Wolfgang Muthspiel Releases “Angular Blues” with Brian Blade and Scott Colley

by Kevin Johnson Wednesday, April 1st, 2020

Wolfgang Muthspiel: Angular Blues Wolfgang Muthspiel has released Angular Blues, which marks his fourth album on ECM. The record is a return to the trio format, which the guitarist fills out with longtime drummer Brian Blade and bassist Scott Colley.

“Scott and Brian share my love of song, while at the same time there is constant musical conversation about these songs,” Muthspiel says. “[They] have also played a lot together over the past few years, so they know each other well. I performed with Scott in New York in the ’90s, and I’ve always felt that he was an extremely giving musician, who – with his warm tone and his flexible, dancing rhythm – simultaneously animated and supported the music. I wrote the bass melody of the new album’s first tune, ‘Wondering,’ especially for him. His sound develops a flow and harmonic movement that is inviting to play on.” Colley also gets an extended solo on the song.

Muthspiel wrote most of the songs but included two jazz standards – “Everything I Love” and “I’ll Remember April” – which are his first on an ECM recording.

“I was inspired to record standards with this trio because everything about the way the group plays feels so free, open and far from preconceived ideas, but at the crucial moment a jazz language is spoken, what we do does justice to these tunes,” he explains. “I learned ‘Everything I Love,’ the Cole Porter song, from an early Keith Jarrett album, and I first came to know ‘I’ll Remember April’ from a Frank Sinatra recording. In that latter song, I hardly play solo. It’s more about the head and the vamp-like atmosphere that prevails from the start and is savored again in the end. As in many moments with this trio, it’s about playing with space: leaving it, creating it, filling it.”

Angular Blues is available now on CD, vinyl and as a digital download (iTunes and Amazon MP3).