Wolfgang Muthspiel, Ambrose Akinmusire, Brad Mehldau, Larry Grenadier, Brian Blade Rising Grace (2 LP)

180g Vinyl Double LP!
Wolfgang Muthspiel – whom The New Yorker has called “a shining light” among today’s jazz guitarists – made his ECM leader debut in 2014 with the trio disc Driftwood, featuring him alongside two longtime colleagues, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Brian Blade. For his follow-up – Rising Grace – the Austrian guitarist has convened a very special quintet, adding jazz luminary Brad Mehldau on piano and the outstanding young trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire to the subtly virtuosic Grenadier/Blade rhythm section. Muthspiel moves between electric guitar and classically tinged acoustic six-string, his playing by turns grooving (“Boogaloo”) and enchanting (“Rising Grace”). The lyrical flights of Akinmusire’s trumpet and the probing improvisations of Mehldau run through Muthspiel’s rich set of compositions like golden threads, the tracks including a warm tribute to a late, great ECM artist, Kenny Wheeler (“Den Wheeler, Den Kenny”). Rising Grace also includes a deeply melodious piece that Mehldau composed especially for the album, “Wolfgang’s Waltz.”
"There’s an unstated theme of being ‘together again for the first time’to Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel’s beautifully realized sophomore album as a bandleader for ECM. […] As a unit, these musicians enjoy a five-way interplay on a tranquil, sometimes subtly shimmering canvas. Akinmusire’s long, polished notes glide over Muthspiel’s flowing arpeggios and Mehldau’s carefully constructed chords to create an acoustic soundscape on the title track which is gently propelled by Grenadier and Blade’s pulsing foundation."- Yoshi Kato, Downbeat (Five Stars)
"Muthspiel made his ECM debut with that trio on 2013's ‘Travel Guide’, followed by his leader debut in 2014 with the trio album ‘Driftwood’ (with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Brian Blade). ‘Rising Grace’ adds to that winning combination with now-veteran pianist Brad Mehldau and young trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. That's a lot of potential virtuosic firepower, but the group is characterized by lyricism and a conversational style. […] Good as Muthspiel's previous recorded work has been, he really takes things to a new level here. His playing and composing have grown in richness and subtlety, and these excellent musicians are all at the top of their game, individually and collectively. They sound like they were always meant to play together." - Mark Sullivan, All About Jazz
"This music, created in the south of France, is pure acoustic poetry [...] In sum, this spectacularly unspectacular interplay produces an inner glow. Everything happens in the service of an almost majestically pulsating organism. There are no superficial cabinet pieces, instead there is a profound emotionality between earthy and dream-lost moods." - Ulrich Steinmetzger, Leipziger Volkszeitung
"The ECM label, host to many European-American jazz dialogues, has released a very classy example in this encounter between Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel and the all-star US quartet of Brad Mehldau on piano, Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet, and Larry Grenadier and Brian Blade on bass and drums. Muthspiel, on electric and acoustic instruments, wrote all the tracks except Mehldau’s daintily swinging ‘Wolfgang’s Waltz’, and the music mingles echoes of Kenny Wheeler, the classical guitar sound of Ralph Towner and the songlike one of Pat Metheny, plus the quickwittedness of the mid-60s Miles Davis group." - John Fordham, The Guardian
"He really takes things to a new level here. His playing and composing have grown in richness and subtlety, and these excellent musicians are all at the top of their game, individually and collectively. They sound like they were always meant to play together." - Mark Sullivan, All About Jazz
"Wolfgang Muthspiel, who is also an extremely accomplished composer, whose melodious, song-oriented pieces easily catch the ear and yet always have a sophistication that satisfies even the most demanding minds, knows how to make excellent use of the excellent basic requirements that this band constellation offers in his nine new compositions. Of course, there are excellent solos to be heard from the bandleader on the acoustic and electric guitar, from the dexterous Mehldau and from the sometimes unorthodox Akinmusire, but what is really inspiring are the sensitivity, the ingenuity and the musical tact with which the five individualists enter into a permanent discourse useful for the ensemble, mutually inspire and fuel each other and thus create timelessly beautiful sound images." - Peter Füssl, Culture
"There is a persistent, but laid-back, underlying groove throughout. Muthspiel, Mehldau and Akinmusire weave their magic through and between the gently propulsive bass and drums. That the tone is sweet, doesn't mean any lack of excitement, at times Akinmusire's trumpet is just below the stratosphere. The overall sound is a delight to listen to and the joy of the musicians as they playfully parry with each other is palpable." - Hugh C., Bebop Spoken Here
"Again and again the colors and temperatures of this band amaze. Despite all the subtlety, enormous intensity is created. It's bubbling underground: an interplay that is becoming more and more condensed. Dreamlike, safe, beautiful - and nowhere harmless. Musical top class, in which winking humor also mixes. Very typical: 'Den Wheeler, den Kenny' is Muthspiel's homage to the trumpeter Kenny Wheeler - in which Ambrose Akinmusire plays beautiful lines in the spirit of the devotee who died in 2014. In general, it is exciting to hear how well the soft and nuanced shaded sound of this trumpeter fits the tastefully lyrical pieces of Wolfgang Muthspiel: refinement and elasticity, which does not double, but potentiates." - Roland Spiegel, BR Classical
"Equally enchanting (‘Wolfgang’s Waltz’) and enchanted (the title track, ‘Triad Song,’ and the generously harmonious tribute to late trumpeter Kenny Wheeler ‘Den Wheeler, Den Kenny’), the players create a quietly expansive environment, like you’re listening to them play in your home. The solos warmly interweave and entwine, making music full of color, eloquence, and yes, rising grace. Something this troubled world needs a great deal of." - Mike Jurkovic, Elmore Magazine
"The quintet with which the Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel recorded his latest CD with the talking title 'Rising Grace' is a group of great melodicators (not to say melomaniacs). On the basis of (all but one) of the leader's original compositions, they create compelling poetic harmonious music - but not at the price of a 'hasty reconciliation', not even in the sense of a soloistic splendour, although the prominence of the participants suggested such a thing. It is a relaxed collective music in which everyone thinks more about the context than about self-realization, that is, in which both merge, the synergetic overall effect, which is greater than the sum of the individual parts." - Peter Rüedi, Weltwoche
"Sonically ravishing and filled with profound, singular music that speaks beautifully of communion, Rising Grace will reward your full attention, over and over." - Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen
"The guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel has gathered a dream cast around him. [...] Muthspiel shares an affinity for classical music with pianist Brad Mehldau. The fact that Ambrose Akinmusire's playing suddenly reminds so strongly of Kenny Wheeler, who died in autumn 2014, is one of the strongest listening impressions. [...] One feature of the whole album in general: how everyone – for example in 'Wolfgang's Waltz' – inspires each other." - Karl Lippegaus, Fono Forum
"A powerful, subtle musical entertainment. A supergroup that simply had to come together." - Annina Salis, Cultural Tip
"You have felt audibly comfortable. The interaction is so easy for the artists, so casually they get into soloing – usually they tend to push themselves to parts, correspond, carry on. Very melodic, but elegant and smooth, the tracks with the cool, open grooves are my favorite." - Markus Schneider, Rolling Stone (German Edition)
"'Rising Grace' - this is the title of this acoustic jewel, on which filigree and melancholic-dreamy motifs flow and let the musical grace grow steadily. A team of mature musicians plays here, whose spirit shapes the atmosphere of this album. Musicians who find their inspiration and their ideas in mutual listening and collectively develop a space in which they know how to move as if in a protective shell. Here, each of the five musicians becomes a storyteller - including none who would give a monologue." - Sarah Seidel, Norddeutscher Rundfunk
"Wolfgang Muthspiel is one of the world's top jazz musicians. His most beautiful album to date 'Rising Grace' could become a classic." - Samir H. Köck, The Press
"His sidemen here are among the most renowned players in jazz on their respective instruments […] The challenge for Muthspiel as a leader is to leverage the strengths of these major musicians while integrating their distinctive voices into his own aesthetic. He succeeds. On his two previous ECM recordings, ‘Travel Guide’ (2013) and ‘Driftwood’ (2014), Muthspiel revealed a gift for casting spells. ‘Rising Grace’ is also a single enveloping sonic aura, but with more moving parts. What is immediately striking about his new band is its selflessness and its ability to create collectively. […] Players flow into and out of another, on a tide of emotion. A band with world-class solo firepower has made an album without solos. Instead, brilliant individual moments continuously emerge but never entirely separate themselves from the ensemble and its larger purposes." - Thomas Conrad, Jazz Times (Editor’s Pick)
"Between Muthspiel, the pianist Brad Mehldau and the trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, something like the constant leveling of a golden section is created. There is an agreement to create a maximum of harmony with improvisation." - Andrian Kreye, Süddeutsche Zeitung
"The crescendo with which the quintet swings heavenward on the opener is an uplifting moment, but as sacral as the title suggests, the album is by no means [...] Despite all the sound culture, the pieces never slide into the merely distinctive, keeping the space open for an amazingly free and fragile internal dynamics." - Klaus Soberly, butterfly
"Wolfgang Muthspiel’s second album for ECM may have been released late in the year, but I’ve spotted it creeping into a few ‘best of 2016’ lists. It’s not hard to see why. The Austrian guitarist has augmented his regular trio comprising himself, drummer Brian Blade and the bass of Larry Grenadier with Brad Mehldau’s piano and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. Collectively, they weave quiet, magical spells through a set of ten originals, one contributed by Mehldau, the rest by Muthspiel. […] This is finely wrought music with no particular musician in the foreground although they each take the lead at times. The focus and creative energies of the formidable band are always in the service of the whole sound. A delightful, beautiful album." - Mike Collins, London Jazz News
"It is a collective floating in the music, similar to a flock of cranes screwing into the ether in autumn. And when his tone is free, he is of almost breathtaking beauty. In terms of its aesthetics, the album fits in with the series of great guitar albums that Ralph Towner made for ECM in the seventies." - Wolf Kampmann, Eclipsed
"The musical spirit of the late trumpeter Kenny Wheeler is evoked by many of the tracks on this superb new issue under the leadership of Austrian-born guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel. […] Wheeler's melodic style is paid a direct tribute on the track 'Den Wheeler, Den Kenny', but other pieces also reflect the trumpeter's influence, including the title track. Even the pun in the title (a nod to Steve Swallow's celebrated 'Falling Grace) reflects Wheeler's penchant for playing with words when naming his compositions. […] a brilliant album. I recommended it very highly."- John Watson, Jazz Camera
"With the current CD production 'Rising Grace', the guitarist - noun est omen - the grace of his music, now expanded from a trio with pianist Brad Mehldau and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire to a quintet, comes even more to the fore. Listening to the witty musical dialogues in all their almost dreamlike unanimity and yet being constantly surprised by unexpected turns is one of the most fascinating listening experiences in contemporary jazz." - Harald Rehmann, Deutschlandfunk
"That's what makes 'Rising Grace' so convincing: everyone brings personality, but the music is at the top, not the musicians. The Austrian Wolfgang Muthspiel is surrounded by Americans. But there are no worlds colliding. Muthspiel is as much influenced by New York jazz as Brad Mehldau is by European classical and romantic music. "Rising Grace' was born out of gratitude,' says Muthspiel. And you can hear them in every sound." - Rainer Schlenz, Südwestrundfunk

• Double LP
• 180g Vinyl
• Audiophile High Quality Pressing
• Limited time download code included
• Recorded at Studios La Buissonne, Pernes les Fontaines, January-February 2016
• Gatefold jacket
• Made in Germany

• Wolfgang Muthspiel, guitar
• Ambrose Akinmusire, trumpet
• Brad Mehldau, piano
• Larry Grenadier, double bass
• Brian Blade, drums