Gregory Uhlmann, Josh Johnson, Sam Wilkes - Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes. LP [Ltd. Concord Grape Vinyl]
Gregory Uhlmann, Josh Johnson, Sam Wilkes - Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes. LP [Ltd. Concord Grape Vinyl]
Limited Edition "Concord Grape" 140g color LP in heavyweight reverse-board jacket, with IARC 2025 obi strip & poly-lined inner sleeve. Pressed at Pallas in Germany, with lacquers cut by Elysian Masters.
'Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes' is the debut album from Gregory Uhlmann (SML, Anna Butterss, Duffy x Uhlmann, Perfume Genius), Josh Johnson (SML, Jeff Parker ETA IVtet & New Breed, Meshell Ndegeocello, Anna Butterss, Leon Bridges), and Sam Wilkes (Sam Gendel, Louis Cole, Chaka Khan).
The three improviser/arranger/producers’ impressive individual credits encompass such a wide stylistic pendulum swing that a collection of group music from the trio could mine any number of musical territories with masterful results. In these 11 instrumental songs, the trio explores a spacious lyrical curiosity that could be described as a jazz-informed take on progressive electro-acoustic chamber music.
Conceived during two live shows at ETA and a session at Uhlmann’s house in Los Angeles, the album maintains a focus on beauty, melody, and movement as the pieces unfold, with the trio pushing their instruments and highly-dialed effects to sculpt otherworldly sounds with the collective sensibility of a rhythm section. The ethos of these instant compositions is arrangement-minded improvisation that showcases the mournful beauty of Uhlmann’s fingerpicked electric guitar, the hybrid rhythm-lead of Wilkes’ bass chording, and the textural harmonic worldbuilding of Johnson’s effect-laden alto saxophone.
The trio’s explorations are rooted in more than just musicality, though. The arc of the group’s story is one of friendship and mutual admiration. Uhlmann and Johnson have known each other since their formative days as teenagers studying jazz. Shortly after first meeting in an educational setting, they would connect for nascent musical probing via low-stakes get-togethers back home in Chicago. They didn’t even know at the time that they had both taken lessons from a mutual guiding light – legendary guitarist/composer Jeff Parker.
After high school, they headed in separate directions – Johnson to Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana; Uhlmann to Cal Arts in Santa Clarita, California – but reconnected quickly upon migrating to LA, where shared opportunities for studio work as well as revolving-cast free improvisation at small clubs around the city naturally cemented their loose partnership. Uhlmann was both playing and programming, creating platforms for collaboration at the Bootleg Theater, while Johnson’s transition from student-of to collaborator-with Jeff Parker was well underway via their weekly gig at Highland Park’s ETA. In the immediate periphery of all of this was bassist Sam Wilkes, a serial collaborator well known in the LA creative music scene’s cross-pollination trenches.
Released March 14, 2025
Josh Johnson: saxophone + effects
Sam Wilkes: bass + effects
Gregory Uhlmann: guitar + effects
“Marvis” by Josh Johnson; “Unsure” by Sam Wilkes; “Arpy” by Gregory Uhlmann; “The Fool on the Hill” by Paul McCartney and John Lennon; all other songs by Josh Johnson, Sam Wilkes, and Gregory Uhlmann
“Frica” and “Rewinded” arranged by Josh Johnson; “Hoedown” arranged by Sam Wilkes
Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 11 engineered by Bryce Gonzalez at ETA (10/25/21 and 3/6/23)
Tracks 5, 6, 7, 9 engineered by Gregory Uhlmann (9/12/23 and 9/13/23)
Mixed by Josh Johnson, Sam Wilkes, and Gregory Uhlmann
Mastered by Dave Cooley
Art and layout by Sam Farzin
Additional layout by Aaron Lowell Denton
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