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Jazz Articles about Wolfgang Muthspiel

About Wolfgang Muthspiel

1,126

Interview

Mick Goodrick and Wolfgang Muthspiel: Musical Synthesis

by Matthew Warnock
June 22, 2010

When guitarists Wolfgang Muthspiel and Mick Goodrick walked up to the stage on January 30th, 2008, they were not only preparing to record a live album for Muthspiel's Material Records label, they were celebrating a musical and personal relationship that stretches back more than two decades. First meeting at the New England Conservatory, where Muthspiel studied under the Goodrick's tutelage, these two iconic players have continued to work together as duo partners over the years, with 2010's Live at the ...

502

Album Review

Wolfgang Muthspiel / Mick Goodrick: Live At The Jazz Standard

Read "Live At The Jazz Standard" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
June 22, 2010

Guitar duos can be a dangerous thing. With 12 strings and four hands, there's the potential for serious train wrecks; but if the two players are really listening, there's also potential for inspired greatness. Ralph Towner and John Abercrombie's two albums for ECM—Sargasso Sea (1976) and Five Years Later (1982)—exemplify how two can, indeed, conjoin for a greater whole. So, too, does Live at The Jazz Standard, culled from 2008 performances at the venerable New York City venue, where student ...

Album Review

Jean-Paul Brodbeck: Hang on Hippie

by AAJ Italy Staff
April 1, 2010

Il trentacinquenna pianista svizzero Jean-Paul Brodbeck è reduce da un passato da ragazzo prodigio che lo ha visto debuttare sul palco a soli quindici anni con Lionel Hampton. Da allora tanta acqua è passata sotto ai ponti e Brodbeck giunge al suo terzo album scegliendo la formula del quintetto che vede come componente più noto il chitarrista austriaco Wolfgang Muthspiel nel cui quartetto il pianista suona da tempo. Più che al periodo hippie evocato nel titolo dell'album, questa musica fa ...

681

Album Review

MGT: Wolfgang Muthspiel / Slava Grigoryan / Ralph Towner: From a Dream

Read "From a Dream" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
March 6, 2009

For over a decade now--at least on record--guitarist/pianist Ralph Towner has worked exclusively in two contexts: solo guitar albums under his own name for ECM, including Time Line (2006), and collaboratively with his longstanding group Oregon, last heard on 1000 Kilometers (Cam Jazz, 2007). Though never less than satisfied, many of his fans have hoped he'd participate in other contexts, as he's a flexible player who brings his distinctive harmonic approach to any setting, while adapting with ease to whatever ...

388

Album Review

Wolfgang Muthspiel 4tet: Earth Mountain

Read "Earth Mountain" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
September 30, 2008

A guitarist who moves at a pace through a variety of styles, from ambient, fusion, straight-ahead and post-rock to experimental jazz, Wolfgang Muthspiel sometimes returns to his projects, typically with a twist.

Collaborations with oud player and singer Dhafer Youssef and drummer Brian Blade have already been winningly revisited. Having worked on Youssef's Electric Sufi (Enja, 2001), seven years later Muthspiel produced and co-led Glow (Material Records, 2007), taking Youssef's incantatory singing to powerful new heights. A duo ...

474

Album Review

Wolfgang Muthspiel / Brian Blade: Friendly Travelers Live

Read "Friendly Travelers Live" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
July 29, 2008

This terrific two-disc package--identically sequenced in-concert CD and DVD recordings made in Austria in 2007--finds guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel and drummer Brian Blade performing half a dozen tracks from their studio album Friendly Travelers (Material Records, 2007) and another, “Shanghai," from Muthspiel's trio album with bassist Matthias Pichler and drummer Andreas Pichler Bright Side (Material Records, 2006).

Like fellow guitarist Pat Metheny--whose extreme technical virtuosity he shares, and to whose cascading lyricism he adds an enjoyable astringency--Muthspiel enjoys playing ...

285

Album Review

Wolfgang Muthspiel-Brian Blade: Friendly Travelers

Read "Friendly Travelers" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone

by Michael P. Gladstone
April 25, 2007

I've been hearing guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel for over fifteen years now and have categorized him in a fusion-ish setting with a propensity to emulate the harder-edged style of John Scofield. So it came as a pleasant surprise to find that his co-venture with one of the most musical drummer/percussionists in jazz today, Brian Blade, is a most welcome event.

This duo first saw the light after being invited to perform at the 2006 Jazz Baltica Festival. Considering their ...