JULIA HÜLSMANN QUARTET

UNDER THE SURFACE

ECM Records

Julia Hülsmann, piano; Marc Muellbauer, double bass; Heinrich Köbberling, drums. Uli Kempendorff, tenor saxophone; Hildegunn Øiseth, trumpet/goat horn.

I have to admit, this is the first time I ever saw a jazz musician listed as playing the goat horn. Hildegunn Øiseth is a trumpeter and goat horn player on this project. I find myself intrigued.  As the first tune slides across my listening room, I recognize it as a mix of contemporary classical music and Jazz. The band leader, German pianist, Julia Hülsmann, has added a trumpeter and goat horn player to the quartet’s personnel. The goat horn player is female. Wouldn’t that make this a quintet, or a quartet with a special guest?

Born July 1968, in Bonn, West Germany, Hülsmann began music lessons at age eleven. Both of her parents were pianists. She followed suit. Like most teens, Julia embraced pop music with favorites like Sting and Randy Newman.  Her piano teacher introduced her to jazz with artists like Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Miles Davis and Michael Brecker. She moved to Berlin for a while, earning a degree in Jazz piano at the Berlin University of the Arts.  In 1996, after graduating, Julia formed a trio with bassist Marc Muellbauer and drummer Rainer Winch.  In 2000, the determined female pianist studied Jazz in New York.

Surprisingly, her first album release featured a Norwegian singer, Rebekka Bakken, where Hülsmann composed some songs for the singer and accompanied Bakken with her trio. This was a mostly Pop album titled, “Scattering Poems.”

In 2008 Hülsmann signed with ECM record label and recorded “The End of Summer” reuniting with Marc Muellbauer on bass and her current drummer (Heinrich Köbberling) returning to a trio format. Around 2013, she added a trumpeter, becoming a quartet. She has always kept her current bassist and drummer close during the fluctuation from trio to quartet, to quintet. Then she traded the trumpeter for a tenor saxophonist, Uli Kempendorff featured on this album.

I enjoyed the female trumpeter soloing on “The Earth Below” a Hülsmann original.  I wish I knew what a goat horn sounded like.  I looked on the album liner notes, but it doesn’t tell me on which tune the goat horn is played. I’m disappointed in that. Was that a goat horn on “Nevergreen?”

With this new release, compositions like “They Stumble, They Walk” show a more centered, jazz influenced ensemble, still with strong European classical roots feeding Julia Hülsmann’s blossoming original music. Also, “Milkweed Monarch” quickly became one of my favorite tunes, where Muellbauer’s wonderful bass solo soaks up the spotlight, and Kempendorff’s tenor saxophone flies like a busy bird putting the ‘J’ in Jazz. I also found the title tune to be quite beautiful.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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