Conference Call

	michael jefry stevens	piano
	joe fonda	bass
	gebhard ullmann	sax
	han bennink	drums
	weitere Info's	www.gebhard-ullmann.com/cc.htm

conference call is a new quartet project featuring the exciting german woodwind virtuoso gebhard ullmann, the established piano/bass collaboration of michael jefry stevens and joe fonda (the fonda/stevens group) and the highly individual percussion stylings of master drummer matt wilson.
the quartet features original music from each member of the group and utilizes the distinctive improvisational and textural talents of each of the 4 members: gebhard ullmanns extensive woodwind palette (bass clarinet, bass flute, tenor and soprano sax), the textural and timbral virtuosity of drummer matt wilson, the organic and highly creative piano/bass interplay between joe fonda and michael jefry stevens. all these ingredients create a highly creative and unique variety of musical flavors.

michael jefry stevens pianist michael jefry stevens has performed a.o. with dave douglas, mark feldman, leo smith, gerry hemingway, cecil bridgewater, valery ponomarev, dominic duval, dave liebman and billy martin. a sampling of his discography includes the fonda/stevens group "evolution", "the equinox trio" feat. dominic duval and "haiku" feat violinist mark feldman (all on leo records)

joe fonda bassist/composer  joe fonda has been recording and touring over the last several years with anthony braxton and is featured bassist on numerous recordings with mr. braxton including the famed charlie parker project recordings as well as the piano quartet recordings with braxton on piano. he has performed a.o. with ken mcintyre, charlie persip, lou donaldson, perry robinson, kenny barron, leo smith, curtis fuller and chico hamilton. he recently recorded his first solo bass cd and has released numerous cds on the konnex label, leo records and music and arts.

han bennink drummer Drummer and multi-instrumentalist Han Bennink was born in Zaandam near Amsterdam in 1942. His first percussion instrument was a kitchen chair. In Holland in the 1960s, Bennink was quickly recognized as an uncommonly versatile drummer. As a hard swinger in the tradition of his hero Kenny Clarke.  Bennink attended art school in the 1960s, and is also a successful visual artist in several media, often constructing sculpture from found objects, which may include broken drum heads and sticks. He has designed the covers for many LPs and CDs on which he appears. Bennink is represented by Amsterdam's Galerie Espace, and has been the subject of several one-man shows, including one at the Gemeente Museum in the Hague in 1995. In 1966, Bennink played the US's Newport Jazz Festival with the Mengelberg quartet. From the late 1960s through the '70s Bennink collaborated frequently with Danish, German, English and Belgian musicians, notably saxophonists John Tchicai and Peter Brötzmann, guitarist Derek Bailey and pianist Fred van Hove. Bennink, Brötzmann and van Hove had a longstanding trio well documented on FMP Records. There Bennink also showcased his talents on clarinet, trombone, soprano saxophone and many other instruments, also featured in a series of solo albums he began in 1971. Bennink's many recordings from the 1980s include sessions with Mengelberg's ICP Orchestra (where he remains), South African bassist Harry Miller, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, trombonists Roswell Rudd and George Lewis, and big-bandleaders Sean Bergin and Andy Sheppard. From 1988 to'98 Bennink's main vehicle was Clusone 3, with saxophonist and clarinetist Michael Moore and cellist Ernst Reijseger, a band noted for its free-wheeling mix of swinging jazz standards, wide-open improvising, and tender ballads. Clusone played Europe and North America, West Africa, China, Vietnam and Australia, and recorded five CDs for Gramavision, hat Art and Ramboy.

gebhard ullmann sax Born in 1957 ullmann has recorded more than 20 cd's including kreuzberg park east and basement research (soul note), vancouver concert and clarinet trio, oct 1, '98 (leo rec) and tá lam (songlines recordings), which has been nominated best jazz cd of the year by the german schallplattenkritik. he received several awards for his work i.e. the "julius hemphill composition award" ('99), the deutsche phonoakademie award ('83), one of the first swf (german radio) jazz awards ('87), several awards from the city of berlin ('90's) and toured with his music europe as well as africa, australia, new zealand, the u.s., south east asia, canada ... since 1993 ullmann is a recording artist for soul note and commutes between new york and berlin. his releases for soul note, leo records and songlines have been widely critically acclaimed on both sides of the atlantic ocean and all been listed in the us- college-radio-jazz-charts. ullmann's working bands are: the new york quartet basement research (w. tony malaby, drew gress, phil haynes), the berlin woodwind / accordion ten-piece project tá lam zehn, the cooperative band conference call (w. michael 'jefry' stevens, joe fonda, matt wilson) and the clarinet trio (w. juergen kupke and theo nabicht). he also started a new trio series that includes his collaboration with the transitional erasers (w. herb robertson, frank moebus), a new york trio with chris dahlgren and jay rosen, bassx3 a trio with peter herbert and chris dahlgren on basses and g.u. on bassflute and bassclarinet as well as ullmann / bica / courvoisier (w. carlos bica and sylvie courvoisier). ullmann is also a member of the guenter lenz springtime, the hannes zerbe blechband and does appear in several programs with the actor otto sander.