Autor: Muriel Grossmann

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
————–

                   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 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

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!

 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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