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ARTIST
TITLE
Coffee and Berries
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
ESPDISK 5108CD ESPDISK 5108CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
7/17/2026

This album is part of two ESP-Disk' initiatives. The one that came first is the idea of teaming up artists who haven't worked together before. In this case, longtime collaborators Ullmann and Swell play with a rhythm section new to Ullmann: Morris and Downs. And, this is another ESP release featuring Charles Downs. The senior member of the trio, he is also known to jazz aficionados as Rashid Bakr, the name he used while drumming in various Cecil Taylor groups, Ensemble Muntu, and Other Dimensions in Music, to name a few. Around the time this album was recorded, ESP also teamed him with violist Melanie Dyer and pianist Megumi Yonezawa. Joe Morris, guitarist and bassist, studied with ESP-Disk' legend Lowell Davidson. Morris formed his first trio in 1977 and began his recording career in 1983, with well over 50 albums as a leader and many more as a collaborator, including albums on ESP-Disk' under his own name and with Flow Trio, Fay Victor's SoundNoiseFUNK, and a guitar duo with Elliott Sharp. The pre-eminent avant-jazz trombonist, Steve Swell has been an active member of the NYC music community since 1975. He has toured and recorded with diverse jazz personalities from Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich to Anthony Braxton and Cecil Taylor. This is his first appearance on ESP. Gebhard Ullmann is a composer and woodwind virtuoso based in Berlin, Germany. He has released more than 70 CDs as a leader or co-leader and is considered one of Europe's finest improvising musicians, as well as a heavyweight composer of chamber and orchestra music. All music recorded live in the studio and instant-composed by the musicians on June 13, 2024 at Park West Studios, Brooklyn, NY.

"Few improvising artists can boast the stream of creative ideas that seem to bubble from Gebhard Ullmann. Ullmann focuses on the fundamentals of improvised jazz: melody, sound, syncopation and technical excellence, but what makes his writing and playing so successful is his seemingly never-ending innovative nature: without grasping for neoteric straws, Ullmann's performances are grounded in the past but plunge forward deliberately toward modernity. Ullmann leaves the strong mark of a disciplined sculptor of sound, who speaks his own compelling language." --Steve Loewy, Cadence