WOLFGANG MUTHSPIEL - Where The River Flows
ECM
Wolfgang Muthspiel (guitar) Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet) Brad Mehldau (piano) Larry Grenadier (double bass) Eric Harland (drums) Recorded February 2018 at Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-les-Fontaines, France.
The title of Muthspiel’s latest offering under the ECM imprint seems most appropriate given the fluid quality of the music produced by his all-star quintet. Apart from a change of personnel at the drum stool this is the same band that he fronted for his 2016 release, ` Rising Grace` and although all are high profile figures with their own idiosyncrasies they perform with a unity of purpose that subsumes these within the leader’s overall musical vision. The collective group sound is one in which the players float in and out of each-others musical spaces almost like -if you’ll forgive another watery metaphor – like little fish darting between aquatic foliage to produce exquisitely swirling patterns of colour.
The overall effect is calming and elegiac in the best ECM manner but with sufficient in the way of gentle turbulence to stop the music becoming be-calmed. For instance, whilst Akinmusire produces a lonely plaintive sound in passages of attenuated minor key melody he also adds tonguing and slurred effects from time to time as though to challenge the pristine qualities of the music surrounding him whilst Mehldau works just enough jazz attitude into his solos to anchor the music firmly to its genre ably buoyed along by a pulsating Grenadier and some spiky accenting from Harland.
Most of the pieces are compositions by the leader with one collective improvisation of a free jazz nature by the group and a multi -faceted blues by the pianist. Muthspiel generously gives his musicians plenty of space to make themselves heard working in close dialogue rather than dominating the solo opportunities but his immaculate techique is given full reign in two solo spots, one of which provides a coda to what is undeniably a very beautiful album, recorded and presented to ECM’s usual impeccable standard.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
ECM
Wolfgang Muthspiel (guitar) Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet) Brad Mehldau (piano) Larry Grenadier (double bass) Eric Harland (drums) Recorded February 2018 at Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-les-Fontaines, France.
The title of Muthspiel’s latest offering under the ECM imprint seems most appropriate given the fluid quality of the music produced by his all-star quintet. Apart from a change of personnel at the drum stool this is the same band that he fronted for his 2016 release, ` Rising Grace` and although all are high profile figures with their own idiosyncrasies they perform with a unity of purpose that subsumes these within the leader’s overall musical vision. The collective group sound is one in which the players float in and out of each-others musical spaces almost like -if you’ll forgive another watery metaphor – like little fish darting between aquatic foliage to produce exquisitely swirling patterns of colour.
The overall effect is calming and elegiac in the best ECM manner but with sufficient in the way of gentle turbulence to stop the music becoming be-calmed. For instance, whilst Akinmusire produces a lonely plaintive sound in passages of attenuated minor key melody he also adds tonguing and slurred effects from time to time as though to challenge the pristine qualities of the music surrounding him whilst Mehldau works just enough jazz attitude into his solos to anchor the music firmly to its genre ably buoyed along by a pulsating Grenadier and some spiky accenting from Harland.
Most of the pieces are compositions by the leader with one collective improvisation of a free jazz nature by the group and a multi -faceted blues by the pianist. Muthspiel generously gives his musicians plenty of space to make themselves heard working in close dialogue rather than dominating the solo opportunities but his immaculate techique is given full reign in two solo spots, one of which provides a coda to what is undeniably a very beautiful album, recorded and presented to ECM’s usual impeccable standard.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
