REVIEW
IMPROJAZZ, France Jun/2018 by Marc SARRAZY
Muriel GROSSMANN — MOMENTUM
Dreamland DR 09
Muriel Grossmann (ss, as, ts), Radomir Milojkovic (elg), Gina Schwarz (b), Uros Stamenkovic (dm)
Like a handful of cherries dancing at the end of the branch, prey to the wind, a few notes of beaded, suspended guitar that rock and rise. Who is calling a rhythm like others would perform a rain dance? Thus, in a few seconds, a real musical incantation takes shape that suddenly takes flesh by the thunderous arrival of the tenor saxophone. We have all seen, one winter day closer to the hearth, a bunch of flames instantly born from a carpet of glowing embers, take shape and begin to swell, spinning in a crazy dance, growing, inexorably amounting. This picture, this story, is the one told by the album Momentum and this, from the very first measures of the inaugural piece, the aptly named “Elevation”. The music, initially evanescent, embarks on a perpetual, almost spiritual quest, which inevitably rises to the sound of a primordial groove, supported by the sturdy swaying of the double bass play and by the odd structures attracted by the rhythmic excitement of the drummer.
The pieces of the disc often come close to the ten minutes; it is the ideal time for the musical work to present itself blooming in the reminiscences. The ideal time for light saxophonistic fevers spinning in its own drunkenness, because the improvisations unfold freely, inside the rhythmic waves and the effervescence sound. The pieces follow each other, the harmonies come into resonance and reverberate, “Momentum”, as an evidence, “Chant”, natural and universal, “Sacred”, a true hymn turned to the passion for freedom, the incandescent “Horizon”, the powerful “Rising” that responds as an echo to “Elevation”, finally “Gratitude”, as a thank you to the master, lucid and serene. By its structure indeed, its flamboyant path, its moving chants and the solar flights of the saxophone, Momentum can be read as a poignant homage to A Love Supreme.
Muriel Grossmann, who had embarked on a rough free jazz in the late 2000s, crossing the roads of Joachim Kühn and Wolfgang Reisinger, began to refocus on her quartet training with guitarist Radomir Milojkovic, faithful accomplice of the saxophonist: he develops a pointillist game adorned with sparkling trills, who also stubbornly works the resonance of a single note in the manner of … David Gilmour. With the team of Gina Schwarz and Uros Stamenkovic the group has found its ground and the Coltrane aesthetics, initiated since the excellent Earth Tones (2015), was confirmed with Natural Time (2016), a record just as deep, and today with Momentum, the trilogy has found its culmination.
Vibrant, passionate, exhilarating, the music of Muriel Grossmann captivates majestically. And Momentum: a monument of what is called spiritual jazz. Marc SARRAZY, ImproJazz, June 2018