Twelve + 1 Murals by Philipp Gerschlauer

Philipp Gerschlauer | Gebhard Ullmann

Twelve + 1 Murals

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Between The Lines
UPC: 0608917125221
Catnr: BTLCHR 71252
Release date: 26 April 2024
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Label
Between The Lines

UPC
0608917125221

Catalogue number
BTLCHR 71252

Release date
26 April 2024

"... Philipp Gerschlauer and Gebhard Ullmann not only invite us on an intellectual adventure, but also present us with the sounds of their instruments as we have never heard them before..."

jazz-fun, 26-4-2024

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

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About the album

"Intermediate tones are only cramps in class struggle," the folksinger/songwriter with left-wing politics Franz-Josef Degenhardt once criticized.

The two saxophonists Philipp Gerschlauer and Gebhard Ullmann see this very differently. They even deal in detail with the realm of microtones on "Twelve 1 Murals". Gerschlauer entered the cosmos of microtones in 2017 on the album "Mikrojazz" with David Fiuczynski, Jack DeJohnette, Giorgi Mikadze and Matt Garrison, and Gebhard Ullmann plays in the band Mikropuls with Hans Lüdemann, Oliver Potratz and Eric Schaefer; the album under the same name was released in 2019. The common musical interests of Gerschlauer and Ullmann led to a collaboration that began a few years ago, however was slightly slowed down by Corona. "For me, Philipp is one of the best alto saxophonists in Berlin," Ullmann states enthusiastically about his co-musician. "During the first Covid year we tried out microphones and positions to achieve an optimal recording result for a saxophone duo." Thus an album was produced, and when mastering the sound engineer said: ‘This is one of the best recordings I ever heard’.

We can now listen to it in the 13 pieces of "Twelve 1 Murals", which obviously have something to do with murals. "This is an association aid," says Ullmann, "not only for us, but also for the audience. Because at our concerts, we don't just talk about music, but also about philosophy, history and art."

Many people do not know that there are other tones between the tones of the scale we know (in other music cultures this is of course different – a wide field). The duo focuses on this among other things.

Although it is easy to understand that there is still space between the frets on the finger-board of a string instrument, it is more difficult for saxophonists. "You actually choose an instrument by feeling because you love the sound," Ullmann explains. "Then you get taught which keys to press to produce the different notes. However, Philipp can also se-lectively control many tones between 'c' and 'c#'. We have both developed fingering charts for this, and many instrument makers can modify the saxophones accordingly to-day.
Originally I wanted to find different sounds on the tenor saxophone, more colors. For Mikropuls, I combined this with the normal functional harmony. For example there is a microtonal version of 'Freedom Jazz Dance'."

Nevertheless, this advanced duo project sounds very accessible on "Twelve 1 Murals"; the music is of a peculiar beauty and exudes a mysterious charm. It has nothing to do with an intellectual mind game. "For many organizers in jazz and also for some audienc-es, brainy music is pretty much the worst thing you can say about music," Gebhard Ullmann states. "For us, however, the concept is not intellectual at all. Instead it comes directly from what we feel. For me, first it was simply the desire to find my own sound on tenor by playing some notes a little higher or lower. The sounds change with different harmonics, lip pressure or alternate fingerings or by working with bended tones."

The intuitive approach that their music has is very important to Philipp and Gebhard. It is not aimed at supposed know-it-alls, but at an audience that is open to music by a listen and feel approach.
"The music is directly accessible through listening, you don't have to know anything about microtonality," Gebhard Ullmann says "If you want to deal with the topic more de-tailed, you are free to do so."

The only thing a well-disposed listener needs for "Twelve 1 Murals" are open ears.
Perhaps even Franz-Josef Degenhardt, who was by no means as coarse as the opening quotation sounds, would have liked it.

„Zwischentöne sind nur Krampf im Klassenkampf“, polterte einst Polit-Barde Franz-Josef Degenhardt. Das sehen die beiden Saxofonisten Philipp Gerschlauer und Gebhard Ullmann ganz anders. Auf „Twelve + 1 Murals“ beschäftigen sie sich sogar ausführlich mit dem Reich der Mikrotöne. Gerschlauer hat sich auf dem Album „Mikrojazz“ mit David Fiuczynski, Jack DeJohnette, Giorgi Mikadze und Matt Garrison 2017 ins Reich der Zwischentöne begeben, Gebhard Ullmann betreibt die Band Mikropuls mit Hans Lüdemann, Oliver Potratz und Eric Schaefer, das gleichnamige Album erschien 2019. Die gemein-samen musikalischen Interessen resultierten bei Gerschlauer und Ullmann dann in einer Zusammenarbeit, die schon vor einigen Jahren begann - leicht gebremst durch Corona. „Für mich ist Philipp einer der besten Berliner Altsaxofonisten“, schwärmt Ullmann über seinen Kollegen „Wir haben ein Jahr lang Mikrofone und Aufstellungen ausprobiert, um zu einem optimalen Aufnahme-Ergebnis für ein Saxofon-Duo zu kommen.“ Also musste ein Album her, ein befreundeter Toningenieur befand die von den beiden Musikern verantworteten Aufnahmen für nicht mehr verbesserungsfähig. Diese Aufnahmen hören wir nun in den 13 Stücken auf „Twelve + 1 Murals“, die durchaus auch etwas mit Wandgemälden zu tun haben sollen. „Das ist eine Assoziationshilfe“, erzählt Ullmann, „und zwar nicht nur für uns, sondern auch fürs Publikum. Denn bei unseren Konzerten reden wir nicht nur über Musik, sondern auch über Philosophie, Geschichte und Kunst.“ Viele Leute wissen gar nicht, dass es zwischen den Tönen der bei uns bekannten Tonleiter noch weitere Töne gibt (in anderen Musikkulturen ist das selbstverständlich - ein weites Feld) und auch darauf will das Duo aufmerksam machen. Nun ist es bei einem Saiteninstrument leicht nachzuvollziehen, dass zwischen den Fingern auf dem Griffbrett noch Platz ist, Saxofonisten haben es da schwerer. „Man entscheidet sich für ein Instrument eigentlich über den Bauch, weil man den Klang gut findet“, führt Ullmann aus. „Also kriegt man beigebracht, wie man die Töne greift. Philipp kann aber auch viele Töne zwischen ‚c‘ und ‚cis‘ gezielt ansteuern. Wir haben beide auch Grifftabellen dafür entwickelt, viele Instrumentenbauer können die Saxofone heute entsprechend modifizieren. Mir ging es darum, andere Klänge auf dem Tenorsaxofon zu finden, mehr Farben. Bei Mikropuls habe ich das mit der normalen Funktionsharmonik kombiniert - auf der Platte zum Beispiel mit einer mikrotonalen Fassung des ‚Freedom Jazz Dance‘.“ Das abenteuerlich erscheinende Duo-Projekt klingt auf „Twelve + 1 Murals“ allerdings sehr zugänglich - die Musik ist von einer eigentümlichen Schönheit und strahlt einen mysteriösen Reiz aus. Mit einer rein intellektuellen Kopfgeburt hat sie nichts zu tun. „Kopfig ist für viele Veranstalter und auch für das Publikum so ziemlich das Schlimmste, was man Musikern nach-sagen kann“, weiß auch Gebhard Ullmann. „Für uns ist das Konzept aber gar nicht kopfig, sondern es kommt eben auch aus dem Bauch. Zumindest bei mir war es einfach der Wunsch, auf dem Tenorsaxofon einen eigenen Sound zu finden, indem ich manche Töne etwas höher oder tiefer gespielt, über Obertöne, Ansatz oder Griffe laufen den Klang verändert oder mit gezogenen Tönen gearbeitet habe.“ Das gutturale Gefühl aus dem Bauch, das ihre Musik haben soll, ist dem Duo sehr wichtig. Sie richtet sich nicht an die Oberschlaumeier, die immer nur das Allerneuste gelten lassen, sondern an ein Publikum, das sich unvoreingenommen auf Musik einlässt. „Die Musik erschließt sich unmittelbar über das Hören - über Mikrotonalität muss man gar nichts wissen“, findet auch Gebhard Ullmann. „Wenn man sich dann eingehender mit dem Thema beschäftigen will, kann man das ja tun.“ Das einzige, was der geneigte Hörer also für „Twelve + 1 Murals“ braucht, sind offene Ohren. Vielleicht hätte die Musik Franz-Josef Degenhardt, der bei weitem nicht so grob war, wie das Eingangszitat klingt, sogar gefallen.

Artist(s)

Gebhard Ullmann (tenor saxophone)

„Gebhard Ullmann is one of the finest improvising artists in the world today“ (Paul Bley) Born on november 2, 1957 in Bad Godesberg, German saxophonist (tenor and soprano), bass clarinetist, bass flutist and composer Gebhard Ullmann studied medecine and music in Hamburg and moved to Berlin in 1983. Since then he has recorded 65 CDs as a leader or co-leader for prestigious labels such as Soul Note (Italy), Leo Records (UK), Between The Lines (Germany), CIMP (USA), NotTwo Records (Poland), Clean Feed (Portugal) Intuition Records (Germany), WhyPlayJazz (Germany) and others. For many years he is considered one of the leading personalities in both the Berlin and international music scenes and has received numerous awards for his work including the Julius Hemphill Composition Award...

„Gebhard Ullmann is one of the finest improvising artists in the world today“ (Paul Bley)

Born on november 2, 1957 in Bad Godesberg, German saxophonist (tenor and soprano), bass clarinetist, bass flutist and composer Gebhard Ullmann studied medecine and music in Hamburg and moved to Berlin in 1983.
Since then he has recorded 65 CDs as a leader or co-leader for prestigious labels such as Soul Note (Italy), Leo Records (UK), Between The Lines (Germany), CIMP (USA), NotTwo Records (Poland), Clean Feed (Portugal) Intuition Records (Germany), WhyPlayJazz (Germany) and others.

For many years he is considered one of the leading personalities in both the Berlin and international music scenes and has received numerous awards for his work including the Julius Hemphill Composition Award in two categories ('99), the Deutsche Phonoakademie award ('83 together with Andreas Willers), the SWF Jazz Award ('87 again together with Willers) the first Berlin Jazz Award (2017) and the German Jazz Award in the category woodwinds (2022). His CD Tá Lam was nominated best-jazz-CD-of-the-year in 1995 and the CD Silver White Archives best-crossing-borders-CD-of-the-year in 2014 by the German Schallplattenkritik.

His CDs Final Answer (2002) The Bigband Project (2004) New Basement Research (2008) News? No News! (2010) Mingus! (2011) Clarinet Trio 4 (2012) Hat And Shoes (2017) were all listed in Downbeat Magazine among the best CDs of those years. The CD Transatlantic received the prestigious Choc of the French Jazz Magazine in 2012.

Since 2005 Gebhard Ullmann was listed in the Downbeat Critics Poll, 2015 for the first time in three categories.

Since 1993 Ullmann was a recording artist for Soul Note and has been living in New York City and Berlin. He has toured with his music throughout Europe as well as Africa, the Middle East, Canada, New Zealand, the USA, South East Asia, Mexico and China and performed on most of the world's most prestigious jazz festivals.

During the 80's Gebhard Ullmann was a leading force in the musicians' organisation JazzFront Berlin. Since the mid 90's he had a teaching assignment for saxofone and ensemble at the University of Music Hanns Eisler in Berlin for 10 years. He also holds master classes at universities worldwide.
From 2014 - 2018 he was the head of the German Jazz Musicians' Union.

Ullmann's working bands are the transatlantic projects'The Chicago Plan' and 'Conference Call', the Berlin based 'Clarinet Trio', the electro acoustic trio 'Das Kondensat', the worldwide first quarter-tone-piano-quartet 'mikroPULS', the electro/acoustic sextet 'GULFH of Berlin' and the new multi-genre and multi-generational 'The Hemisphere Project'.

He is a member of the 'Hannes Zerbe Jazz Orchestra', the projects of guitarist 'Scott DuBois' and the 'Satoko Fujii Berlin Orchestra'.
He also currently works on a new Solo Project.

As a composer Gebhard Ullmann wrote for different chamber music ensembles including two string quartets, several solo pieces for woodwind instruments and violin and a 61-minute series for piano solo entitled 'Impromptus und Interationen', that was recorded in 2023 by Vitalii Kyianytsia and will be released in 2024.
He also composed several larger works for classical orchestra and a new score for the movie 'Berliner Stilleben' from 1929 by László Moholy-Nagy for the BuJazzO plus Choir as part of the project 'Klingende Utopien - 100 Jahre Bauhaus'.
2020 he published the Orchestersuite No.1, 2021 his first symphony entitled 'Symphonische Verwebungen for Orchestra, Voice, Piano and Percussion' and 2022 the 21-minute work 'Tá Lam For Large Orchestra'.
His compositions are distributed by the Universal Edition, Vienna.

Ullmann recorded or performed with Paul Bley, Andy Emler, Steve Swell, Han Bennink, Satoko Fujii, William Parker, Barry Altschul, Herb Robertson, Marvin Smitty Smith, Laurent Cugny, Ellery Eskelin, Bob Moses, Keith Tippett, Frank Gratkowski, Michael Zerang, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Sergeij Starostin, Tiger Okoshi, Bobby Previte, Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky, Glen Moore, Trilok Gurtu, Ab Baars, Andreas Willers, Lauren Newton, Andrew Cyrille, Sylvie Courvoisier, Frank Möbus, Lee Konitz, Alexander v. Schlippenbach, Benoit Achiary, Willem Breuker, Carlos Bica, Enrico Rava, Rita Marcotulli, Bob Stewart, Dieter Glawischnig, Tony Malaby, Günther Lenz, Drew Gress, Michael Rabinowitz, Matt Wilson, Ivo Papasov, the Ensemble Percussion de Guinee, Tyshawn Sorey, Karl Berger, Mark Helias, Gerry Hemingway, Joe Fonda, Michael Stevens, George Schuller, the European Radioorchestra, spoken word artist Sadiq Bey, the actor Otto Sander and many musicians from the Berlin scene as well as many others.

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Philipp Gerschlauer (alto saxophone)

Philipp Gerschlauer is a saxophonist, composer and musical thinker. He is a pioneer in combining microtonal elements and jazz. He has divided the octave into 128 notes on the saxophone and in his compositions. Besides playing, he teaches clinics at universities around the globe. Philipp Gerschlauer is considered to be one of the leading microtonal saxophonists in the world. In order to develop a microtonal organ and to conquer new territory, in 2018 he began to learn the church organ. He now performs concerts in which he plays saxophone and organ simultaneously. He has published a fingering chart for saxophone which includes around 600 microtonal fingerings. His talent was recognized early on and while he was at school he was accepted to study classical...

Philipp Gerschlauer is a saxophonist, composer and musical thinker. He is a pioneer in combining microtonal elements and jazz. He has divided the octave into 128 notes on the saxophone and in his compositions. Besides playing, he teaches clinics at universities around the globe. Philipp Gerschlauer is considered to be one of the leading microtonal saxophonists in the world.
In order to develop a microtonal organ and to conquer new territory, in 2018 he began to learn the church organ. He now performs concerts in which he plays saxophone and organ simultaneously. He has published a fingering chart for saxophone which includes around 600 microtonal fingerings.
His talent was recognized early on and while he was at school he was accepted to study classical saxophone at the Music University of Frankfurt/Main at the age of 16. He graduated from the Jazzinstitut Berlin and moved to New York City to complete his master´s degree at the New York University. As bandleader he has recorded several CDs with his band Besaxung, which was followed by "Miꓘrojazz - neue eXpressionistische Musik" (David Fiuczynski, Jack DeJohnette, Matt Garrison, Giorgi Mikadze / RareNoise Records). This record was internationally widely acclaimed and voted the 2nd best jazz album in 2017 by "The New York City Jazz Record". He received scholarships from the German National Academic Foundation, the German Student Exchange Service (DAAD), the New York University and the German Research Center in Venice (3 months).
He is a faculty member of the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna (MUK) and the University of Applied Science Osnabrück.

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Composer(s)

Gebhard Ullmann (tenor saxophone)

„Gebhard Ullmann is one of the finest improvising artists in the world today“ (Paul Bley)

Since 2005 Gebhard Ullmann was listed in the Downbeat Critics Poll, 2015 for the first time in three categories.

He is a member of the 'Hannes Zerbe Jazz Orchestra', the projects of guitarist 'Scott DuBois' and the 'Satoko Fujii Berlin Orchestra'.
He also currently works on a new Solo Project.

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Philipp Gerschlauer (alto saxophone)

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Press

... Philipp Gerschlauer and Gebhard Ullmann not only invite us on an intellectual adventure, but also present us with the sounds of their instruments as we have never heard them before...
jazz-fun, 26-4-2024