as instruments go, the clarinet isn't all that much older than the saxophone (which was invented back about 1840), but while the latter became (thanks to jazz) the sound of the urban twentieth century, the clarinet remains for most folk the quintessential romantic wind instrument – think of the soaring lyricism of mozart, weber and mendelssohn, or the dark chalumeau register either mysterious or mischievous. the instrument's almost human vocal inflections became closely associated with the folk music of eastern europe, notably jewish, a tradition that fed itself into jazz through immigration to the usa (benny goodman, for example). In the heady days of free jazz the standard Bb clarinet couldn't compete with the ferocious tenors of coltrane, shepp and sanders – the few brave souls who explored the clarinet family preferred the bass (eric dolphy, later david murray) and contrabass (anthony braxton) instruments – but with the resurgence of interest in klezmer it's made a spectacular comeback in recent times, especially in downtown new york. the bass clarinet, since dolphy's pioneering work, has firmly established itself as a "legit" jazz instrument (modern masters abound: murray, john surman, ken vandermark..), but its wide melodic range and enormous potential for multiphonics and other extended techniques has also attracted the attention of literally hundreds of contemporary composers, thanks also to the indefatigable championship of virtuoso performers such as harry spaarnay. some happy souls have the best of both worlds, being able to interpret the contemporary repertoire with the required precision and blow jazz with wild abandon. You'll no doubt have heard of michel portal (whose recording of boulez's "domaines" thirty years ago still needs some beating), but how about gebhard ullmann, jürgen kupke and theo nabicht?

gebhard ullmann's clarinet trio made its first outing on leo a couple of years back, a breath of fresh air from the north recorded in a single day ("october 1, 1998", leo lab 058, 1999) which presented the three musicians' fluent virtuosity in a relaxed and immensely satisfying session. "translucent tones" reflects a similarly wide range of experiences and interests: ullmann has played at the folk and dance festival in Rudolstadt "with all kinds of archaic clarinets from russia, finland and the basque country" and, thanks to the time he's spent living in brooklyn, he's also had a healthy dose of klezmer.

It's rather rare these days to find musicians who still care about compositional craftsmanship, with a concern for pitch and keen ear for rhythm, melody and harmony – it seems most young improvisers today, especially wind players, are trying to get as far away as possible from traditional language and techniques, dedicating themselves instead to making their respective instruments sound like anything other than what they actually are: clarinets, saxophones, trumpets.. this is not to imply that i'm waging some kind of retro rearguard action to reinstate old-fashioned and outdated values – neither is gebhard ullmann (far from it: one only needs to listen to the opening minutes to realise that these three players have totally mastered the nuances of extended techniques), but the seventeen pieces on offer here, only two of which exceed five minutes in length, are more than happy to showcase the entire history of the clarinet and its repertoire, from the plaintive chorales of "blue trees and related objects" to the squeaks and flutters of the three "collective" improvisations. Don't be fooled either by the neoclassicism of a title such as "variations on a theme by erik satie": the all-too familiar theme of the first "gnossiène" is diced up and interspersed with some spectacular modernisms worthy of the cologne avant-garde ullmann grew up with.

the two "translucent tones" tracks, (part of one of ullmann's ongoing suites), "(up)" and "gestalt in three", clock in respectively at five and half and six and a half minutes and are good examples of his compositional approach. "I have a certain aesthetic when it comes to composed as opposed to improvised parts and I may use either in order to get a certain loose feeling or a certain colour. there's also, in "gestalt in three" a sense of what in literature (brecht) is called "verfremdungseffekt", using opposing things or very different parts in a particular order
or on top of each other (check the duo for two modified clarinets/bassclarinets played without mouthpieces).

similarly, "die zwei farben gehen" counterpoints an ebullient solo by kupke with the bass clarinets' rigorous intervallic workouts. The motoric "dreierlei", an older composition rearranged for this session, slots perfectly between "zwei farben" and the dolphyesque lyricism of ullmann's solo "gebhard". "almost twenty-eight", which like the earlier "blue trees" is also featured on ullmann's highly acclaimed "kreuzberg park east" album (soul note 12137 1-2, 1999) is another example of the delicate interplay throughout the album between what is written and what is improvised: in his modest way, ullmann has managed to do something rather extraordinary, namely make the whole debate between composition and improvisation pretty irrelevant, by creating music which either sounds improvised but in fact isn't ("almost twenty-eight" being a case in point: it's a 27-beat form of three lines using superimposed similar serial material) or which sounds as if it's fully scored when it isn't at all ("der ton a" is just what it says, a three-minute workout on one note, which could even fool you into thinking it was penned by giacinto scelsi if it didn't threaten to start seriously swinging about half way through – and if you think you can't swing on one note, think again.)

quite apart from his dazzling virtuosity as a player and composer (he cites stravinsky, messiaen and lutoslawki as influences), gebhard ullmann is an arranger of considerable subtlety and finesse. the muscular angularity of his big band kurt weill arrangements on "ta lam zehn - vancouver concert 2000" (leo, lr 290) were impressive enough, but his exquisite adaptations here of two delicious nino rota pieces from "il gattopardo" and "i clowns" ought to be transcribed and circulated amongst doctoral composition students the world over as shining examples of how to arrange complex music for just three instruments: ullmann knows his clarinets inside out and understands perfectly how to score his lines to take maximum advantage of their rich spectra.

I shouldn't however give the impression Ullmann is the only talented composer in the group: theo Nabicht's "anna" is a four minute rondo running the gamut of emotions from elegiac tenderness to cheeky swing, all the while skilfully juggling motives with contrapuntal mastery, while his "theo" is an impressively effervescent profile of the bass clarinet and all its moods (and those of the composer, one supposes). on a lighter note, hermann keller’s “animalische stimmen” which is the third movement of his “suite for clarinet trio” written especially for the group this year (to be performed on mouthpieces only) is a hoot – literally!

ullmann notes that the album "highlights the different approaches of the three players: theo nabicht (who comes from contemporary composition), jürgen kupke (who plays anything from new orleans to avant-garde) and my own approach, namely the wide field of what I consider jazz or improvised music to be, as well as my own compositional / conceptual work. we've gone some way towards finding our sound." quite some way, indeed, gebhard!