Trois Gymnopedies

On the present release, a jazz musician, pianist, and composer plays Erik Satie. Born in 1945, Ulrich Gumpert first began piano lessons with his father before going on to study in Weimar where he majored in French horn. Beginning in 1967 he performed in various bands with Klaus Lenz, and in 1971 co-founded the jazz rock group SOK. That same year he founded SYNOPSIS, from which the ZENTRALQUARTETT emerged in 1984. Ulrich Gumpert has developed an idiosyncratic personal style by using the experience of jazz and European music history in an original way. "Gumpert, who as a person never pushes himself to the fore, is also characterized by his modest reserve on his instrument. Without becoming particularly loud, particularly weird or particularly fast, he has found his very own tone: lyrical, warm, substantial, to the point. A quiet giant of German jazz." (Jazzclub Tonne)