ELBJAZZ 2019
Julia Hülsmann – Artist in Residence

This song is a poem by Walt Whitman I set to music, with the wonderful Theo Bleckmann on vocals. The image of a spider standing alone on a promontory, comprehending the magnitude of the universe, continuing to weave its webs nevertheless, and through that establishing connections.

This track is from our first ECM release in 2008. For me, the song represents the conclusion of a personal experience and, at the same time, the beginning of something new, with a sense of calm and great openness. As with all other trio and quartet recordings, it features Marc Muellbauer on bass and Heinrich Köbberling on drums.

This song is dedicated to the jazz pianist Jutta Hipp, who was very famous in Germany in the 1950s. She made the big move to America, where she was the first German woman to release an LP on Blue Note.

An amazing song by Radiohead, one of my favourite bands. Very simple, yet sophisticated. That is something I’m always looking for: the kind of simplicity that can open unexpected doors.

A song to remember the Hamburg musician Roger Cicero. In 2006, we released a CD on ACT together featuring Emily Dickinson poems I had set to music. A wonderful collaboration with a great musician who was taken from us far too young.

Theo Bleckmann, with whom we’ll be presenting our Beatles programme in the Elbphilharmonie, sings Brecht/Weill. In a very different version to the original, of course. Tom Arthurs is also there on the trumpet. Theo and I wrote this arrangement shortly before our concert at Moers Jazz Festival in 2014.

At that time I decided to cover the song because I think this song is a great composition. But I also wanted to change it and reduce it to what's important to me.

This song is a poem by Walt Whitman I set to music, with the wonderful Theo Bleckmann on vocals.