TROIS GYMNOPÉDIES

A jazz musician - pianist and composer - plays Erik Satie. His stations: SOK, Synopsis, the internationally celebrated festival Gumpert workshop band, the duo with Günter Sommer; the trio with Radu Malfatti and Tony Oxley. Gumpert performing in a duo with Dietmar Diesner and Gumpert solo, playing his own piano music - plain pieces of deep urge. It seems as if Gumpert inevitably had to come to Satie. It is not scores which are the essence of Satie's music but his attitudes. A pianist who feels stränge with Satie's nature, can play the pieces key by key from the score and though disfigure them past recognition. l can't name any musician who is more able to play the early works of Erik Satie, than Ulrich Gumpert.