Ulrich Gumpert and
Günter Baby Sommer
La Paloma
What could be more wonderful than a musical dialogue between two of the old masters of contemporary European jazz? Without a doubt, that is precisely what the pianist Ulrich Gumpert and the drummer Günter Baby Sommer are: their collaboration has spanned almost five decades during which they have perfected their personal style, steadily developed it further and added new facets to it, often also following separate paths.
Their collaboration in the band SOK may be viewed as the birth of jazz rock in the GDR, and what they created together during their time with this band could certainly hold its own with the combination of jazz and rock that was called 'fusion' in the west. As founding members of the band Synopsis, later renamed to Zentralquartett, they also ensured the acceptance of free jazz by the GDR's official cultural policy makers via the circuitous route of international recognition.
The dialogue between these two artists has never ceased completely. Two people who no longer have to prove anything to anyone can give their thoughts musical wings, bounce ideas off each other and answer one another with the utmost familiarity. La Paloma is the duo's second CD. It is a mature interim stocktake of the careers of two unique musicians and the artistic result of a long-lasting friendship. The programme covers a wide spectrum, from blues to boogie-woogie, hard bop and German folk song arrangements to free jazz. Günter Baby Sommer's Drum Fills clearly illustrate why his nickname was inspired by Louis Armstrong's drummer Baby Dodds, whilst the piece Preussische Elegie reveals Ulrich Gumpert's genius as a composer.
