Uli Kempendorff’s Field
FIELD is the quartet of the Berliner saxophonist Uli Kempendorff. Until the fall of 2012 the group was still named the Uli Kempendorff Quartet and had been working together under that name for a number of years which also saw the releases of two recordings ("Out With It", 2007 on phonector and "Louise", 2010 on JazzHausMusik, Cologne).

Field plays compositions written by its leader, which draw from of a whole variety of musical influences and inspriations. There is no concept behind the songs - in the course of a concert or even a song the group will oscillate between concentration and frolicking like a pack of young dogs on the loose. The band manages to capture the rambunctious energy of the vital Berlin Jazz Szene and projects it with a vibe that has humor and sincerity, freshness and intensity.

Our current record "Let Me Go With You" was released on the Swiss label Unit Records.

Uli Kempendorff
is a saxophonist and clarinetist from Berlin. He has studied music in Berlin ("Hanns Eisler" AoM) and New York (CCNY). He can be heard on sixteen CDs and LPs as a leader, co-leader and sideman, as well as on numerous radio broadcasts and productions ( (WDR, BR, NDR, rbb, mdr).

His work to date suggests a broad interest in music and different musical situations. He plays and has playedmusic based on microtonal spectral-analysis with Benjamin Weidekamp's quartet, Jazz with Ulrich Gumpert, Rolf Kühn, Rudi Mahall, Jimmy Scott, Christian Weber and Julia Hülsmann, Alternative Country with Yellow Bird, Reaggae and Dancehall with Seeed, Cree-Canadian Cabaret with Tomson Highway, has even been on long tours with Danish singer Gitte Haenning and occasionally plays in Robert Wilson's productions at the Berliner Ensemble Theater in Berlin.

Kempendorff has produced, composed and published three CDs with his quartet FIELD, which received the Studio Award of the Berlin Senate in 2015. With Field (with Ronny Graupe, Jonas Westergaard and Oliver Steidle), he regularly plays concerts in Germany, Switzerland and even in Turkey, at the International Jazz Festival in Izmir, 2014. 2014 he was also artist-in-residence of the Albert-Koechlin-Foundation at the Stadtmühle Willisau in Switzerland. In 2007 he was one of the awardees of the JazzConcour International in Fribourg, Switzerland; he has won Studio and Project Awards of the Berlin Senate (by himself and as part of a collective) in 2004, 2011, 2012 and 2014.

In 2014, he gave a workshop on Wagner's Ring in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, by invitation of the German Academic Exchange Service. In 2015 he conducted Berlin's All-State Youth Jazz Orchestra during their Spring Workshop with music by Duke Ellington.

Kempendorff has, among others, played at EuroJazz in Mexico City, the Fusion Festival in MeckPomm, dem Musikfest in Thaya (Austria), Beautiful Days in England, Discover Jazz in Burlington, VT, at JazzFest Berlin, JazzTage Leipzig, Planet IndigenUs in Toronto, WDR Jazztage in Cologne and at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

From 2010-14 he was in charge (joined by Kathrin Pechlof and Christian Weidner in 2013) of the "Serious Series", a concert series for good music at the Senatsreservespeicher (now at UferStudios).

2011-2014 he was also the head of IG Jazz Berlin and as such a member of the Koalition der Freien Szene and quite involved in the cultural politics of Berlin, with a focus on its independent scene.

In his free time, Kempendorff likes to read. He's convinced that music is the gateway and the path to a better and more beautiful world.