Julia Hülsmann

Jazz pianist, composer, and vocalist Julia Hülsmann creates an intelligent, incisive brand of poetic, airy, artful, accessible jazz that balances the Nordic tradition, folk, pop, and contemporary classical. She has won tremendous critical respect in Europe. Her primary trio with bassist Marc Muellbauer and drummer Rainer Winch (eventually replaced by Heinrich Köbberling) issued Trio in 2003 and Scattering Poems, with vocalist Rebekka Bakken, the same year. Hülsmann moved to ECM in 2008 and issued The End of a Summer; she also co-led the quintet Fasil with guitarist Marc Sinan. Since 2013, she has periodically toured and recorded with a quartet that includes Berlin-based saxophonist Uli Kempendorff, recording albums such as Full View and 2014's provocative, globally acclaimed A Clear Midnight: Kurt Weill and America. She returned to the trio for Sooner and Later in 2016. Her quartet issued Not Far from Here in 2019 and The Next Door in 2022.