Reconfiguring the long-running Conference Call quartet with pianist Uwe Oberg alongside tenor saxophonist Gebhard Ullmann, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer/bugler Dieter Ulrich, this first New Conference Call release moves through intricate compositions, spacious collective improvisation and volatile free-jazz exchanges, including tributes to Joe Maneri, Ornette Coleman and Jim Pepper.
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Sample The Album:
Gebhard Ullmann-tenor saxophone
Uwe Oberg-piano
Joe Fonda-upright bass
Dieter Ulrich-drums, bugle
Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.
UPC: 0752156106524
Label: ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd
Catalog ID: ezz-thetics 1065
Squidco Product Code: 36909
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2025
Country: Switzerland
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded in Wiesbaden, Germany, at �art.ist�, on May 7th, 2023, by Moritz Reinisch.
Recasting the long-running transatlantic quartet Conference Call with Wiesbaden pianist Uwe Oberg replacing Michael Jefry Stevens, New Conference Call brings together tenor saxophonist Gebhard Ullmann, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Dieter Ulrich for a renewed exploration of composed and freely developing contemporary jazz. Recorded in Wiesbaden in 2023, the album draws on more than two decades of shared history between Ullmann, Fonda and the Conference Call project while allowing Oberg's forceful, harmonically open piano language to redirect the ensemble into fresh territory.
The eight-piece program moves between spacious collective improvisation, intricate post-bop structures and passages of volatile free interplay. Oberg's expansive "Elastic Joy" establishes the quartet's conversational method, with ideas passed fluidly among piano, saxophone, bass and drums rather than arranged around a fixed sequence of solos. Fonda's "You Failed Us" introduces a more urgent and politically charged intensity, while Ullmann's compositions balance sharply defined melodic cells with flexible structures that encourage the musicians to reshape the material in real time.
Several works acknowledge important figures in creative music, including "Maneri-sms - for Joe," "To Be Ornette To Be - for Ornette" and "Salt And Pepper - for Jim," connecting the quartet's contemporary language to the legacies of Joe Maneri, Ornette Coleman and Jim Pepper. Throughout, Ullmann's richly textured tenor, Oberg's percussive and lyrical piano, Fonda's resonant bass and Ulrich's responsive drumming create music that can be tightly organized one moment and completely open the next. Ulrich also adds bugle, widening the group's palette and reinforcing the album's sense of discovery.
More than a simple personnel change, New Conference Call documents the regeneration of an established ensemble: preserving its collective memory while finding new balances, new tensions and new possibilities for collaborative expression.
"The music of the cooperative quartet New Conference Call is more than just music, it provides a dynamic extension of the jazz and improvised music past into uncharted areas of collaborative memory and indiividual self-expression."-Art Lange
"Conference Call can be as balanced and beautiful as an intricate organism, and just as soon rage with holy fire. The quartet perpetually weaves in all three dimensions, as well as in time-its own, and music history's. Together since the late '90s, the group is going strong, burning away but losing no energy, relating jazz past and political past to hard and fast present moments-and spiriting these, in turn, into a future history-forging sound new documents bound to have permanent place in the history of music. Whether that sound is a cry from the streets, a cry of a people, or the cry of a sole saxophone, Conference Call captures it, reporting straight from the scene of stage or studio. After 10 CD releases and more than 20 tours on both sides of the Atlantic ocean Conference Call was considered by many one of the leading working units in contemporary jazz. (from a review).
In 2021, when Uwe Oberg replaced Michael Stevens during the COVID lockdown, the band was renamed New Conference Call."-Gebhard Ullman website
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Gebhard Ullmann "Born on November 2, 1957 in Bad Godesberg, Germany 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 more than 50 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) Unit Records (Switzerland) 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), one of the first SWF Jazz Awards ('87) and the nomination best-jazz-CD-of-the-year by the German Schallplattenkritik for his CD Tá Lam in 1995. His CDs Final Answer (2002) The Bigband Project (2004) New Basement Research (2008) News? No News! (2010) Mingus! (2011) Clarinet Trio 4 (2012) 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 is 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." ^ Hide Bio for Gebhard Ullmann • Show Bio for Uwe Oberg "Uwe Oberg *1962 Offenbach / Germany, lives in Wiesbaden nearby Frankfurt. He started playing piano at the age of seven, moved in the early 80s from popular music to Jazz and joined in 1986 the KOOPERATIVE NEW JAZZ / ARTist Wiesbaden, an association of improvising musicians. Improvisation is the keyword for his work. Impressed by Free Jazz and New Music, he developed exceptional piano techniques; influences are Thelonious Monk, Paul Bley, Cecil Taylor, Don Pullen, Ran Blake, Andrew Hill, the music of Anthony Braxton, the early piano compositions of John Cage as well as european free improvisation. He is also a composer and a highly individual interpret of Jazz-compositions. He works in various musical contexts: as a soloist he bends the bow from inside piano to the music of Monk. With LACY POOL he dives into the music of Steve Lacy, the duo with SILKE EBERHARD plays originals as well as music by Carla Bley, Annette Peacock a.o. ROPE is an improvising quartet with european line-up. Whatever Oberg plays, he transforms each material in his very personal, twinkling sound without musical borders. Beside fixed projects he enjoys the improvised encounter with musicians from different styles and cultures. He often played in combination with other artforms, theatre / dance / lyrics, currently mainly with silent films, as a soloist and with ensembles. Cooperation with: ALFRED HARTH, PETER KOWALD, XU FENGXIA, MATTHIAS SCHUBERT, PHILIPPE MICOL, JÜRGEN WUCHNER, ULI PHILLIPP, TONY OXLEY, SVEN-AKE JOHANSSON, RUDI MAHALL, HR JAZZENSEMBLE, HEINZ SAUER, URS LEIMGRUBER, SAADET TÜRKÖZ, SUBROTO ROY CHAUDHURI, PAUL LOVENS, AXEL DÖRNER, FRANK GRATKOWSKI, EVAN PARKER a.m.o. In December 2007 Oberg got the award HESSISCHER JAZZPREIS. Laudatio by Dr. Wolfram Knauer (in German Language)" ^ Hide Bio for Uwe Oberg • Show Bio for Joe Fonda "Joe Fonda is a composer, bassist, recording artist, interdisciplinary performer, producer and educator. An accomplished international Jazz artist, Fonda has performed with his own ensembles throughout the United States ,Canada , Europe and Asia. He has collaborated and performed with such artists as Anthony Braxton ,Archie Shepp, Ken McIntyre, Lou Donaldson, Bill and Kenny Barron, Leo Smith, Perry Robinson, Dave Douglas, Curtis Fuller, , Bill Dixon, Han Bennink, Bobby Naughton, Xu Fengia, Randy Weston, Gebhard Ullmann, Carla Bley, Carlo Zingaro, Barry Altschul, Billy Bang. Fonda was the bassist with the renowned Anthony Braxton sextet, octet, tentet, from 1984 through 1999. Fonda also sat on the Board of Directors from 1994 to 1999, and was the President from 1997 to 1999 of the newly formed Tri-Centric Foundation. He has also performed with the 38-piece Tri-Centric orchestra under the direction of Anthony Braxton, and was the bassist for the premiere performance of Anthony Braxton's opera, Shalla Fears for the Poor, performed at the John Jay Theater in New York, New York, October 1996. As a composer, Fonda has been the recipient of numerous grants and commissions From Meet the Composer New York and the New England Foundation on the Arts . He has released twelve recordings under his own name. (Reviews and recordings available). Fonda was also a member of The Creative Musicians Improvisors Forum directed by Leo Smith, and was the bassist with the American Tap Dance Orchestra in New York City, directed by world renowned tap dancer, Brenda Bufalino. In 1989, Fonda performed with Fred Ho's Jazz and Peking opera in its world premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. From 1982 to 1986 Fonda was the bassist and dancer with the Sonomama Dance Company. An independent producer since 1978, Fonda is the founding director of Kaleidoscope Arts an interdisciplinary performance ensemble and is the producer and musicial director for the Connecticut Composers and improvisors Festival from 2001 to 2011. Currently Fonda has been recording and touring extensively with the Fonda-Stevens Group, Conference Call , The Fab Trio, The Nu Band and Bottoms Out , with performances at the Bim huis in Amsterdam, Holland, Prague Jazz Festival, Czech Republic, Jazz Halo Festival, Belgium, Jazz Festival Thurinsen, Weimer, Germany, Berlin Jazz Festival Berlin Germany , Jazz Im Agusto Festival Lisbon Portugal, Natt Jazz Festival Bergen Norway, The Vision Festival New York, New York, Jazz and More Festival Sibiu Romania, Bakau Jazz Festival ,Azerbijan, Tondela Jazz Festival Tondala portugal , Vancouver Jazz Festival ,Vancouver Canada, Guelph Jazz Festival ,Guelph Canada . Two of Fonda's most recent projects are From the Source, The Off Road Quartet. From the Source is a group that incorporates the tap dancing and poetry of Brenda Bufalino and the healing arts of Vicki Dodd, and four jazz musicians. The group has released their first CD entitled, Joe Fonda and From the Source, on Konnex Records. The Off Road Quartet is comprised of four musicians from four different countries. Ux Fengia from Beijing China , Carlos Zingaro from Lisbon Portugal , Lucas Niggle from Zurich Switzerland and Joe Fonda New York USA. The Off Road Quartet blends the musics from all four of these musicians cultures into a unique musicial and visual experence." ^ Hide Bio for Joe Fonda • Show Bio for Dieter Ulrich "Dieter Ulrich (12 October 1958 in Zurich) is a Swiss jazz and free improvisation musician (percussion, flugelhorn) and art historian. Ulrich had piano lessons from Irma Schaichet from 1965 to 1980. He learned also playing percussion by self study from 1972. He played at first in several bands with Harald Haerter. In 1988, he played with his own quintet in the Jazz Festival Zurich. He participated also in Daniel Mouthon's projects. He was a member of the trio AfroGarage with Christoph Baumann and Jacques Siron and appeared in many international festivals." ^ Hide Bio for Dieter Ulrich
7/28/2026
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
7/28/2026
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
7/28/2026
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
7/28/2026
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
1. Elastic Joy 10:48
2. Quiet Call 02:55
3. You Falled Us 09:38
4. Structures No. 2 05:21
5. Maneri-sms - for Joe 05:36
6. To Be Ornette To Be - for Ornette 05:00
7. May The Flowers Bloom Again 04:05
8. Salt And Pepper - for Jim 05:22
In Stock, Not Yet Cataloged
July 2026
Hat Art
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Quartet Recordings
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