Dance of the Elders Wolfgang Muthspiel, Scott Colley, Brian Blade

• 1 Invocation 10:51
• 2 Prelude to Bach 04:14
• 3 Dance of the Elders 05:57
• 4 Liebeslied 07:41
• 5 Folksong 04:56
• 6 Cantus Bradus 04:52
• 7 Amelia 07:05
• Total Runtime 45:36

Info for Dance of the Elders

Wolfgang Muthspiel and his working trio with Scott Colley on bass and Brian Blade on drums reaches a new creative peak on Dance of the Elders. The album is the group’s follow-up to the much-lauded Angular Blues, which The Times called a “quietly impressive album” that highlights “Muthspiel’s fluidly melodic playing style“. Here Wolfgang’s successful stride continues, with his unique compositional signature on the one hand and particularly vibrant exchanges with his trio colleagues on the other. The guitarist’s own writing and approach to jazz is heavily folk-induced but equally inspired by classical music – both aspects are presented clearly throughout the album. Brian’s floating percussive injections and Scott’s nimble counterpoint on bass complement the guitarist’s acoustic and electric playing in fluid interplay over intricate polyrhythms and adventurous harmonic landscapes.

“Whatever the technique or the instrument, Muthspiel’s deep love for and expert command of jazz shines through on both the originals and standards (…), as does his chemistry with Blade and Colley.”, Jazztimes wrote in 2021, to which Wolfgang Muthspiel answered: “We have developed an enormous trust in each other”. His musical familiarity with partners Colley and Blade has only increased since – Dance of the Elders was recorded after extensive touring throughout Europe, the US and Japan, in February 2022. And the guitarist’s opinion in regard to his bandmates hasn’t changed: “I’m constantly learning from Brian and Scott. It’s always exciting to bring new music to them and see how they approach it, because it’s never what I’d expect. The remembrance of their sound while I compose is an inspiration for the music I end up coming up with.”

The trio’s seamless chemistry and spontaneous sense of creation has rarely been as obvious as on the album’s opener “Invocation” – a meditative, two-part composition that gracefully sets the mood of the album over ten minutes of restrained but deeply felt three-way conversation. Wolfgang recalls how it was producer Manfred Eicher’s decision to place the song at the beginning of the album. Wolfgang: “There’s the process of Manfred hearing the music and feeling the place of each piece – he tells a compelling story through the sequence, and his choices always surprise me, in the best possible way.”

The spontaneous studio improvisation “Prelude to Bach” – a shrouded statement of textures – ends with a solo guitar rendition of Bach’s chorale “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”, which Wolfgang didn’t prepare for the session, but pulled out of thin air in the spur of the moment. Its gentle pace and traditional harmonic articulation stands in contrast to the title track’s spirited rhythmic twists, folkloric time signatures and uncommon chord voicings. Like “Cantus Bradus”, “Dance of the Elders” works as a polyrhythmic playground for Colley and Blade to stretch their mathematical muscles, though at the same time both songs are driven by exhaustive melodic development. Wolfgang wrote “Cantus Bradus” with Brad Mehldau in mind, who contributed to the guitarist’s celebrated quintet recordings Rising Grace (2016) and Where The River Goes (2018). It relies on traits Wolfgang has observed repeatedly in Mehldau’s music and which he describes as “a bunch of chromatic lines descending to a certain tonal center. On their way these lines create rather unusual chords and tensions, but they end up in a bluesy center. It’s a development I hear a lot in Brad’s songs and in his soloing.”

Kurt Weil’s “Liebeslied” was introduced to Wolfgang by trumpeter and educator Herb Pomeroy, whose student-big band at Berklee College of Music was “the band you wanted to be in”, as Wolfgang says. He plays on electric guitar here, spinning fluid bop-lines around Colley and Blade’s rhythmic counterpoint. The other composition that wasn’t written by Wolfgang here is Joni Mitchell’s “Amelia” – a ballad the singer-songwriter legend recorded with guitarist Larry Carlton in 1976 and again in 1979, this time with Pat Metheny. Wolfgang, Brian and Scott’s interpretation doesn’t veer too far from the original and instead takes advantage of what was already there – Brian Blade has in the past frequently collaborated with Mitchell and understands her music profoundly.

For “Folk Song” Wolfgang drew inspiration from none other than Keith Jarrett. “I had a vague idea of Keith’s music when coming up with this one, especially his vamp improvisations from the Belonging-era,” explains the guitarist. “You can always tell how harmonically inventive someone is when they play around one chord for a long stretch. Everything Keith implies with his upper lines, his middle voices, shows you all the chords he could play but then only teases at. I love that about Keith.”

Dance of the Elders was mixed and completed at Studios La Buissonne in March 2023 by Manfred Eicher with Wolfgang Muthspiel and Gérard de Haro.

Wolfgang Muthspiel, guitars
Scott Colley, double bass
Brian Blade, drums

Wolfgang Muthspiel
The musician Wolfgang Muthspiel (1965) lives in Vienna and is considered one of the most influential guitarists of his generation. After being classically trained on the violin, he discovered his love for guitar at the age of 15. An interest in both his own and improvised music eventually led him to focus on jazz. After studying with Mick Goodrick at the New England Conservatory and then later at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he toured with the Gary Burton Quintet (together with Larry Grenadier and Donny McCaslin) for two years, establishing an excellent reputation in the jazz scene. Starting in the mid-1990s, he lived and worked in the jazz capital of New York. He ventured into the world of pop music with the singer Rebekka Bakken, while also pursuing the electronic project Muthspiel/Muthspiel with his brother. He has also collaborated with artists such as Trilok Gurtu, Dhafer Youssef, Youssou N’Dour, Maria Joao, Dave Liebman, Peter Erskine, Paul Motian, Bob Berg, Gary Peacock, Don Alias, Larry Grenadier, Brian Blade, Brad Mehldau, Ambrose Akinmusire, John Patitucci, Dieter Ilg, the Vienna Art Orchestra, and many more.

In 2000, he founded the Material Records label, which has released numerous recordings of artists in an international format. After a European tour with his new quartet (2008) and the duo project Friendly Travelers, in collaboration with the drummer Brian Blade (2008), Muthspiel devoted himself more and more to the trio MGT (Muthspiel – Grigoryan – Towner), which, after several concert tours, released the highly acclaimed debut album From a Dream. In addition, he has composed pieces for various ensembles, such as the Klangforum Wien and, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Joseph Haydn’s death in 2009, a commissioned work for the Esterhazy Foundation. He has produced recordings of young musicians, and since 2004, he has led the guitar programme of the Basel University of Music FHNW.

In 2017, Muthspiel founded the Focus Year program at the Jazzcampus Basel and has since been artistic director of this globally unique year-long programme of intensive musical exploration.

In June 2012, the recording of the project Vienna Naked, a song programme composed by Muthspiel for guitar and voice, was released.

Muthspiel made his debut with MGT in 2013 with the album Travel Guide on the renowned Munich label ECM. In 2014, he made his debut as a band leader at ECM. The trio recording Driftwood with Brian Blade and Larry Grenadier garnered huge critical praise and in 2014, Muthspiel was given a contract for his own concert series at the Konzerthaus Wien. The Vienna World project was followed by another vocal recording in 2015, for which he performed and recorded with eighteen musicians in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, New York, Sweden and Vienna.

Rising Grace was released on ECM Records in autumn 2016. This quintet recording with Brad Mehldau, Ambrose Akinmusire, Brian Blade and Larry Grenadier adorned many of the bestof lists of 2016, was given five out of five stars by DownBeat magazine, and led to the Wolfgang Muthspiel Quintet playing numerous sold-out concerts worldwide. In 2018, the quintet performed and recorded Where The River Goes, with Eric Harland on drums, which led to many more performances and concerts.

The Wolfgang Muthspiel Large Ensemble was launched in 2019, which led to a programme consisting of pieces by Muthspiel in new arrangements by Guillermo Klein the following year. The 19-member ensemble combined European jazz legends with virtuoso representatives of chamber music, and toured and performed in the autumn of the same year in the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and the Wiener Konzerthaus, among others.

Recorded during a joint tour of Japan in 2018 with Scott Colley and Brian Blade, the trio album Angular Blues was released in the spring of 2020. Extensive tours through the US and Europe followed right after the pandemic.

The same trio released the album “Dance Of The Elders” in 2023, which received comprehensive and enthusiastic reviews. In the fall of 2023, the trio embarked on a several-week concert tour through Europe, performing in sold-out concert halls and jazz clubs.

Muthspiel’s numerous awards include the Hans Koller Prize for Musician of the Year and the award for European Jazz Musician of the Year 2003. In addition, Musicians magazine has selected him as one of the “top 10 jazz guitarists of the world”. December 2020

In 2021 he received the German Jazz Prize in the Category „String Instruments International“.

Scott Colley
originated in Los Angeles, California and at age 13, began studying with bassist Monty Budwig. As the recipient of a full scholarship at CalArts, Scott was able to continue his studies with Charlie Haden and the classical bassist Fred Tinsley. Before graduating college, Scott began touring with Carmen McRae, which led him to performing with Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Jordan, Joe Henderson and Art Farmer. After moving to New York City in 1988, Scott continued playing with artists such as Jim Hall, Andrew Hill, Herbie Hancock, John Scofield, Joshua Redman, Chris Potter, Gary Burton, and many others.

Brian Blade
was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1970. The first music he experienced was the Gospel and songs of praise at the Zion Baptist Church where his father, Brady L. Blade, Sr., has been the pastor since 1961. He has played and recorded with Wayne Shorter, Daniel Lanois, Joni Mitchell, Kenny Garrett, Ellis Marsalis, Chick Corea, Marianne Faithfull, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris and Bob Dylan. In 1997, Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band was formed with pianist Jon Cowherd and the band has recorded seven albums.

This album contains no booklet.