WOLFGANG MUTHSPIEL - Rising Grace
ECM 479 7962
Wolfgang Muthspiel (guitar); Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet); Brad Mehldau (piano); Larry Grenadier (double bass); Brian Blade (drums)
Recorded January 2016
Rising Grace is the second album as leader for ECM from Wolfgang Muthspiel following on from the 2014 release, Driftwood, that also featured Larry Genadier and Brian Blade. Muthspiel said at the time that he would like to keep the trio together and develop their music further, and this is exactly what he has succeeded in doing. Like its predecessor, the music is built on interesting themes that find the guitarist switching between acoustic and electric instruments to meet the needs f the composition, and if adding another chordal instrument to proceedings could have upset the rhythmic balance that the trio had developed, the addition of Brad Mehldau simply strengthens and heightens the harmonic and rhythmic implications of the tunes.
This seemingly effortless transition incorporating such a strong personality as Mehldau into the mix is immediately vindicated when listening to 'Triad Song' with the interplay and comping between guitar and piano is simply stunning, with the bass and drums partnership always eager to add rhythmic support to this often deeply intense relationship. The group feeling is magnified all round with the melancholy 'Intensive Care' where there is evidently a studious concentration and spur of the moment spontaneity that can only occur when all participants are listening intently to each other and the natural flow of the music as it is created.
If the addition of Mehldau was inspired, bringing in trumpeter, Ambrose Akinmusire was a masterstroke as it is often his playing that deepens the lyrical nature of the tunes and also lights the fire that fuels Grenadier and Blade to up the ante and kick things up a notch, and it his his presence that will often prevent the music from becoming too settled and polite, not allowing the Muthspiel and Mehldau to get too comfortable in the harmonic labyrinth that could so easily have become a tad self indulgent.Instead Ambrose stirs things up, and is not afraid to dirty his sound, throwing out multiphonics and and split tones to keep all on their toes.
In album that is brimful of great melodies and superb interplay between the quintet, the influence that the late Kenny Wheeler seems to exude over subsequent generations of musicians is again felt in Muthspiel's own tribute to the trumpeter, 'Den Wheeler, Den Kenny' which translates to "this Wheeler I know" with references to Kenny's ECM album, Gnu High with sublime playing from Akinmusire and Mehdau.
This is not music to be listened to casually, but savoured and assimilated over time. What can initially be mistaken for an air of detachment, with careful listening reveals a depth of empathy and understanding between Muthspiel and Mehldau that transcends the relationship between guitar and piano to the higher plane that is inhabited by all five participants in this superb release.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
ECM 479 7962
Wolfgang Muthspiel (guitar); Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet); Brad Mehldau (piano); Larry Grenadier (double bass); Brian Blade (drums)
Recorded January 2016
Rising Grace is the second album as leader for ECM from Wolfgang Muthspiel following on from the 2014 release, Driftwood, that also featured Larry Genadier and Brian Blade. Muthspiel said at the time that he would like to keep the trio together and develop their music further, and this is exactly what he has succeeded in doing. Like its predecessor, the music is built on interesting themes that find the guitarist switching between acoustic and electric instruments to meet the needs f the composition, and if adding another chordal instrument to proceedings could have upset the rhythmic balance that the trio had developed, the addition of Brad Mehldau simply strengthens and heightens the harmonic and rhythmic implications of the tunes.
This seemingly effortless transition incorporating such a strong personality as Mehldau into the mix is immediately vindicated when listening to 'Triad Song' with the interplay and comping between guitar and piano is simply stunning, with the bass and drums partnership always eager to add rhythmic support to this often deeply intense relationship. The group feeling is magnified all round with the melancholy 'Intensive Care' where there is evidently a studious concentration and spur of the moment spontaneity that can only occur when all participants are listening intently to each other and the natural flow of the music as it is created.
If the addition of Mehldau was inspired, bringing in trumpeter, Ambrose Akinmusire was a masterstroke as it is often his playing that deepens the lyrical nature of the tunes and also lights the fire that fuels Grenadier and Blade to up the ante and kick things up a notch, and it his his presence that will often prevent the music from becoming too settled and polite, not allowing the Muthspiel and Mehldau to get too comfortable in the harmonic labyrinth that could so easily have become a tad self indulgent.Instead Ambrose stirs things up, and is not afraid to dirty his sound, throwing out multiphonics and and split tones to keep all on their toes.
In album that is brimful of great melodies and superb interplay between the quintet, the influence that the late Kenny Wheeler seems to exude over subsequent generations of musicians is again felt in Muthspiel's own tribute to the trumpeter, 'Den Wheeler, Den Kenny' which translates to "this Wheeler I know" with references to Kenny's ECM album, Gnu High with sublime playing from Akinmusire and Mehdau.
This is not music to be listened to casually, but savoured and assimilated over time. What can initially be mistaken for an air of detachment, with careful listening reveals a depth of empathy and understanding between Muthspiel and Mehldau that transcends the relationship between guitar and piano to the higher plane that is inhabited by all five participants in this superb release.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
