(Avant-Garde Jazz, Modern Creative) Gebhard Ullmann, Chris Dahlgren, Art Lande - Die Blaue Nixe - 2006, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

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Die Blaue Nixe is one of those recordings that suspends time, almost daring you to enter its sound world. If you have the courage, or at least the desire, to have intimate contact with in-the-moment music, you'll be amply rewarded by the time spent with these three superb improvisers.
Gebhard Ullmann, who plays many reeds, has been concentrating on bass clarinet, tenor and soprano saxophone. For this recording, he assembled a trio featuring pianist Art Lande and bassist Chris Dahlgren as equals to explore his musical ideas. With his voracious mind and limitless curiosity, Ullmann brings an intensity and a sense of risk-taking to whatever project he embarks upon.
Ullmann always asks the listener to simply be present, to suspend a judgmental mind, and follow him where the music flows. His eclecticism should not be mistaken, however, for indecisiveness or wanton genre-hopping. His various projects, including the recently released and quite different Basement Research - Live In Munster, all share Ullmann's intensity of purpose and the joy of artistic creation.
The paradox of a jazz recording being an attempt to catch the wind, to freeze the ephemeral, seems particularly apt for Ullmann's music—which always has a strong spine on which it can simultaneously hang and drop. Now you hear it, now it's gone; this intense something changes space and time moment to moment, only to evaporate, leaving nothing but memory.
In describing the making of the record, Ullmann talks about getting together and rehearsing, but ending up recording entirely different music in a very special studio (which, I believe, is the same one used for Essencia). Ullmann, Lande and Dahlgren rehearsed to forget, and then played timeless music which allows you to forget yourself and just be, for an hour.
Lower the lights, put Die Blaue Nixe in your player, and allow this exquisitely recorded music of no-shape and no-mind to engulf you.
By BUDD KOPMAN, February 26, 2007
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This is the logical follow-up to Essencia even if Gebhard Ullmann completely revamped the trio that now featured Chris Dahlgren on bass and Art Lande on piano. The program consists of a series of collective improvisations and solos that rarely raise the intensity level and can fall either in the ballad or tone poem category. The music can, however, be described as quiet with an edge, and the trio still manages to cover a lot of ground and to proceed in multiple directions. In fact, what prevent the music from getting monotonous are the various approaches and techniques the musicians use. They also play with economy and elevate the concept of less is more. Dahlgren's and Lande's playing can be spare but is always pertinent. While the session can qualify as chamber jazz, there is no doubt that Ullmann's deep tenor sound harkens back to the jazz tradition. On the other hand, when the pianist reaches inside the piano to pluck or gently hammer the strings, or when the bassist resorts to preparations, they clearly foray into free improvisation. Ultimately, Die Blaue Nixe defies categorization. Mystery and depth are the only overarching qualities of a recording that rewards patience and presents yet another side of the multifaceted Ullmann.
by Alain Drouot
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this is improvised music of the most engaging sort: spare, ethereal sounds that seem as if they've existed forever, lurking in the shadows, waiting for ullmann and company to give them voice.die blaue nixe, along with the simutaneously released 'live in munster' (not two, 2007), are part of a year-long launching of ullmann's fiftieth birthday.
i haven't heard the latter, but the former is an understated, beguiling beginning of the celebration: gorgeously haunting music, like the songs of serene, beatific ghosts. "
dan mcclenaghan, allaboutjazz
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these fifteen pieces beg, no, demand your attention, as they all are paced at a snail's locomotion. this fascinating concept for improvisation allows for valuable space and makes for wonderful sound. dahlgren's acoustic bass comes across with all the tactile feel of his wood and strings. likewise, the beauty that is ullmann's bass clarinet and the hesitant touch of lande's piano also conveys an all-too-human feel. it may be rare these days, but this recording requires you to adjust the pace of your day to accompany the music."
mark carroto, allabout jazz
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"Water nymphs are know from ancient legends as female beings, who live in water and bring death through their beauty and song or at least prophesy ruin and depravation - usually of men. The "Blue Water Nymph" of the international trio also casts a spell on listeners, but proclaims enjoyment of outstanding and fascinating music.
The composer and saxophonist Gebhard Ullmann born in Bad Godesberg in 1957 has lived in Berlin since 1983. He conquered the world from there and in the meantime is one of a handful of German musicians, who are perhaps better known in the USA than in their native country. The list of musicians, with whom he has recorded or played, is almost infinite: from Paul Bley, Han Bennink, Bob Moses, Trilok Gurtu, Bobby Previte to Willem Breuker and Enrico Rava - and lots more. He plays in several projects and tours internationally several times a year. His trio with Chris Dahlgren and Art Lande has existed for years and developed its own character, which is far different from the music of Ullmann's other bands, e.g., "Conference Call".
The bassist and composer Chris Dahlgren, born in New York in 1961, studied under Anthony Braxton and Dave Holland, among others. He is one of the most skilled bassists of our time and is also a teacher in high demand (at the Berlin Music College Hanns Eisler) and composer.
Art Lande (1947, New York) is one of the most creative pianists of the past 30 years. His earlier ECM records are unforgettable, among others with Jan Garbarek, Gary Peacock, Mark Isham, but also his current CDs with Nguyen Le.
The music on the "Blue Water Nymph" takes listeners off into another world. Sometimes charged with tension and yet always completely relaxed, the three musicians play and develop motifs, which provoke strong images in the minds of listeners. You can hear in the pieces that most of them were developed by the collaboration of the three musicians. The perfect interaction of the musicians is impressive, and the music entices listeners with its great charisma emanating from the improvisations interlinked with the compositions similar to the attractions of water nymphs."

Gebhard Ullmann - bassclarinet, soprano & tenorsaxophones, ocarinas, toys
Art Lande - piano, toys
Chris Dahlgren - double bass & preparations, toys