Angular Blues Wolfgang Muthspiel

• 1 Wondering 07:20
• 2 Angular Blues 05:55
• 3 Hüttengriffe 05:15
• 4 Camino 07:42
• 5 Ride 03:50
• 6 Everything I Love 06:52
• 7 Kanon in 6/8 07:41
• 8 Solo Kanon in 5/4 03:34
• 9 I'll Remember April 05:40
• Total Runtime 53:49

Info for Angular Blues

Wolfgang Muthspiel, whom The New Yorker has called “a shining light” among today’s jazz guitarists, returns to the trio format with Angular Blues, the Austrian’s fourth ECM album as a leader, following two acclaimed quintet releases and his trio debut.

Like Driftwood – the 2014 trio disc that JazzTimes dubbed “cinematic” and “haunting” – Angular Blues finds Muthspiel paired with longtime collaborator Brian Blade on drums; but instead of Larry Grenadier on bass, it’s Scott Colley, whose especially earthy sound helps give this trio its own dynamic.

Muthspiel alternates between acoustic and electric guitar and, along with his characteristically melodic originals – including such highlights as the bucolic “Hüttengriffe” and pensive “Camino” – he essays the first standards of his ECM tenure (“Everything I Love” and “I’ll Remember April”), as well as his first-ever bebop rhythm-changes tune on record (“Ride”).

Angular Blues also features a single guitar-only track, “Solo Kanon in 5/4,” with Muthspiel’s electronic delay imbuing the baroque-like rounds with a hypnotic glow.

Wolfgang Muthspiel, guitar
Scott Colley, bass
Brian Blade, drums

Wolfgang Muthspiel
was born in 1965 in Judenburg, Austria. He played violin from age 6 and took up guitar at 15. At the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, he studied both classical and jazz guitar, subsequently winning national competitions for classical music as well as the International Guitar Competition in Mettmann, Germany. Interested in improvisation from an early age, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1986 to study at the New England Conservatory. At the Berklee School of Music in Boston, he met Gary Burton, who invited him to join his quintet. While based in New York from 1995 to 2002, he performed with a diverse array of artists: Trilok Gurtu, Youssou N’Dour, Gary Peacock, Dave Liebman, Peter Erskine and Rebekka Bakken, among others. Current projects include his duo with Brian Blade, a quartet featuring pianist Jean-Paul Brodbeck, and a trio with Larry Grenadier and saxophonist Chris Cheek. In addition to his jazz projects, Muthspiel writes for contemporary classical ensembles and has received commissions from the Ensemble for New Music Zurich, Klangforum Wien, the Austrian Ministry of Arts, the Boston-based Marimolin ensemble and more.

Booklet for Angular Blues