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Wolfgang Muthspiel: Drumfree
by Raul d'Gama Rose
Drumfree contains some of the most stimulating three-way counterpoint written and played in a long time. All of the compositional credit goes to Wolfgang Muthspiel, the composer; but making it all come alive is Muthspiel, the guitarist, and his chosen partners for this date: saxophonist Andy Scherrer and bassist Larry Grenadier. Muthspiel leads from the front with the warmth and splendor of his authoritative voice. The guitarist is deeply rooted in the harmonic ideas of European music, with phrases fully ...
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by Jack Huntley
Wolfgang Muthspiel is a hypnotically adept guitarist who seems to have a penchant for exploring the percussion-less musical setting. His previous album, Live At The Jazz Standard (Material Records, 2010), was a technically impeccable guitar duo with Mick Goodrick, and in some ways, Drumfree is a natural extension of the ideas investigated on that album. But here there is an added emotional intensity somewhat overlooked before. Joined by saxophonist Andy Sherrer and bassist Larry Grenadier, the trio explores a range ...
read moreWolfgang Muthspiel / Mick Goodrick: Live at the Jazz Standard
by Jack Huntley
The worry, when two distinctive musicians play in a duo setting, is that one will display a heavy-handedness that brings down the combined feel. The urge to fill in the openness is ever-tempting. Luckily, both Wolfgang Muthspiel and Mick Goodrick are not only talented guitarists, but well-schooled in the art of supporting others musically, while maintaining their own creative voices. Live at the Jazz Standard is a textbook case of how to combine talents in creating a unified musical landscape. ...
read moreWolfgang Muthspiel / Mick Goodrick: Live at the Jazz Standard
by John Barron
Guitarists Wolfgang Muthspiel and Mick Goodrick are two like-minded explorers of fretboard possibilities. Goodrick, the elder, has been a renowned performer and educator for over forty years, working with the likes of Gary Burton, Jack DeJohnette and Steve Swallow. Muthspiel, Goodrick's former student at Berklee College of Music has performed with Peter Erskine, Paul Motian and Norwegian jazz singer Rebekka Bakken, among others. On Live at the Jazz Standard, an intimate duo recording from 2008, both guitarists generate ...
read moreWolfgang Muthspiel / Mick Goodrick: Live At The Jazz Standard
by John Kelman
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 ECMSargasso 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 ...
read moreMGT: Wolfgang Muthspiel / Slava Grigoryan / Ralph Towner: From a Dream
by John Kelman
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 ...
read moreWolfgang Muthspiel 4tet: Earth Mountain
by Chris May
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 ... read moreWolfgang Muthspiel / Brian Blade: Friendly Travelers Live
by Chris May
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 ...
read moreDhafer Youssef / Wolfgang Muthspiel: Glow
by Chris May
Although it's a dual-leader album, in which oud player Dhafer Youssef's performance is at least as important as that of guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, one of Glow's chief causes for celebration is Muthspiel's on-form presence. After releasing the shimmeringly beautiful Bright Side (Material Records, 2006)--a little-known masterpiece which may yet take its place alongside such jazz guitar iconographs as Johnny Smith's Moonlight In Vermont (Roulette, 1953, reissued 2004) and Wes Montgomery's Incredible Jazz Guitar (Riverside, 1960)--Muthspiel's project with drummer Brian Blade, ...
read moreWolfgang Muthspiel-Brian Blade: Friendly Travelers
by Michael P. Gladstone
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 ...
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