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Long Way Home

by Uli Geissendoerfer Trio

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1.
2.
3.
Urban Cowboy 07:04
4.
Uli Geissendoerfer – Piano Dave Ostrem – bass Angelo Stokes – drums
5.
Monk's Mouse 04:46
6.
Be Still 04:11
7.
5-67 05:35
8.
9.

about

Uli Geissendoerfer – Piano, Rhodes, Wurlitzer, synths
Dave Ostrem – bass
Angelo Stokes – drums
Special guest:
Ryan Rose – drums on “5-67”

Uli Geissendoerfer, German-American pianist, composer, and arranger is a unique and remarkable musician adept in many styles with an emphasis on world music, jazz, and improvisation.

There’s indeed a multiplicity to this man, who is able to work, with skill, at the highest level, and with various formats and forms of musicians and groups. He has performed with renowned artists such as Tito Puente, Blood Sweat & Tears, Cirque du Soliel, and others. His projects include his quartet featuring Charles McNeal, his Quintet “Colors” a World Jazz Quintet, the Beregovsky Project, a duo with fabulous award winning violin virtuoso Alicia Svigals and Bangalore Breakdown (first release “Diary”), an Indian World Jazz project featuring Premik Russell Tubbs. As a film composer, Uli composed together with Emmy nominated composer Steve Sandberg the critically acclaimed short film, Climbing Miss Sophie, winner of the NYU Film Festival 2002, and invited to Sundance Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival among other prestigious festivals worldwide. Together with Nicole Renaud they are featured on three releases of cartoonist Bill Plympton. In 2011 Uli was awarded best sound design at the 48-hour film festival and last year one of his and Nicole’s songs, Red, made it onto short list for the Academy Awards.

In 2009, he moved to Las Vegas where he was the conductor, pianist and bandleader with the Cirque du Soleil production “Viva Elvis.” He resurrected the Latin Jazz Ensemble at UNLV which won Downbeat Awards in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 taking 1st place in 2015. Aside from initiating a lecture series at the university, serving as curator for the Steinway Concert Series, he also founded the “Jazz Club at the Dispensary Lounge” (winning Best of Las Vegas) which is in its 5th year having been graced by luminaries such as Wynton Marsalis, Scott Henderson, and others.

Long Way Home, is Uli’s trio album that he notes, quite appropriately, has been “a long time coming.” The project was honed with his regular gig at the Dispensary Lounge, in which he was accompanied by back up jazz singers and soloists. Throughout these performances, his trio has crafted a plush, beautiful sound, which we heard in spades. With Dave Ostrem on acoustic bass, and Angelos Stokes on drums, Long Way Home is a unique and virtuosic journey for the listener that bridges the gap between many different flavors of jazz, non-Western, and improvised musics, while also paying beautiful homage to some of the most important pop musicians of the twentieth century.

The album opens with a colorful arrangement of The Beatles’ Here Comes The Sun. That Uli can take a familiar tune and render a fresh perspective showcases his vividness as an arranger and composer. Originally written for Uli’s quintet, this Beatles tribute features a complex 13/8 time ostinato motive that becomes the backdrop for this ubiquitous rock and roll song. Long Way Home, the title track for the album, which Uli dedicates to his mother, is a meditative and pulsing creation in which we hear elements of Uli’s introspection, and even his growth as a musician, as this serious and studious number unfolds with well-placed solos and space.

In Urban Cowboy, the trio displays its breadth of style with this expanded blues that takes on a life with a sustained and even provocative bass riff, and grows with verve throughout. The next two tracks are more retrospective: Sudden Moment is the very first jazz tune that the pianist ever wrote, a testament to his precocious nature. Monk's Mouse is a respectful and honest tribute to Thelonius Monk -- who, as Uli says, influenced him as a young musician. Indeed, Monk’s musicianship has influenced a legion of pianists, but rarely do we hear such an extraordinary tribute of disciple to his inspiration. Uli achieves renders the ideal homage, evoking elements of Monk the master, while also creating a piece that sparkles with novelty.

5-67 features special guest drummer Ryan Rose. This track, with a meter in 7, takes its title from the bass groove; drummer Ryan expertly brings a Brazilian flavor to the tune. Be still is an intimate and touching tribute - this time, to Uli's son: it was written originally just for the left hand, while the pianist held his then three-month-old son on his other arm. It’s almost as if we we hear a young father whispering to his son through emotive touch and musicality.

The group fashions their own take on a standard: You and The Night and The Music is usually played with a medium swing feel, but here the group plays it with a slower and more mysterious vibe, while the contrasting bridge offers a brief moment of the classic swing iteration of the tune. The album ends with two more tributes to The Beatles: Come Together and Blackbird. These tracks take the two iconic tunes to mixed metered places, at once toeing the delicate balancing act between innovation and homage. Performed live and recorded in-studio in one fell swoop, these two tracks end the album with depth and grace.

I listen to many albums every year. And I have to say, this one is a cut above the rest. Long Way Home is an out-and-out dazzler.

Kabir Sehgal
Multi-GRAMMY & Latin GRAMMY Award winning producer

credits

released August 13, 2018

Photography: Ed Foster and Umberto D’Aniello
Recording, mixing and mastering: Josh Connolly at “The Hide Out” Henderson, NV
The Piano: Thank you Denise and Lisa Wunderlich @ Southern Nevada Music for donating this great “D” for the recording

Tom Dolan at QRS: Thanks for all your help with the Trio

Thanks for the great drum set: Taxi @ Canopus Drums

Doug Douglass thank you for your support.

A dedication to Ilona Jekat. You saw the Trio live more than once. Thank you for you great energy and enriching spirit. We miss you.

all songs ©copyright Dripping House Publishing except #1,8,9,10

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Uli Geissendoerfer Las Vegas, Nevada

German-American pianist, composer& educator Uli Geissendoerfer moved in 2009 from New York to Las Vegas as bandleader for Cirque du Soleil’s "Viva Elvis".
In 2012 he founded the Jazz Club at the Dispensary Lounge (winning Best of Las Vegas), serves as curator for the Steinway Concert Series and teaches at UNLV and NSA. In 2018 he founded Vegas Records to promote the local Jazz scene.
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