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Uwe Oberg
Gebhard Ullmann: New Conference Call
by John Eyles
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 ...
Continue ReadingNorbert Stein Pata Trio: Planetentochter
by Glenn Astarita
In the ever-expanding cosmos of European free jazz, Norbert Stein's Pata Trio arrives like a meteor--compact, unpredictable and tinged with pata-physical whimsy. Recorded in late 2024 in Cologne, the album runs just under 40 minutes across six tracks, a tightly plotted interstellar voyage led by Stein's tenor saxophone, alongside pianist Uwe Oberg and drummer Jörg Fischer. This bass-less lineup feels less like a constraint than an open field, allowing the music to hover in abstraction while grounding itself in Stein's ...
Continue ReadingNorbert Stein: Pata Kandinsky
by Glenn Astarita
Norbert Stein, a luminary of the European jazz scene, is celebrated for his ingenious compositions and distinctive approach to the genre. Central to Stein's musical philosophy is his “Pata" ideology, which draws from the surreal and abstract, blending whimsical, unorthodox elements with the essence of traditional jazz. As a saxophonist and composer based in Germany, Stein consistently pushes the boundaries of jazz through this unique fusion, establishing himself as a revered and influential artist in the global jazz community.
Continue ReadingUwe Oberg, Joe Fonda, Lucía Martínez: Relight
by John Sharpe
The presence of bassist Joe Fonda guarantees an outward bound listen which still has some foothold in conventional tonality. On Relight, he joins a multinational threesome completed by German pianist Uwe Oberg and Berlin-based Spanish drummer Lucía Martínez, which stakes its claim at the confluence of jazz and free improvisation, in a concert from the 2019 Just Music Festival in Wiesbaden. Fonda buys into the collective ethos, shared by Oberg and Martínez, which places as much emphasis on percussive textures ...
Continue ReadingOberg / Mahall / Griener: Lacy Pool_2
by Glenn Astarita
Pianist Uwe Oberg didn't follow a straight and narrow path when putting together this formidable European trio. There is no bassist, and Rudi Mahall performs solely on clarinets, as most listeners would expect a soprano saxophone to be the mainstay of any band that pays homage to the late, modern-era jazz pioneer Steve Lacy. More importantly, the band, including drummer Michael Griener, mold Lacy's works into their signature group-focused voice, yet duly adhere to his core rhythmic and melodic fundamentals, ...
Continue ReadingUwe Oberg, Frank Paul Schubert, Wilbert de Joode, Mark Sanders: Rope
by Alberto Bazzurro
Si è soliti definire l'improvvisazione senza rete, nelle sue manifestazioni più alte, come composizione istantanea, in tempo reale. Non è sempre così: ciò accade infatti quando chi abbraccia tale insidiosa pratica, intanto non dimentica mai questo assunto, cioè che trattasi di pratica insidiosa, da condurre con attenzione certosina e costante ascolto reciproco (salvo che l'improvvisatore non sia solitaria, nel qual caso le attenzioni devono comunque essere altre, non necessariamente meno stringenti), e poi che, conseguentemente o meno, i musicisti impegnati ...
Continue ReadingUwe Oberg - Frank Paul Schubert - Wilbert de Joode - Mark Sanders: Rope
by Glenn Astarita
These upper-echelon European improvisers offer a grab bag of tasty treats in front of an audience at the Festival Just Music in Wiesbaden, Germany. This 2015 performance consists of three works, but the 35-minute opener “Drifter," is a tour de force amid a macrocosm of delicate phrasings, succinct shadings, ethereal background treatments and scorching, climactically driven buildups. Essentially, they keep you on the edge. Frank Paul Schubert's darting and weaving soprano sax lines and pianist Uwe Oberg's multifaceted ...
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