Dennis Mitcheltree & Johannes Wallmann

Harry Browne
Johannes Wallmann (left) and Dennis Mitcheltree.
Johannes Wallmann (left) and Dennis Mitcheltree.
Los Angeles-based saxophonist and composer Dennis Mitcheltree and pianist Johannes Wallmann (the Peterson Chair in Jazz Studies at UW-Madison) first started collaborating more than two decades ago when both were players in the New York City jazz scene. That long shared history comes through clearly on their new album, Holding Space, which features new songs by both as well as improvisations, recorded at Hamel Music Center in 2023. It’s out Feb. 7 via Shifting Paradigm. Tickets at brownpapertickets.com. (Note; Mitcheltree and Wallmann also play a quartet show at 4 p.m. on Feb. 7 at the UW Memorial Union.)
media release: Arts + Literature Laboratory welcomes tenor saxophonist Dennis Mitcheltree and pianist Johannes Wallmann for an evening of music on Sunday, February 9, 2025 at 7:00pm, to celebrate the release of their new album, Holding Space. Tickets $15 general admission or $10 student/ALL Member in advance online. Advance tickets available online at Brown Paper Tickets. General admission at the door $20 for everyone.
Tenor saxophonist Dennis Mitcheltree (Los Angeles) and pianist Johannes Wallmann (Madison, WI) are celebrating the release of their new album, Holding Space (Shifting Paradigm Records on February 7, 2025) with a tour of duet performances. Holding Space is an intimate musical conversation between two friends and longtime musical collaborators. Drawing on a near-telepathic chemistry that Mitcheltree and Wallmann have honed over almost three decades, Holding Space was recorded in July 2023 at the Hamel Music Center in Madison, Wisconsin, following a run of duo concerts. Both musicians being accomplished composers, the album consists entirely of Mitcheltree and Wallmann’s original tunes — most of which were newly written for the occasion — interspersed with a few spontaneous improvisations. Their current tour will feature music from the album, as well as new compositions.
Mitcheltree and Wallmann are long-term veterans of the New York jazz scene, where their musical partnership originated in the late 1990’s. The saxophonist, on a recommendation by pianist Jim McNeely, recruited Wallmann to join his quartet, which was about to embark on a two-week tour of the Midwest. The two immediately hit it off, and twenty-seven years later, Mitcheltree and Wallmann’s collaborations span six quartet tours of the U.S., two duo and quartet tours of Germany, countless other performances in venues throughout North America, three albums led by Mitcheltree (including his 2022 release Golden Rule) and Wallmann’s 2015 album Love Wins, as well as many joint educational and festival workshops throughout the U.S.
More on the album;
Tenor saxophonist Dennis Mitcheltree (Los Angeles) and pianist Johannes Wallmann (Madison, WI) are releasing a new album on Shifting Paradigm Records on February 7, 2025. Holding Space is an intimate musical conversation between two friends and longtime musical collaborators. Drawing on a near-telepathic chemistry that they have honed over almost three decades, Holding Space was recorded in July 2023 at the Hamel Music Center in Madison, WI, following a run of duo concerts. Both musicians being accomplished composers, the album consists entirely of original tunes — most of which were newly written for the occasion — interspersed with a few spontaneous improvisations. On three pieces, they are joined to good effect by Milwaukee trumpeter Russ Johnson.
All three are long-term veterans of the New York jazz scene, and Mitcheltree and Wallmann’s musical partnership originates in the New York of the late 1990’s, when the saxophonist, on a recommendation by pianist Jim McNeely, recruited Wallmann to join his quartet which was about to embark on a tour of the Midwest. The two immediately hit it off, and twenty-seven years later, Mitcheltree and Wallmann’s collaborations span six quartet tours of the U.S., two duo and quartet tours of Germany, countless other performances in venues throughout North America, three albums led by Mitcheltree (including his 2022 release Golden Rule) and Wallmann’s 2015 album Love Wins.
Saxophonist Dennis Mitcheltree was born and raised in Wisconsin, picking up the oboe and saxophone at age 12. He studied at Berklee College of Music, before moving to New York City in 1987 where he became a mainstay of the jazz scene, relocating to Los Angeles in 2007. He has performed and recorded with many masters of the jazz world including Clark Terry, Billy Taylor, George Cables, Bill Holman, Bob Moses, Jim McNeely, Howard Johnson, Gary Bartz, Kenny Werner, John Clayton, and Bruce Forman along with contemporaries Uri Caine, Ingrid Jensen, Andy Milne and David Binney. He appeared on the 2024 Grammy-nominated ‘Best Album’ from Janelle Monae, The Age Of Pleasure. Mitcheltree recently released his 6th album as a leader, Golden Rule. Critics have described Mitcheltree’s playing as “soulful, swinging, and street smart” (Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide) and “aggressively adventurous and most expressive” (Nancy Ann Lee, Jazz Times), and Jared Donze (Iowa City Icon) called him “a master storyteller with the tenor sax.”
Pianist Johannes Wallmann has recorded ten critically acclaimed albums as a leader and co-leads the band Precarious Towers. His latest album as leader was named a “Best of 2022 Album” by Something Else! and a “Best of Bandcamp, June 2022” album. DownBeat Magazine has called Wallmann “a remarkable pianist and composer [whose] evocative compositions are brimming with melodic cogency and rhythmic pull,” and named his previous recording, Elegy for an Undiscovered Species, a “Best of 2021” album. Wallmann is the inaugural holder of the Peterson Chair in Jazz Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to moving to Wisconsin in 2012, he spent five years teaching at the California State University East Bay near Oakland. Born 1974 in Germany and raised on Canada's Vancouver Island, Wallmann studied jazz piano and composition at Berklee College of Music (BM, 1995) with Ray Santisi and at New York University (MM 1997, PhD 2010) with Jim McNeely. His formative professional years were his twenties and early thirties in New York City, where he made his living playing jazz in jazz clubs, bars, department stores and concert halls. He has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Asia and and has recorded or performed with Brian Lynch, Ingrid Jensen, Ralph Alessi, Dayna Stephens, Pete Yellin, Gary Bartz, Seamus Blake, Howard Johnson, Gilad Hekselman, and Kevin Mahogany, among others. Wallmann is a Yamaha piano artist and the recipient of two Canada Council grants, a 2019 Emily Mead Baldwin Award in the Creative Arts, and a 2021 H.I. Romnes Fellowship.
Milwaukee-based trumpeter Russ Johnson is a 23-years veteran of New York City’s jazz community. He has nine recordings as a leader or co-leader and has performed on more than 120 recordings as a sideman. Johnson has worked alongside many of the legendary figures in jazz including Lee Konitz, Steve Swallow, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Myra Melford, Ken Vandermark, and Tony Malaby. He has performed in more than 40 countries across the globe.
Holding Space opens with Wallmann’s composition “Annus Mirabilis,” an Midwest-influenced folk-jazz celebration of a “remarkable year” referenced by the title. With the addition of Russ Johnson, the duo becomes a trio on Mitcheltree’s composition “Via Valse,” a slow burner with an insistent bass ostinato and subtle modal changes that provide the underpinnings for the trio’s collective improvisation, and again later on Wallmann’s contemplative “Trio Adagio.”
Mitcheltree’s “Willis” is a dedication to legendary West Coast jazz composer Bill Holman, in whose Los Angeles big band Mitcheltree performed up until the composer’s passing in 2024. “Dalia Eats a Strawberry” is a jaunty melody that Wallmann originally wrote as a theme song for his daughter’s favorite stuffed animal, a penguin chick with unusual tastes. The 16-bar unison melody bookends the duo’s free improvisation.
The album continues with Mitcheltree’s pensive composition “Sasayaki” (whisper), consisting of three contrasting sections that drop in and out of time. Each is an examination of the mind-set behind the inner impulses that compel humans to activity that we feel requires secrecy. Compositional points of reference for Wallmann and Mitcheltree’s tunes include the Great American Songbook standards (Wallmann’s uptempo “Liberty Hop” and the ballad “Pretty Good Life”), the blues (Mitcheltree’s “Blues for Mark” and Wallmann’s “Soul Occupant”), klezmer (Mitcheltree’s “Sephardic Blues”), and jazz great Thelonious Monk (Wallmann’s “Later That Year”).
Throughout the album, conversational play dominates. The album’s title track, penned by Mitcheltree, evokes the meaning of the title — to be in the present, listen actively and without judgement, and provide unconditional support within a partnering endeavor. The album closes with “Digging a Shallow Grave for My Enemy,” where Johnson makes a final return, this time cast in the fictional role of the “enemy,” freely improvising in response to Wallmann’s composed piano and saxophone melody. This album is a testament to the enduring power of collaboration, showcasing three master musicians at the height of their artistry.