In 2002, the Peter Fulda Trio released The Nightmind on JAZZ’n’ARTS RECORDS featuring Bill Elgart on drums, Henning Sieverts on bass, and band leader-composer Fulda on piano.
Peter Fulda and Henning Sieverts join Bill Elgart on fourteen tracks including “Soldaten,” “The Next Last Wave,” “Tarot Suite #12 Hanged Man,” “Meyrinck,” “Sermon Song,” “Bilboko Argiaka,” “Nachtfalter,” “Echolot,” “Mondvogel,” “The Unhappy Harpy,” “Frankenstein Moving,” “Engeltjes,” “Geistchen,” and “Libysches Glas.”
The album, recorded 22 December 2000 at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg, Germany, was produced by Peter Fulda.
Peter Fulda comments on “The Next Last Wave,” in the liner notes in the CD booklet:
“The Next Last Wave has its root in a short story that I wrote as a teenager (something like an adolescent disorder): a post-apocalyptic romantic love scene on a beach at midnight. Using the dark colors of D minor and a constantly descending root-progression, it tries to catch a mix of despair, hope, and security in loneliness. The title alludes to several things….”
Another version of the Peter Fulda original composition was also recorded in 2000 by Charlie Mariano for his Not Quite a Ballad album released three years later, the first time it was done for a quartet and symphony orchestra.
Around 2001, the trio played Peter Fulda’s composition “The Next Last Wave” live, with Bill Elgart on drums and Henning Sieverts on bass:
The Nightmind is the first of three albums the noted jazz musicians have made together between 2002 and 2008.
This includes their follow-up as a trio the next year, Little Box Of Sea-Wonders, again released on Germany’s JAZZ ‘n’ ARTS RECORDS label and Peter Fulda’s 8 Rituals album.
The last installment of their trilogy also features guitarist Dirk Mündelein and Roland Neff, who plays vibes, marimba, and percussion. The Konnex Records release is available in CD and digital format.
Peter Fulda on “Bilboko Argiaka,” in the liner notes in the CD booklet:
“Bilboko Argiaka (Basque) reflects the haunting atmosphere of circling on a plane over Bilbao at night: empty but brightly lit industrial areas, the dark ocean on the horizon. Debussy’s (still underrated) renewals of rhythm had a slight influence on the organization of meter in this tune…”
A live version of the Peter Fulda Trio performing “Bilboko Argiaka,” the sixth track from The Nightmind, is online:
Bill Elgart, an American expatriate residing in Western Europe since the mid-1970s, and Henning Sieverts, a native of Germany, have performed together on numerous occasions in recent years. They have also made at least five albums.
In fact, the same year The Nightmind was recorded, Bill Elgart and Henning Sieverts also did a track on Alison Welles and Geoff Goodman Songs of Charles Ives and Other American Songs, an album released by Musikverlag H. Burger & M. Müller.
In 2011, Geoff Goodman, Bill Elgart, and Henning Sieverts returned to the studio to record Goodman’s Jazz + Haiku album. The CD and digital download from Double Moon Records also has Kiyomi doing recitation, Till Martin on saxophone and clarinet, and Fjoralba Turku on vocals.
Peter Fulda recalls composing “The Unhappy Harpy,” in the CD liner notes:
“I wrote The Unhappy Harpy at the end of a commercial engagement on the island of Borkum [in Germany]. Reminiscences of Frescobaldi’s harmonies give a somewhat unusual flavour to the simple blues-changes. The harpy is a figure of Greek mythology: an evil and unpredictable bird with an old hag’s head. I imagine the harpy crouching on a branch (at night, of course), shaking its feathers, shifting from one leg to the other and preparing for its repulsive mission.”
A live performance of Peter Fulda’s “The Unhappy Harpy,” a composition found on both The Nightmind and Little Box of Sea-Wonders, is here:
At this time, it seems the three live tracks above are the only tracks from the debut album of the Peter Fulda Trio online. The album is currently available in CD and digital format from JAZZ ‘n’ ARTS RECORDS.
More Music from the Artists
Peter Fulda
From 1988 to 1992, composer-pianist Peter Fulda studied jazz piano with Chris Beier at Hermann-Zilcher-Konservatorium Würzburg. Later, he completed a composition course at Cologne Musikhochschule. Fulda has also studied the tabla with Sajal Karmakar from 2000 to 2008.
Peter Fulda has released albums under his own name as well as doing arrangements and compositions on albums by other artists including Benny Bailey, Jerry Bergonzi, Charlie Mariano, and Céline Rudolph. When not performing or recording, Fulda is a lecturer for composition and arrangement at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt.
On 2 February 2013, Peter Fulda played piano at a European Brazil Project concert of Egberto Gismonti’s play “Frevo,” with Hans Fickelscher on drums, Bodek Janke on percussion, Franco Petrocca on bass, Matthias Schriefl on trumpet, and Silke Straub on vocals:
Bill Elgart and Henning Sieverts, with Alison Welles and Geoff Goodman
Alison Welles and Geoff Goodman Songs of Charles Ives and Other American Songs, an album dedicated to the legendary American composer, includes “Thoreau,” a piece by Ives that uses passages from Henry David Thoreau’s 1854 book Walden.
“Thoreau” showcases Geoff Goodman on guitar, Alison Welles on vocals, Bill Elgart on drums, and Henning Sieverts on bass.
A video for “Thoreau” is on YouTube:
Bill Elgart and Henning Sieverts, with Geoff Goodman’s Curiosities of Nature
A live performance of “Heard Not Seen,” a non-LP track from the players on Geoff Goodman’s Jazz + Haiku album, was recorded in May 2011.
The video features Goodman on guitar, Bill Elgart on drums, Henning Sieverts on bass, Kiyomi, and Fjoralba Turku on vocals, with Ulrich Wangenheim on saxophone replacing Till Martin from the original lineup on the album:
Geoff Goodman’s “Heard Not Seen,” performed by the Curiosities of Nature is online:
A Final Live Track from the Peter Fulda Trio
In addition to “The Next Last Wave,” “Bilboko Argiaka,” and “The Unhappy Harpy,” the Peter Fulda Trio played two more tracks at the same concert, “Schneeland” and “Solar.”
“Solar,” featuring Peter Fulda on piano, Bill Elgart on drums, and Henning Sieverts on bass is here:
Bill's Blue Note 