About this album — UNION

MURIEL GROSSMANN — UNION

LINER NOTES from the ori­gi­nal album cover:
Muri­el Grossmann’s music had an immedia­te impact on me from the moment I first heard it. It was music with dedi­ca­ti­on, spea­king from the heart. I felt it speaks of past and pre­sent, with joy and hap­pi­ness. Ten seconds into lis­tening and I was hoo­ked. I was all over the web try­ing to find a vinyl copy, but stran­ge­ly enough the­re was­n’t any avail­ab­le. Without a second thought we deci­ded to get in touch with Muri­el and ask how that is pos­si­ble. And behold, befo­re long, we were lis­tening to the pre­mix of ”Gol­den Rule”. I remem­ber being insi­de of that record for the first time and having this fee­ling you get when you don’t real­ly want to lea­ve a place any­mo­re. This was music per­for­med with a gre­at artis­tic con­cen­tra­ti­on, inte­gri­ty and ener­gy. I felt a genui­ne love lis­tening to the first side.

After the record ”Gol­den Rule” recei­ved good reviews, got acco­la­des from record collec­tors around the world, was voted best record of 2018 by UK VIBE and was nomi­na­ted for the Jazz Album Of The Year for the Gil­les Peter­son World­wi­de Awards, Muri­el Gross­mann and the band were back to their usu­al rou­ti­ne, per­forming, tou­ring and record­ing the fol­low up to ”Gol­den Rule”, a for­mi­da­ble record enti­t­led ”Rever­ence”. While the record was still in the making, I cal­led Muri­el and told her that it would be gre­at to final­ly meet in per­son. Muri­el sug­gested we meet on her forth­co­m­ing tour of the Balea­ric Islands in ear­ly autumn of 2019. I pro­po­sed immedia­te­ly to make a short road movie about that tour and that the band should record live if pos­si­ble. The task of cap­tu­ring a live per­for­mance at the con­cert pro­ved to be impos­si­ble, but she mana­ged to book a two-day record­ing ses­si­on in Mal­lor­ca stu­dio Caja Del Rui­do with an actu­al Ham­mond B3. I remem­ber we arri­ved one day pri­or to the gig in Mal­lor­ca to make a record­ing ses­si­on the same day. Gina Schwarz — the bass play­er — could not make it so ear­ly though, and it took Llo­renç Bar­celó by sur­pri­se. While war­ming up his fin­gers on the Ham­mond he rea­li­zed that Gina was not going to par­ti­ci­pa­te in the record­ing ses­si­on and he had to step into her ter­ri­to­ry. But after all, Muri­el just wan­ted to cap­tu­re the live set and she did it excep­tio­nal­ly and with grace.

The set opens in a cool tem­po when the band enters into a deep medi­ta­ti­on, play­ing ”HAPPINESS” with Muri­el picking up the tenor saxo­pho­ne in a com­po­si­ti­on from her 2016 album ”Natu­ral Time”, a com­po­si­tio­nal embo­di­ment and a remin­der of why she caught the wide inte­rest and ima­gi­na­ti­on of dedi­ca­ted lis­teners. When Llo­renç picks up the groo­ve on the Ham­mond bass pedals, you can instant­ly feel the ten­si­on gro­wing and from that moment on, I rea­li­zed it’s going to be one hell of a ride. Rado­mir Milo­j­ko­vic takes the first solo, play­ing intri­ca­te bebop lines cou­pled with extra­or­di­na­ry excur­si­ons into blues. He pays a pas­sio­na­te and heart­ful homage to his gui­tar heroes — Wes Mont­go­me­ry, Pat Mar­ti­no, Grant Green and Geor­ge Ben­son. After the gui­tar solo Muri­el brings the band back into a medi­ta­ti­on, play­ing an airy and atmo­s­phe­ric solo, taking the road less tra­v­eled. The way the band accom­pa­nies Gross­mann is sta­te of the art in deli­vering the true sen­se of the musi­cal expres­si­on ”to accom­pa­ny a soloist”. The third soloist, Llo­renç Bar­celó, dis­plays his deep know­ledge and dedi­ca­ti­on for the Ham­mond as an instru­ment and for the mas­ters that play­ed it. Barceló’s atten­ti­on to details, refi­ned lan­guage and musi­ci­anship shi­nes through this well exe­cu­t­ed solo, brin­ging to mind such icons of the instru­ment as Lon­nie Lis­ton Smith, Don Pat­ter­son, Lar­ry Young, Son­ny Phil­lips and Richard Groo­ve Hol­mes. Llo­renç Barceló’s uni­que way of play­ing and thin­king was con­fir­med in a con­ver­sa­ti­on that I held with him whe­re he exp­lai­ned to me how he built up his first Ham­mond organ from scratch, buy­ing pie­ce by pie­ce online. All this hea­vy-duty play­ing is gui­ded by a steady ”hand that rocks the crad­le” embo­di­ed in the mas­ter­ful, hard swin­ging and groo­ving man behind the drum set, Uros Sta­men­ko­vic, the rhythm man who digs deep into a groo­ve, embra­cing the per­for­mance as a whole. 
On the second tune ”TRANEING IN” all guns are bla­zing. The com­po­si­ti­on from her cele­bra­ted record ”Gol­den Rule” is play­ed here in a slight­ly fas­ter tem­po, a sopra­no saxo­pho­ne work­out dedi­ca­ted to none other than John Col­tra­ne. Gross­mann takes char­ge, dis­play­ing her per­fect melo­dic sen­se and sto­ry­tel­ling skill while lea­ding the ensem­ble into an ener­ge­tic tran­ce. The band responds with elastic mul­ti­di­rec­tio­n­al groo­ves, psy­che­de­lic sound­s­capes and super­im­po­sed har­mo­nies, which pro­ves to be a power­ful ending for Side A.

Side B opens up with one of my all-time favou­rites ”SUNDOWN”, a com­po­si­ti­on from the 2019 record ”Rever­ence”, which was at that time only being road tes­ted, sin­ce this ses­si­on took place while the record­ing of ”Rever­ence” was still in full flow. I remem­ber medi­ta­ting during the record­ing of this song and drif­ting into a sta­te of semi-con­scious­ness bet­ween the two takes, becau­se I felt so rela­xed, the music detaching me from rea­li­ty. In the begin­ning Bar­celó gives a hint of an alrea­dy fami­li­ar bass line on the upper keys, befo­re he aban­dons it at the same time as Rado­mir Milo­j­ko­vic pulls out the sli­de, con­fir­ming that it wasn’t a one-off when he play­ed his stel­lar sli­de solo on the com­po­si­ti­on ”Wien” from their last 2020 record ”Quiet Earth”. While the sli­de gui­tar in ”Wien” was play­ed more in a Mud­dy Waters tra­di­ti­on, here in ”SUNDOWN” it ser­ves as a cine­ma­tic back­drop and coun­ter­point to Muriel’s gor­ge­ous, gent­le and soot­hing tenor play­ing. Altog­e­ther it crea­tes an empowe­ring expe­ri­ence, which real­ly allows you to step into a place and a time reflec­ting your inner being and inner direc­tion fee­ling sub­stan­ti­al­ly con­nec­ted to natu­re and the universe.

Then you wake from a dream when the band pumps up the tem­po once again on the vibrant com­po­si­ti­on cal­led ”AFRICAN DANCE”, which was first recor­ded for the afo­re­men­tio­ned album ”Natu­ral Time”. Sta­men­ko­vic gets into the bur­ning hard, dri­ving up-tem­po Afro-Cuban rhythm, while Gross­mann deli­vers motifs and short burst phra­ses, this time on the alto saxo­pho­ne. Milo­j­ko­vic and Bar­celó are locked into an infec­tious riff that makes you want to put on your dan­cing shoes and start jum­ping, pum­ping and shou­ting. It is an inten­se per­for­mance encom­pas­sing the trade­mark sound of this band, which gets under your skin after just a few bars. 
The album clo­ses with ano­t­her tune from the record ”Rever­ence” that was also a part of a live set at that time, an impec­ca­ble pie­ce of music cal­led ”UNION”. Uros Sta­men­ko­vic plays a gre­at Mile­si­an groo­ve and the who­le band gets into the tran­ce, while Gross­mann deli­vers the melo­dy in shaman-like fashion. It is free from fears and total­ly dis­con­nec­ted from belief sys­tems and in its cul­mi­na­ti­on you can feel the divi­ne spi­ri­tu­al con­nec­ted­ness of this group as they deli­ver an exer­cise in sound that embo­dies a UNION.

In the con­text of this record and the pre­vious ones, we can clear­ly talk about Muri­el Grossmann’s music as a style of music that is dis­tinc­ti­ve and reco­gniz­ab­le from the very first note. If the­re is any remo­te­ly posi­ti­ve side to the situa­ti­on that the who­le world has found its­elf in, it is that this record is able to see the light of day, which other­wi­se would have been unli­kely, sin­ce Muri­el alrea­dy had her fol­low up to ”Rever­ence” com­po­sed and rea­dy for record­ing. As it tur­ned out, both records ”Quiet Earth” and ”Uni­on” got their oppor­tu­ni­ty to be heard rather than being shel­ved deep in the record­ing vaults.

As Muri­el told me on the road: 
“True kind­ness and com­pas­si­on are ari­sing from the under­stan­ding that all things are inter­ac­ting inter­de­pendent­ly, are con­nec­ted but con­stant­ly chan­ging, somehow imper­ma­nent. And it is through this kind­ness and com­pas­si­on that we are united.”
Liner Notes by Dmi­tri Kalinin

REVIEW in UK VIBE by Mike Gates

It’s all too easy some­ti­mes to get stuck in the past. I do it mys­elf, often. And with album relea­ses this year such as Coltrane’s Love Supre­me Live in Seat­tle, and reis­su­es like Man­kun­ku Quartet’s Yakhal Inko­mo, just to name a cou­p­le of examp­les, we can see why. If, howe­ver, we turn our atten­ti­on to the pre­sent day, it is incredi­b­ly hear­tening to know that the spi­rit of Col­tra­ne lives on. Two artists, in par­ti­cu­lar, embo­dy the true mea­ning of the master’s music in their own very spe­cial way; saxo­pho­nists Nat Bir­chall and Muri­el Grossmann.

Over the last few years, Bir­chall and Gross­mann have both mana­ged to suc­cess­ful­ly shi­ne a beau­ti­ful light on Coltrane’s lega­cy, whilst com­po­sing and per­forming new ori­gi­nal music that is undoub­ted­ly their own, breat­hing new life into the style of music that Col­tra­ne, and others, began some fif­ty-plus years ago.

Having lis­tened to, and tho­rough­ly enjoy­ed, Muri­el Grossmann’s last few albums, it’s par­ti­cu­lar­ly plea­sing to hear a slight chan­ge of direc­tion on her latest release, “Uni­on”. OK, so may­be the words ‘slight chan­ge of direc­tion’ are a litt­le too strong, but I do detect a gent­le shift in empha­sis on this record­ing. It is perhaps more down to the band line-up and choice of instru­men­ta­ti­on more than anything else, but the­re seems to me to be a richer, ful­ler, more uncom­pro­mi­sing vibe to this ses­si­on that I real­ly like. It’s an incredi­b­ly power­ful sound that if anything, harks back to some of Elvin Jones’ clas­sic 70’s Jazz Machi­ne albums like “Remem­bran­ce”, rather than the afo­re­men­tio­ned inspi­ra­ti­ons from the ’60s.

“Uni­on” kicks off with the very impres­si­ve “Hap­pi­ness”, a tune ori­gi­nal­ly recor­ded on Grossmann’s 2016 release “Natu­ral Time”. Rado­mir Milojkovic’s focus­sed gui­tar and Uros Stamenkovic’s pun­chy drums get strai­ght into the groo­ve. Grossmann’s cos­mic melo­dy lines work par­ti­cu­lar­ly well with the mel­low, bass-dri­ven chor­d­al impro­vi­sa­ti­ons of Lorenc Barcelo’s Ham­mond organ. The band are so tog­e­ther, jour­ney­ing on and out­ward as the tune pro­gres­ses in its own com­pel­ling magni­ficence. “Tran­eing In” is a wild romp through more unchar­te­red ter­ri­to­ry, Grossmann’s sopra­no sax soa­ring abo­ve an almost Alt/Country music gui­tar riff. Gui­tar and Ham­mond solos fea­ture stron­gly, cut­ting in against the ever-pre­sent full-steam-ahead drums. A back­drop of per­cus­sive tex­tures and spi­ri­tu­al sounds greet the lis­tener on the medi­ta­ti­ve “Sun­down”. Ori­gi­nal­ly recor­ded for the 2019 album “Rever­ence”, an empowe­ring expe­ri­ence flows through the music, sub­t­le sli­de gui­tar adding to the atmo­s­phe­re of this won­der­ful tune. “Afri­can Dance” revels in its cele­bra­to­ry vibe, its upbeat Afro-Cuban rhyth­ms punc­tua­ted per­fect­ly by Grossmann’s gor­ge­ous­ly efferve­scent and soul­ful tenor sax play­ing. The tit­le track “Uni­on” is tran­ce-like in natu­re, and Grossmann’s stun­ning, uplif­ting sax play­ing takes this pie­ce into a dif­fe­rent stra­to­s­phe­re altog­e­ther. The spi­ri­tu­al con­nec­ted­ness of the who­le band plays a major part in making this tune so com­pel­ling and rewarding.

And so, once more, Muri­el Gross­mann has deli­ve­r­ed a won­der­ful album for our ears, hearts, and minds, to sit back and enjoy. As with many things in life, this music allows us to look back, whilst stay­ing in the moment of the here-and-now. And it is such a beau­ti­ful moment. You can’t help but go with the flow. Open up to it and enjoy it. Mike Gates, UK VIBE

REVIEW DUSTY GROOVE, CHICAGO

Com­ple­te­ly stun­ning music from the mar­ve­lous Muri­el Gross­mann – a saxo­pho­nist who’s beco­me one of our favo­ri­te jazz talents over the cour­se of the past deca­de – thanks to deeply spi­ri­tu­al work like this! The album’s got a Ham­mond organ, some­thing you’­re not as always likely to see in a ses­si­on like this – play­ed by Llo­renc Bar­ce­lo with the­se open lines that are fil­led with mys­ti­cal cur­r­ents and colors, and which pro­vi­de a per­fect accom­p­animent to Grossman’s well-craf­ted solos on tenor and sopra­no sax! Gui­ta­rist Rado­mir Milo­j­ko­vic grounds the sound with some slight­ly strai­gh­ter lines, but still with a rhyth­mic pul­se to match the modal vibes of the tunes – a qua­li­ty that’s dri­ven for­ward deeply by the drums of Uros Sta­men­ko­vic. If you’­ve not heard the music of Muri­el Gross­man befo­re, you’­re in for a tre­at – and if you have, your collec­tion of real­ly spe­cial albums just got one record big­ger! DUSTY GROOVE, CHICAGO

 

 

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