Someone Talked

For the last decade German jazz saxophonist and composer Uli Kempendorff has been an invaluable fixture on the Berlin jazz scene, quietly but steadily honing his own sound in countless contexts.

In 2012 the band Field evolved from his first group, the Uli Kempendorff Quartet, becoming the first vehicle to truly reflect his erudition and curiosity. The band's first two albums are superb, but they didn't quite attain the approach Kempendorff had been searching for, so at the end of 2017, he remade the lineup, replacing original guitarist Ronny Grauper and drummer Oli Steidle with vibraphonist Christopher Dell and drummer Peter Bruun.

What makes Someone Talked such a visceral, thrilling listening experience is that all four members push each other, collegiality, to infuse a delicious tension into performances distinguished by constant give-and-take and quicksilver alterations.