Featuring:
Julia Hülsmann - piano
Heinrich Köbberling - drums
Robert Landfermann - bass

German pianist Julia Hülsmann brings a subtle touch to reinvigorating the idea of the jazz standard even as she is equally at ease deploying her own confident compositions. Not content simply to return to the standards of years past, she has given deft tonal rebirth to such contemporary pop mainstays as Seal’s “Kiss from a Rose” and Feist’s “The Water.” Yet in collaboration, she has also shown her respect for the sources of jazz’s traditional melodies, taking on (with singer Theo Bleckmann) the legacy of Kurt Weill’s famous and forgotten compositions on the 2015 album A Clear Midnight: Kurt Weill In America. In all settings, Hülsmann creates spaces for her piano to engage with and rebound from bass and drums. Whether from her own pen, the pages of a master, or the sounds of the present day, Hülsmann expresses herself with assertive playing and a willingness to improvise sparingly but with nuance.