Muriel Grossmann

Review of The Light Of The Mind by Jason Gross, The New York City Jazz Records, March 2025

Review of The Light Of The Mind by Jason Gross, The New York City Jazz Records, March 2025

Liner Notes — The Light Of The Mind by Michael Jacklin

LINER NOTES by MICHAEL JACKLIN

Muriel Grossmann ‘The Light of the Mind’ (2024).

Those who know know. Muriel Grossmann’s reputation as a leading practitioner of spiritual jazz that grooves, deeply grooves, has grown steadily with every new recording. From early albums such as ‘Quartet’ in 2008 to ‘Birth of the Mystery’ in 2010 to her breakout album ‘Golden Rule’ in 2018 and her recent ‘Devotion’ in 2023, Grossmann’s music has won accolades from critics and adoration from listeners around the globe. From her recording studio and her own label Dreamlandrecords on the island of Ibiza, through to the distribution of international music labels including RRGEMS in Europe, Jazzman from the UK, and more recently Passerine Records and Third Man Records from the USA, Grossmann’s music has won devoted fans the world over. If, however, you are a new listener, you will find with this album that you have come to a place where contemporary spiritual jazz meets happiness. Serious happiness.

In her interview with All About Jazz writer Dave Kaufman, Muriel Grossmann comments on happiness, noting that ‘if we ask ourselves when we are happiest, it is surely when we have made somebody happy,’ and she goes on to quote the Dalai Lama: ‘When we feel love and kindness towards others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it also helps us to develop inner happiness and peace.’

Listening to the music on ‘The Light of the Mind’, Grossmann’s 16th album as leader, one feels that happiness is the core of this recording. It is happiness achieved through reciprocity, interconnection, devotion, reverence and practice. Grossmann has explained to reviewers of her previous albums the importance of Buddhism in her daily life and the role of meditation and post-meditation practice. The titles of her recent albums and compositions reflect this. Glance through the titles on ‘The Light of the Mind’ and you will begin to appreciate the connection between Buddhist thought and Grossmann’s creation of spiritual jazz.

The opening track ‘Pointing Out, Part I’ begins with a minute and a half of mood-setting Fender Rhodes, Hammond B3 organ and Moog by keyboardist Abel Boquera before the rest of the quartet joins in. In Buddhist thought, pointing out is an introduction to awareness, an exercise to direct one’s understanding towards the nature of mind. When Grossmann’s tenor saxophone enters accompanied by Uros Stamenkovic’s softly rolling drums and cymbals and Radomir Milojkovic’s quiet guitar, the listener is invited to join them in contemplation and preparation for the numbers to come. The title track which follows immediately enters into a groove with Grossmann again on tenor driving the number through a searing 4 minute solo, handing over to Milojkovic whose intricate, sinuous guitar line is followed by Boquera soloing on Hammond and the entire 12 minute experience held together by Stamenkovic’s snapping and sparkling drum work. The closing number on Side I, ‘Unison Unveiled’ is this rare psychedelic R’n’B gem straight from the 1967 summer of love, with Grossmann playing through on soprano sax and edging towards ecstasy. Who said spiritual jazz can’t dance?

The first number on Side II, ‘Ultimate Awareness’, begins with haunting bass-end Hammond, light cymbal touches, sparse guitar, harp arpeggios and meditation bell, leading to slow sultry lines of soprano sax, handing over half way through to a compelling and bluesy guitar solo by Milojkovic, followed by a slinky Hammond run by Boquera, with Stamenkovic’s restrained and light punctuation throughout, the whole ending with meditation bell and harp fading into silence. Beautiful. Meditation bell is also the first sound on the next track ‘Eternal Laughter’, with Grossmann entering on flute, then switching to alto saxophone, and Stamenkovic kicking up the pace to dance fever once more. The joy of this number reminds us that laughter has its place in both contemplation and in our togetherness. Our being together in midst of this crazy life.

The album closer ‘Pointing Out, Part II’ has Grossmann returning to tenor for a slow, meditative solo atop a marching rhythm sustained by drums, guitar and Hammond. The happiness in this number is one of moving together, playing together, listening together, as we contemplate our awareness, our mindfulness, our being here, in this moment, now.

May the music you hear on ‘The Light of the Mind’ bring you such moments, such happiness.

Michael Jacklin, August 2024

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Concert critic Porgy & Bess Feb 2024 by Samir H. Köck

Now America is at the feet of our jazz star

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Pure ecstasy: Saxophonist Muriel Grossmann presented her new album “Devotion” at Porgy & Bess. BY SAMIR H. KÖCK

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Since Joe Zawinul, no one in the Austrian jazz scene has achieved such an international impact as this. But was she ever part of it? The only thing that is certain is that Muriel Grossmann briefly worked as a waitress at Porgy & Bess. She has been living in Ibiza since 2004 and has developed her intensive improvisational art on the tenor saxophone there, which has become increasingly popular. Now US rock star Jack White (White Stripes) has taken the plunge and released Grossmann’s famous new album “Devotion” on his Third Man label. A US tour in the fall is being prepared, thus igniting a further stage in her career . It was hot right from the start in the packed Porgy, also because Grossmann acted extremely heatedly. The mise en place was already impressive: alto, soprano and tenor saxophones were waiting in holders, shell and snail shell necklaces around the microphone. The The setlist rested on the organ, which newcomer Abel Boquera handled with confidence. Radomir Milojkovic shone on the guitar, Uros Stamenkovic worked on the drums. With “Absolute Truth”, a groove marathon, things got into full swing. The rough sound was reminiscent of the late sixties, when soul jazz first came to the fore. It was amazing what energy and endurance this delicate person had. When her colleagues soloed , she danced, rustled with shells or hit the miniature chimes. For the second set she brought Gina Schwarz onto the stage, a “sister in crime” and “murderer on the bass,” as Grossmann rightly said. And because the hour doesn’t strike for the lucky ones, it ended up being almost three. Pure ecstasy!

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Review of Devotion by Elliott Simon, The New York City Jazz Records, March 2024

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Review of Universal Code by Tim Caspar Boehme, HHV Magazin, Germany

Review of Universal Code by Tim Caspar Boehme,
HHV Magazin, Germany, 28.06.23

VIEW ORIGINAL SOURCE HERE

The term “Universal Code” encompasses a remarkable collection of different types of character sets. First, there is Unicode in typography, then genetics, where the word refers to DNA. It also has a function in programming languages and even in ethics. In the album “Universal Code” by saxophonist Muriel Grossmann, who lives in Ibiza, her music itself serves as another meaning. It is a modal jazz that appeals to the spiritual through its polyrhythmically complex groove, without neglecting the body as another recipient. Her long pieces with extended improvisations effortlessly propel forward, deriving strength from highly disciplined ensemble play, where flexing muscles is not part of the gestures. Muriel Grossmann and her three collaborators — guitarist Radomir Milojkovic, Llorenç Barceló on Hammond organ, and drummer Uros Stamenkovic, with bassist Gina Schwarz supporting them in some tracks — engage their audience in this manner. The compositions of Muriel Grossmann possess too much elegance for that purpose. Upon the initial impression, this approach may seem outdated, but over the course of nearly seventy minutes, which “Universal Code” claims, it simply proves to be a classic vocabulary that derives its modernity from the fact that these melodies and harmonies, these phrasings and accents, all naturally fall into place and speak directly to the listener. The first three tracks are named “Resonance,” “Clarity,” and “Interconnection,” precisely describing what the music does to you.

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Album Review for UNIVERSAL CODE by Jan Hocek in SKJAZZ.SK, 02/03/2023

ALBUM REVIEW for UNIVERSAL CODE by Jan Hocek in SKJAZZ.SK, 02/03/2023

Since 2007, the Austrian (though born in Paris) saxophonist and composer Muriel Grossmann has been releasing albums of extraordinary quality and artistic depth. She has been living in Ibiza since 2004 and has developed a distinctly spiritual approach to modern jazz. She thus develops the legacy of John Coltrane, combines African music, modal jazz, gospel, blues, free jazz, acid-jazz and Eastern traditions in a completely natural, complex, expressive, rhythmic and narrative manner with full-blooded vigor and sensitivity at the same time. After all, we already reviewed four of her previous albums here: CD Muriel Grossmann – Momentum (Dreamland Records, 2017), CD Muriel Grossmann — Reverence (Dreamland Records, 2019), CD Muriel Grossmann – Quiet Earth (Dreamland Records, 2020) and CD Muriel Grossmann — Union (Dreamland Records, 2021) and with enthusiasm. On the new recording, she found a true universal code of modern jazz; together with her teammates, she literally created the essence of the most vital, the most enduring jazz, regardless of current fashions and trends. After all, there are really excellent instrumentalists playing in her quartet. Guitarist Radomir Milojkovic, a native of Belgrade, studied music in Barcelona from 2002, then performed and recorded with, for example, Christian Lillinger, Johannes Fink and Joachim Kühn. He has been living and working in Ibiza since 2007, where he became a regular teammate of Muriel Grossmann. Organist Llorenç Barceló was born in Mallorca, ten years ago he worked in the European Jazz Orchestra, with David Murray and his band accompanied James “Blood” Ulmer on his European tour. He currently plays extensively with African musicians, is a member of the Ghost Seed trio, and since 2018 has also been playing with Muriel Grossmann. Drummer Uros Stamenkovic from Belgrade studied and worked in Barcelona, from where he moved to Toronto, Canada in 2008, later to New York, and returned to Serbia in 2013. A year later he started working with Grossmann. Austrian bassist Gina Schwarz, who certainly does not need to be introduced here, is a guest on three tracks (out of nine). I’ll admit that her double bass in Transience is intoxicatingly captivating; however, her virtuosity is not an end in itself, on the contrary, it expands the expressiveness of jazz by a directly physical dimension. After all, right from the opening, nine-minute long track Resonance, the listener is exposed to the attack of something almost otherworldly, simply indescribable. The rhythmic flow is saturated with acid, the organ is psychedelically blurred, as if cracked, everything has a hypnotic effect. And over that rolls a melodious and passionate saxophone, beating from the heart, from the inside of a woman, which has turned into a pulsating, expanding Universe. The soprano in particular, with her ferocious melodiousness, enhances the spiritual effect of the music; in addition to Resonance, there are also the tracks Clarity, the more than ten-minute long Interconnection and Essence). However, it must be added that the entire album does not have a single weakness and if you let yourself be absorbed, you will be rewarded with an extraordinary listening experience that has the power to truly enrich your life. It’s not just music, it’s something that transcends a person… Of course, I’m belatedly including this album in my Top 10, or rather now Top 11!
Jan Hocek, skjazz, Slovakia
They play:
Muriel Grossmann – soprano, alto and tenor saxophone
Radomir Milojkovic — guitar
Llorens Barcelo Vives — Hammond organ
Uros Stamenkovic — drums
… and guest:
Gina Schwarz – double bass

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Universal Code Album Review by Patrick Španko in Skjazz.sk on 02/03/2023

Album Review by Patrick Španko in Skjazz.sk on 02/03/2023

They play:
Muriel Grossmann – soprano, alto and tenor saxophone
Radomir Milojkovic — guitar
Llorens Barcelo Vives — Hammond organ
Uros Stamenkovic — drums
… and guest:
Gina Schwarz – double bass

About this Album — Universal Code

MURIEL GROSSMANN — UNIVERSAL CODE

LINER NOTES from the original album cover by Thom Jurek:

Since 2007, saxophonist and composer Muriel Grossmann has been releasing albums of uncommon quality and depth. After arriving in Ibiza from Barcelona in 2004, she has created a distinctively individual approach to spiritual jazz. Building on a sound developed in the 1960s by the Coltranes and others, Grossmann’s approach joins African music, modal jazz, gospel, blues, free-jazz and Eastern traditions with a fluid, nearly elastic polyrhythmic sensibility.

The Paris-born, Vienna-raised Grossmann believes our evolution towards enlightenment is already engraved in our being, our humanity. While physical DNA evidences it biologically, our path according to Buddhist belief, no matter how many lifetimes we inhabit, always moves towards an awakening that transcends, and ultimately frees us from DNA’s biological limitations. Music, a form of communication that exists beyond spoken language transcends its own formally notated DNA. Grossmann employs her experiential and learned musical and life knowledge, linking them to a profound desire to ease the suffering of others, and to encourage evolution toward enlightenment and freedom.

This music on Universal Code is long on contemplative, instrumental dexterity, as well as harmonic and rhythmic invention. Its spiritual aspirations are articulated via interrogative melodies, poignant solos, and interwoven grooves that resonate inside the listener’s ears, mind, and body. Universal Code features Grossmann’s quartet on six tracks that bookend three (“Transience,” “Essence,” and “Non-Duality”), with a quintet that includes double bassist Gina Schwarz. Belgrade-born guitarist Radomir Milojkovic has been working with Grossmann since 2002. His rounded tone and endless curiosity add immeasurably to the group’s questing approach. Serbian drummer Uros Stamenkovic and double bassist Gina Schwarz (herself an Austrian bandleader and recording artist) joined for 2016’s Natural Time, trademarking the collective’s unique approach. In 2018, Hammond B‑3 organist Llorenç Barcelo, from the neighbouring island Mallorca, joined the band, appearing on 2019’s Reverence, 2020’s Quiet Earth and 2021’s Union.

The music follows a winding aural road from intention to impression to perception, and from awareness to transformation and ultimately, transcendence. “Resonance” commences with a tom tom break, probing guitar chords and a B‑3 vamp. Grossmann’s soprano enters on the second chorus as the ensemble’s rhythms begin percolating. She rides the mode, creating an Eastern-tinged swing. Milojkovic’s snaky guitar break engages blues and postbop. The B‑3 bassline in “Clarity” is assertive atop glistening hi hat cymbals, a pulsing electric guitar vamp, and Grossmann’s soprano in midflight. The quartet interlocks in a different cadence on the bridge before she delivers a serpentine sax solo that slides around her bandmates before emerging in the center. The urgent “Interconnection” offers counter rhythms balanced by guitar and organ in call-and- response fashion while Grossmann solos. Her skeins of notes flow before her band’s incessant, driving motion breaks down into funky soul jazz while Milojkovic’s solo channels Grant Green.

Schwarz’s deep, resonant, woody tone introduces “Transience,” atop syncopated rim shots and a wafting organ groove before Grossmann’s wandering modal lyric offering modal statements from the Arab and Spanish worlds. Schwarz is a guiding presence on a glorious meld of modal jazz, spectral blues, spacious R&B, and polyrhythmic inquiry on “Non-Duality,” culminating in Grossmann’s authoritative, deeply expressive tenor. Schwarz adds a “walking” presence to “Essence” that transcends the trappings of 12 bar blues even as her bandmates revel in them.

The quartet returns with the more rhythmically propulsive “Liberation.” Introduced by a circular B‑3 bassline and a fluid guitar vamp, Grossmann’s tenor delivers the head with Stamenkovic’s kit flowing, filling and driving alongside her. Her tenor solo soars above the quartet’s spacious, nearly breathing grooves. “Post-Meditation” finds Grossmann on flute as well as tenor. The loose minor mode provides a solid blues flavor that Milojkovic transforms into jazz-blues with a funky solo. Grossmann’s knotty, labyrinthine tenor break traces his invention wedding both themes, accompanied only by Stamenkovic. Closer “Compassion” a nearly raucous party track, offers a lyrical, swinging midtempo ballad, alternating with a finger-popping rock with a soul vibe framed by marimbas, biting guitar and tenor sax. For Grossmann’s band, this spiritual journey ends with the celebration of arrival. These musicians communicate an aural, instructive journey through emotions, spiritual states, doubt, and awareness collectively and individually. Universal Code is an achievement. It frames their utterances, questions and discoveries in a visionary yet warmly welcoming approach that exponentially extends the spiritual jazz tradition in the 21st century.
~ Thom Jurek, is an author, poet, and senior writer All-Music Guide.

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Article of Mihály Czékus in HangzásVilág Magazin Hungary, Aug/2021

Article of Mihály Czékus in HangzásVilág Magazin Hungary, Aug/2021

Alto, soprano and tenor saxophonist and composer Muriel Grossmann, can be called a real world citizen. She was born in Paris but grew up in Vienna and has lived in Ibiza for more than a decade and a half. She studied classical flute in the Austrian capital from the age of five to the age of twenty-one, and later switched to the saxophone. Muriel is a great admirer and follower of the work of John Coltrane. A few years ago, she also gave a very successful concert in Budapest. We are now presenting two of the artist’s albums. A special feature of these is that in addition to the CD, they are also available on vinyl.

Muriel Grossmann made her “Golden Rule” album with her band, which was founded in 2014 and still works today. The music team is a real international formation, with Serbian Radomir Milojkovic playing guitar, Austrian Gina Schwarz on bass and Serbian Uros Stamenkovic on drums.

The album proves well that Grossmann not only simply listened to Coltrane a lot, but also understood the late musician’s message. — Through her own compositions — the true beauty, honesty and joy of Coltrane’s musical thoughts live on while masterfully displaying her own creative ideas. This album is a rich repository of new ideas, a production of character and special pleasure to the listener’s ears. Grossmann is notoriously a big supporter of the so-called spell game. Accordingly, more than half of the 7 composition repertoire consists of recordings longer than 11 minutes of playing time. Outstanding among them is the nearly 19-minute “Traneing In”. For those who love rich, breathtaking works that encourage the soul to soar freely, this album is a real treat.

Golden Rule conveys meditative calm and ecstatic joy. Grossmann shows what melodies she can bring out of her instrument, playing a lyrical solo that seems like a discreet composition in every bar. The dynamism of the soloists and the telekinetic performance of the quartet accomplish the goal of the album: it evokes a state similar to transcendence from its audience.

Featuring: Muriel Grossmann — soprano and tenor saxophone, Radomir Milojkovic — guitar, Gina Schwarz — double bass, Uros Stamenkovic — drums.

A new musician will also make his debut on Muriel Grossmann’s album “Quiet Earth”. Llorenç Barcelo, who plays the Hammond organ from Mallorca, doesn’t take the place of one of the old musicians, but expands the band.

This plate is shorter in size than usual from Grossmann. Only four songs are on this album with a showtime of about 40 minutes, all of the saxophonist’s own compositions. In a well-traceable way, Grossmann draws a lot of inspiration from John Coltrane in this production as well. Well, for me personally, the music of a saxophone always evokes the most positive emotions. This disc is no exception. “Wien” opening the album is the only one that can be called classical (in the jazz sense). We need to think mainly about the structure of the composition, where after a solo with the saxophonist, Milojkovic’s guitar, then Barcelo’s organ, and finally Grossmann’s saxophone come to the fore again. In the world of thought of the composition, the pulsating, modern Austrian capital appears more than in the time of the imperial Vienna anno Franz Joseph.

The composition “African Call” can also be seen as a kind of reference to the artist’s previous album, “Reverence”. At the very least, it is closely related to the vivid saxophone colors and the varying antecedents of African motifs that give the rhythm section a prominent role. The impression is emerging that African Call just didn’t have a place on that album, but it works well here. The second half of the album seems like a kind of creed. In the form of “Peaceful River” and “Quiet Earth,” Muriel Grossmann’s dreams of how our planet should look (see her wishes on the album notes) appear.

Everyone wants to use their own means to draw attention to the dangers lurking on our planet. The importance of sustainable development. What can a musician do about this? SHe composes music and fills his/her works with such thoughtfulness that it is deeply ingrained in the listener’s memory. Featuring: Muriel Grossmann — soprano alto and tenor saxophone, Radomir Milojkovic — guitar, Gina Schwarz — double bass, Uros Stamenkovic — drums, Llorenç Barcelo — Hammond organ

Mihály Czékus in HangzásVilág Magazin Hungary, Aug/2021

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LLORENÇ BARCELÓ organ
(Mallorca)

Llorenç was born in 1988 in Mallorca and began playing piano at the young age of 4 years at the school in Manacor. With 14 the change to the organ. Later he completed the course the studies of higher music in the workshop of musics. In 2012 he was selected for a tour with the European Jazz Orchestra and recorded an album in Kiev, Ukraine. He has also worked in David Murray’s Blues Orchestra accompanying James “Blood” Ulmer in several European capitals.

He currently works with the Amazones d’Afrique, accompanying a large number of African artists; Rokia Koné, Kandia Kouyate, Nneka, Mamani Keyta, Pamela Badjogo, Mariam Doumbia … Currently he is also a member of the band “Ghost Seed” an organ trio formed by the great guitarist Jean-Paul Bourelly, ex-guitarist of Miles Davis , and Dani Dominguez on drums.Since 2018 he forms also part of the Muriel Grossmann Quintet. In 2022 he went on a tour around the world for half a year with Rosalia.

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