(Modern Creative / Contemporary Jazz) [WEB] Gebhard Ullmann (Thomas Klemm, Dirk Engelhardt, Jurgen Kupke, Joachim Litty, Heiner Reinhardt, Volker Schlott, Hans Hassler) - Ta Lam - 1998, FLAC (tracks), lossless

Music for saxes, flutes, clarinets, bass clarinet, and accordion by a truly original Berlin-based composer-performer and his colleagues. Echoes of tango, Oceanic panpipes, pygmy chants, township jive, gagaku, Turkish music, and Brecht-Weill cabaret are woven here and there through tonally rich ensembles that balance the rhythmic freedom of jazz and the structual rigour of 20th century classical forms. But file under jazz for the solos! This release collects the best music from Tá Lam's two German-only CDs - the first performed entirely by Ullmann (overdubbing himself on a panoply of saxes and woodwinds) with accordionist Hans Hassler, the second by his band (seven reed players and accordion).
“A real masterpiece” - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Gebhard Ullmann is one of the finest improvising artists in the world today” - Paul Bley
“A lovely sound - mellifluous, broadly harmonized and carefully deployed over the typically wide range of influences that make contemporary Euro-jazz seem so refreshing these days.”
- Mark Miller, The Globe and Mail
“His scores weave a wonderful dance for the ears... The groups's music is lushly orchestrated and engagingly melodic while being challengingly complex and entertainingly unpredictable.”
- Alexander Varty, Georgia Straight
“Musical ideas from his world travel inspire him to create sound-scapes for his passionate writing. This is mood music; sometimes happy, often sombre and occasionally pastoral but never less than stimulating. New Age meets the Avant Garde without too many abstract voicings.”
- David Lands, Jazz Journal International