SKU: 25348351332

Uhlmann, Johnson, Wilkes – Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes - New LP

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Uhlmann, Johnson, Wilkes – Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes - New LPUhlmann 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

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.

“I was playing with some musicians who went to Cal Arts,” says Wilkes. “I started going up there regularly, and Greg had this great band called Fell Runner. A group I was in split a bill with them at the old Bootleg Theater and it really solidified my appreciation and deep respect for the band and for Greg’s playing. They were doing things that were completely unique. We’ve been friends ever since.”

Wilkes and Johnson’s first collaboration came after years of knowing one another in LA, but the musical connection and respect was similarly instantaneous. “It was a session for Louis Cole Big Band,” recalls Wilkes. “Everyone went around on this one tune and took 4 bars, and Josh took this really, really unique 4-bar solo that really stood out. After the session, Louis looked at me and said ‘Josh Johnson!’ and I was like ‘I know!’

In 2021, even before Uhlmann and Johnson began working on what would become SML, Wilkes and Uhlmann played together on an album by Miya Folick, which left them feeling like there was more music to be made together. Uhlmann suggested booking a live date as a trio with Johnson at ETA. With engineer Bryce Gonzales at the controls, the group worked through a short list of prepared material, augmented with passages of improvisation. “We all agreed that it was important to have a nice melodic repertoire to use as a starting point to freely improvise,” says Wilkes. “Landing zones, essentially, while we’re out in the field.”

Those landing zones include a stunning cover of “The Fool On The Hill,” perhaps the eeriest McCartney ballad in The Beatles’ songbook. Johnson’s tender rendering of the classic vocal melody unites the raindrop-leslie-plonk of Uhlmann’s electric guitar and the quietly grooving drone thump of Wilkes’ bass so comfortably that any move could feel natural by the time the trio opens it up for improvisation at the two-minute mark. What follows is a sublime take on the purring consonance only occasionally found in the best moments of the ECM or Windham Hill catalogs. Even more incredible is the fact that this particular recording of the tune documents the first piece of music this trio played together, from the opening moments of their first performance at ETA.

That instantaneous cualidad simpático is what makes this trio special. What we’re hearing is a friendship between high-level improvisers translated into musical moments and executed with such curious precision that the lines between supposed opposites – composition and improvisation, jazz and chamber music, ennui and contentment – are delightfully blurred.

“Frica” is, perhaps, the track on which that blur is most evident. The tune incorporates the staccato stutters and repetitions heard throughout the album, but doubles down with a subtly disorienting post-production chop by Johnson, which accentuates the trio’s live trance by introducing a floating phrase cut-and-mix. The fact that these concepts are employed intuitively, pre-edit, throughout Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes is precisely what makes the post-production shine. It can be difficult to discern what is a slip of the sampler and what is live, turn-on-a-dime action, and it’s exactly that mystery which draws us in.

“Marvis," the album opener, makes that clear from the jump. This fresh spin on a tune from Johnson’s solo album 'Unusual Object' checks many of the same boxes as “Frica” on the production level, but it’s all in service of a truly demented low-key groove. The trio is in lock step here, but it’s unclear how many legs are doing the stepping and just whose legs are taking which steps.

Conversely, the Uhlmann composition “Arpy” is a slow-paced, descending four chord meditation teeming with the life provided by the guitarist’s causally precise reverberated triplet repetitions and held down by Wilkes’ sturdy bass chording, which occasionally wanders into flamboyant high register flourishes. Johnson’s soft alto treatment morphs in tonality throughout, eventually settling into something more aurally reminiscent of an Ondes Martenot or some gently twisted echo of Clara Rockmore.

All told, 'Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes' is a beautiful snapshot of three endlessly interesting players at the top of their game, rendered in such a skilled manner that its inherent mastery flows effortlessly, making passive atmospheric immersion as pleasant and stimulating as deep focused listening.
 


released 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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SKU: 25348351332

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Tisienne
Alexandria, US
★★★★★ 4
Good quality. Decent price.
Style: Fox, Raccoon, Squirrel
The small size is perfect for my 13# dog, but I was somehow under the impression that one squeaker was in the head while the other was in the tail (and that might be the case for rhe larger size), but one us in the main body, with the other in the tail. The head is flat, and there's no way to push the sqeaker in the body up into the head. Ordinarily, this wouldn't matter -- and my dog LOVES the one I gave him so far; he's squeaking up a storm! -- but I bought these toys specifically so I could fill the (presumably empty, but in reality not) body between head and tail with chopped up pool noodles so my paraplegic dog could take it into the water treadmill treatment he's starting in a couple weeks. I wanted something that would float and be largely waterproof (no fluff inside in case he drops it in the water), that he could hold in his mouth instead of wearing a muzzle. I've rated these toys 4 stars because he does love them, they seem well made, and they're pretty affordable. I would buy them again, though not for the same purpose. (He hates rubber toys, so this was my last hope. Lol?)
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Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2021
T
Verified Purchase
Tchorton
Alexandria, US
★★★★★ 5
Longest lasting dog toys we’ve purchased.
Style: Fox, Raccoon, Squirrel
In 2020, we purchased these for our 6 month old puppy who was repeatedly destroying all of her toys. Christmas 2025, I gifted our dog a stuffed toy purchased from a local dog store. It was destroyed within an hour. Later that day, I found one of these little squirrels that we purchased FIVE years ago - still in action, a bit worse for the wear, but still very much loved by our dog. I decided to purchase another pack of these as they are clearly winners.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2026
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Verified Purchase
MISS JENNIFER TAYLOR
Chelsea, US
★★★★★ 5
Nice toy
Style: Variety Pack - Large (3-pack)
Good idea, no stuffing.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2026
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J. Rothenberger
Alexandria, US
★★★★★ 3
The Ad got me, the reality didn't
Style: Variety Pack - Large (3-pack)
Directly from the ad- "Exclusive Noisemakers - Each large toy includes 3 high-quality round squeakers to deliver more sound to keep your best friend entertained.". Now my neighbor bought this squirrel with three high-quality squeakers nearly a year ago. It's ragged and tattered I just recently sewed it up for him where he chewed the one leg odd, but those three noise makers are still squeaking. Whe I got my pup, I immediately went to buy one and they were no longer selling them, so I've been on a search for one or an equivalent. These are not. There's no stuffing to get all over the place when your pup breaks into it, a plus. However the squeakers weren't particularly loud and were silenced in a few hours. Two were dead and the remaining one was very well on its way. The toy itself was pretty much intact but that had more to do with the lack of attention from the dog than how rugged the toy is. He'll pick it up once in a while but it certainly didn't meet my expectations. The good thing is that there are three of them so I can give him some brief excitement in the future. Wouldn't buy again.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2023
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Verified Purchase
Eileen
Phoenix, US
★★★★★ 5
Strong Chewer Friendly Toy
Style: Variety Pack - Large (3-pack)
My dog is a rough chewer and these last a really long time (clearly since this beaver's face is long gone! The no stuffing is a win too for cleaning up afterwards.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2026

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