Dance of the Elders

Wolfgang Muthspiel, Scott Colley, Brian Blade

Released on 2023-09-29 by ECM Records
Main artists: Wolfgang Muthspiel Scott Colley Brian Blade
Genre: Jazz

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Discovered in the mid-90s through his contributions to several of his brother Christian’s records and a series of prestigious collaborations as a sideman (Mick Goodrick, Marc Johnson, Paul Motian…), Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel has been part of the highly selective brotherhood of musicians under ECM, since the release of his trio album Driftwood in 2014. After two albums (Rising Grace released in 2016 and Where the River Goes in 2018) that introduced him as the head of a flamboyant quintet, including most notably Brad Mehldau on piano and Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet, the guitarist returned in 2018 with Angular Blues, following the more minimalist trio structure, featuring his longtime collaborator Brian Blade on drums and Schott Colley on bass.

The same orchestra can be found today on Dance of the Elders, with music that’s just as subtly refined and powerfully poetic. Going from electric to acoustic guitar with a great sense of colour and nuanced dynamics, Muthspiel, apart from a cover of Kurt Weil’s Liebeslied and a magnificent version of Joni Mitchell’s song “Amalia” which closes the album, focuses on his own compositions. Around a perfectly mastered grammar of jazz, he gracefully mixes and matches influences from baroque (“Prelude to Bach”), pop (“Invocation”), and folk music (“Folksong”). Putting his reverberating sonorities, the science of his harmonies, and his phrasing that’s at once fluid and subtly uneven, at the service of an always collective discourse, the guitarist has created a record that’s both serene and profound, rigorous and meditative. © Stéphane Ollivier/Qobuz

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Dance of the Elders

Wolfgang Muthspiel

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