call" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
March 7, 2026

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 ...

Radio & Podcasts

New & Older Post Bop, Free Jazz and Avant Garde from Europe, NYC, and Montreal

by Jon Greenbaum
March 1, 2026

Lots of new and some older music from Italy, Germany, Finland, Montreal, NYC, England, Estonia, and Sweden.Playlist Kaja Draksler Octet “Skylark" from Bare, Unfolding (Clean Feed Records) 00:00 Joe Morris “Slipshod" from Racket Club (About Time Records) 07:05 Federico Calcagno & The Dolphians “Children of Gaza" from Face The Music (Da Vinci Jazz Records) 16:58 Koro Almost Brass “Kabarett" from Plays Kurt (Caligola Records) 21:54 Cecil Taylor “Track 2" from 3 Phasis (New World Records) 28:04 Ivano Nardi ...

Album Review

Steve Swell: Dances With Questions

Read "Dances With Questions" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
January 11, 2024

American trombonist Steve Swell plays to the strengths of his talented cast of improvisers on the sprawling multifaceted Dances With Questions, a three-CD box set which documents his three day residency at the 2019 Krakow Jazz Autumn. The center piece is the 70-minute title cut for a dozen musicians, but the album also includes two discs of small group encounters captured in the city's legendary Alchemia club during the previous evenings. Swell, a veteran of the New York ...

Album Review

Gebhard Ullmann / Steve Swell / Hilliard Greene / Barry Altschul: We're Playing In Here?

Read "We're Playing In Here?" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
January 7, 2023

For musicians, one consolatory by-product of lockdown was the chance to reappraise the archives, which led to a subsequent bonanza of deserving material reaching the marketplace. Whether that was the genesis of the limited edition LP We're Playing In Here? is a moot point, but this 2007 studio recording by the Gebhard Ullmann / Steve Swell Quartet certainly more than justifies release. It is the fourth album by what was a cracking band, although it actually predates the outfit's second ...

Radio & Podcasts

The Chicago Plan, Paul Williamson & Patricia Brennan

by Maurice Hogue
December 27, 2022

No point in looking for a roadmap for this edition of One Man's Jazz because it's all over the place. New releases come from the avant sounds of The Chicago Plan (Gebhard Ullmann, Steve Swell, Fred Lonberg-Holm & Michael Zerang), Norway's Andreas Røysum, vibraphonist Patricia Brennan and South Korean bassist Jeong Lim Yang. International groups presenting new music are Spain's Cuarteto Fuerte, Italian multi-reedist Filippo Orefice and Berlin-based Canadian transplant saxophonist Jonathan Lindhorst. There's much, much more. Enjoy!

Album Review

The Chicago Plan: For New Zealand

Read "For New Zealand" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
October 15, 2022

German reedman Gebhard Ullmann and American trombonist Steve Swell, front line comrades for over 15 years in a variety of outfits, reunite on For New Zealand for the second release from their joint led initiative The Chicago Plan. Rounding out the foursome and providing some allusion to the band's moniker are the Windy City pairing of drummer Michael Zerang and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm (although the latter decamped to Kingston, NY in 2017 following a 22-year stay). They share deeper connections ...

Radio & Podcasts

Gebhard Ullmann’s Das Kondensat, Reza Askari, David Murray, Albert Ayler & Gauci Music

by Maurice Hogue
June 22, 2022

The heavyweights are front and center this time out. You'll hear tracks from new releases by German multi-reedist Gebhard Ullmann & Das Kondensat, Stephen Gauci's Live At Scholes Street Studio series, David Murray's Brave New World Trio with Brandon Lopez and Hamid Drake, Daniel Carter & The Telepathic Band, Ingrid Laubrock and Andy Milne plus two excellent bassists from Germany--Reza Askari and Alex Bayer. All that's topped with some tracks from Albert Ayler's historical gem, Revelations. Playlist David ...

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Recording

The Ullmann/Swell 4 - News? No News! (Jazzwerkstatt)

Source: Master of a Small House
April 10, 2010

Finding chemistry in a frontline partner, let alone a band writ-large, is no easy task. German reedist/flautist Gebhard Ullmann has an uncanny knack for doing just that. His rewarding association with trombonist Steve Swell dates back over half a decade to a fateful quartet session for CIMP. Bassist Hilliard Greene and drummer Barry Altschul were the other members on that date and they bring a comparable acuity to this new studio outing. As a finely-tuned foursome they have a clear ...
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Recording

Ullmann|Swell 4 - News? No News! (2010)

Source: Something Else!
April 2, 2010

By PicoGerman woodwind wunderkind Gebhard Ullmann and New York-based trombone titlist Steve Swell may come from opposing sides of the Atlantic, but when the two get together to make music, they're in the same house of whack jazz. There are some 70 led or co-led albums between the two (including Swell's mind melting Particle Data Group with Gregg Bendian and Bruce Eisenbeil). Together, they make a highly charged quartet that adds Hilliard Greene on double bass and Barry ...
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111

Recording

New Album from the Ullmann-Swell Quartet is Good News for New Music Fans

Source: Braithwaite & Katz Communications
February 16, 2010

"The voice coming from The Ullmann/Swell Quartet is saying, 'Listen, feel, and become. Don't look back. This is MUSIC OF TODAY.'" --bassist William Parker

News? No News! (Jazzwerkstatt), the second release by the Gebhard Ullmann-Steve Swell quartet, charts the ongoing development of one of the most exciting working groups in jazz today. Reed player Ullmann, trombonist Swell, bassist Hilliard Greene, and drummer Barry Altschul play with go-for-broke energy, but they are far more than a free-jazz blowing band. The compositions ...
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117

Performance / Tour

A Melange of Jazz at Composers and Improvisers Festival

Source: All About Jazz
September 30, 2008

It had all the makings of a great musical event: virtuosity, passion, humor, drama and social commentary. All that was missing was a decent turnout at Saturday's Composers and Improvisers Festival in Middletown. The couple of dozen who did make it to the Oddfellows Playhouse were rewarded with nearly four hours of diverse and daring jazz-oriented explorations from four distinct creative sources. Joe Fonda, festival director and onetime Middletown resident, performed with Conference Call, a collaborative quartet that brought the ...
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