Rising grace

Description

For his second album "Rising Grace," the Austrian guitarist gathered a special quintet, adding pianist Brad Mehldau and the promising young trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire to the subtle rhythm section formed by the pair Blade and Grenadier. Wolfgang Muthspiel, whom the New Yorker described as a "radiant light" among today's jazz guitarists, made his debut on ECM in 2014 with an album created within the trio Driftwood that he formed with two of his long-time colleagues, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Brian Blade. Muthspiel navigates between electric guitar and classical guitar. His playing is alternately groovy (Boogaloo) and enchanting (Rising Grace). The lyrical flights of Akinmusire's trumpet and Mehldau's penetrating improvisations traverse the rich compositions of Muthspiel like threads of gold. The program notably includes a warm tribute to the great ECM artist Kenny Wheeler (Den Wheeler, Den Kenny). Rising Grace also features a deeply melodic original composition by Mehldau specially conceived for the album, Wolfgang's Waltz.