Conny Bauer

Zentralquartett

Conny Bauer (tb), Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky (sax, cl), Ulrich Gumpert (p), Günter „Baby” Sommer (dr)

photo: Anne Silbereisen, Gutzeit-Musik

Both the present and past live within Zentralquartett’s music. With their instruments, four musical personalities speak for themselves, having helped both fashion developments and put them into motion. Formed in 1973, they were originally called Synopsis. By the end of the seventies they had already made their mark on the international improvisation scene and earned a solid, recognized position in the GDR jazz scene. Then all four went their separate ways, none of them losing sight of one another however. A GDR Jazz Weekend in Paris in May 1984, organized by Conny Bauer, lead to the production of the LP Günter Sommer et Trois Vieux Amis: Ascenseur Pour Le 28 and the formation of a new quartet, the Zentralquartett.

The music is distinguished by a longstanding experience, both together and as soloists, of perfect assurance in improvised interaction, and is still ripe for musical surprises. It’s impressive how they create fantastic soundscapes time and again, steeped in wit and irony and performed with refreshing joy.

Ulrich Gumpert

Ulrich Gumpert (born 1945 in Jena) is a pianist, organist and composer living in Berlin. He has played in diverse bands since the late sixties, with Klaus Lenz as well as in SOK and Synopsis, and in a trio with Rado Malfatti and Tony Oxley. He has also toured with, amongst others, Steve Lacy, John Tchicai and Peter Brötzmann. He has written music for theatre, radio plays and TV (the successful German detective series Tatort) and is currently active in various ensembles including the Ulrich Gumpert Quartet, B3 Spezial, Zentralquartett and the Ulrich Gumpert Workshop Band. In 2005 he was awarded the Albert Mangelsdorff Prize.

Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky

Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky (born 1933 in Güstrow) is saxophonist, flutist, clarinettist as well as composer and author. Since the fifties he has played in various formations such as the Manfred- Ludwig-Sextet, SOK, the Gumpert Workshop Band, the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, the ensembles Günter Lenz Springtime and European Jazz Ensemble, as well as the Tony Oxley Celebration Orchestra and Globe Unity Orchestra. Additionally he also performs with artists such as Dorothy Ellison, Ruth Hohmann, Klaus Koch and works with Joachim Kühn and Uschi Brünning in his New Old Luten Trio. He was awarded the former GDR’s Art Prize and together with Christian Lillinger and Elan Pauer, Petrowsky the National Prize. In 1997 he was awarded the Albert Mangelsdorff Prize.

Günter Baby Sommer

Günter Baby Sommer (born 1943 in Dresden) studied drumming in Dresden and is one of the most high-profile international drummers and percussionists alive today. He has performed with musicians such as Peter Brötzmann, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Peter Kowald , Evan Parker and Cecil Taylor. Sommer has been an important component in Ernst-Ludwig Petrowksy’s trio, the group Synopsis - that eventually became Zentralquartett, the Ulrich Gumpert Workshop Band and the Kowald-Smith-Sommer-Trio. He is currently active both as a solo musician and in diverse ensembles such as the Wadada Leo Smith & Günter Baby Duo, the Baby Sommer Quartet and the Günter Baby Sommer French Connection. Sommer’s solo playing awakened him to collaborations with authors such as Günter Grass and Rafik Schami. In addition, he has since 1995 been a professor at the Dresden University of Music.

Conny Bauer (born 1943 in Halle an der Saale), is one of Europe’s most significant trombonists. Since the start of the 70’s he has been a founding member of numerous groups such as Exis, FEZ, Konrad Bauer Quartet, Bauer Sommer Kowald Trio, Doppelmoppel, Zentralquartett as well as the initiator of the big band Klangprojekt 86.
Bauer gave his debut solo trombone concert in 1974. To date he has recorded six CD albums of his solo music. His playing can be described as virtuoso, technically perfect and sophisticated – and yet always remains in a sense ‘unfinished’, in that his work constantly exploring and developing new means of expression.

“If Old Friends stand as a sort of summation of West German jazz, then Conny Bauer, Ulrich Gumpert, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky und Günter Sommer embody something like the greatest common denominator of East German improvisation…”
rk, Jazzthing, Nov 01/Jan 02

“Uli Gumpert, p, Konrad Bauer, tb, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, reeds, und Baby Sommer, dr, have developed an individual style like no-one else in Germany, one that casually combines folk elements with both free and traditional jazz. The four of them constantly tease, even when delivering sober, weighty solos [...] Zentralquartett sees four individualists become, as Bert Noglik writes in the liner notes, a ‘musically conspirative union’.”
Reiner Kobe, Jazzpodium, Stuttgart, November 2001

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