Wolfgang Muthspiel with Scott Colley and Brian Blade: TOKYO- Playing to the purpose of the music.

Wolfgang Musthpiel Scott Colley  Brian Blade-TOKYO- ECM 

The Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel has just released a new trio album this September titled Tokyo on ECM records and it was well worth the wait. This is a continuation of sorts, the third release from this dynamic trio, which includes the bassist Scott Colley and the drummer Brian Blade. The previous, releases Angular Blues from 2020, and Dance of the Elders from 2023, both on ECM, feature this same trio, with Muthspiel as the leader and composer. Both were wonderfully received albums. Muthspiel is an accomplished guitarist that is equally comfortable on both acoustic and electric guitar formats. His compositional work uses elements of folk and classical music as inspiration and his judicious use of electronics brings in yet  another subtle color to his creative palette. 

For those who are unaware of Musthpiel's guitar work, the Vienna based artist studied with and befriended guitar guru Mick Goodrick at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and while at Berklee the guitarist toured with vibraphonist Gary Burton and his Quintet in the early nineties. Muthspiel worked with the late drummer Paul Motian in his The Electric BeBop Band and was a member of Motian's album Reincarnation of a Love Bird  from 1994.  He was also a member of the second generation of bassist Marc Johnson's Right Brain Patrol on the album Magic Labryinth from 1995. 

Curiosity and drive found Muthspiel playing with pop star Rebekka Bakken and led him into an electronic duo with his brother trombonist Christian along the way. In 2009, Muthspiel helped form the trio of Muthpiel, guitar-master Ralph Towner, and the Khazahstan/Austrian classical guitarist Slava Grigoryan, recording the album Form a Dream. The second acclaimed album of these three guitar virtuosos was released as Travel Guide  in 2013. Further associations brought Muthspiel's guitar together with other jazz players like Brad Mehldau, Ambrose Akinmusire, Larry Grenadier and Peter Erskine to name just a few.

Muthpiel is also an active educator who has since 2004, led the guitar program of the Basel University of Music FHNW.

Scott Colley, Brian Blade , Wolfgang Muthspiel (photo credit unknown)

This recent release came about when the trio was on tour performing at the Cotton Club in Tokyo in 2024, which lent the title's name. When talking about pairing recording in a studio while you are actively performing on a tour, Muthspiel has previously stated "The idea was (is) to capture the live flow from the concert, playing music in the moment, with as little editing as possible. That's what jazz is all about." His intent to produce a recording that is as vibrant and spontaneous as a live performance, is obviously a top consideration for this artist. On Tokyo, there is little doubt that he and his bandmates have certainly been successful in recreating the vibe, excitement and spontaneity of a live performance on this excellent studio album.

The album's ten tracks, eight of which are Muthspiel compositions, are bookended purposefully. It opens with Keith Jarrett's "Lisbon Stomp," originally on Jarett's 1968 album Between the Exit Signs. This energetic piece openss with Muthspiel's fluid electric guitar laying out the head before the group opens up into a free improvisational tour of the possibilities. His guitar lines appear like fresh water from a spring, joyful and inquisitive. Colley's bass is plucky in the mid-range, providing intuitive counterpoint and an inspired pizzicato solo. Blade provides an almost rhythm-less accompaniment, wisps of cumulus clouds that float over the proceeding. These guys always play to the purpose of the song. There is musical symbiosis, always bringing fresh interplay to the music without seeking to bring attention to the individual. 

The beautiful ballad "Pradela" was written by Muthspiel while hiking on the Camino de Santiago, in Spain. The guitar sings on this rubato-played piece,  Colley's bass warmly resonates in synch, as Blades subtle accompaniment is almost feather-like in his approach. There is a folk-inspiration to this composition. It feels like Muthspiel's time playing with guitarist Ralph Towner has certainly made its impression on the Austrian and this one is just gorgeous.

"Flight" is another Muthspiel composition, and one of my favorites. The guitarist  said that he had Colley's bass in mind when he wrote this one. The guitarist's classical-style finger-picking on his acoustic guitar is delicate but vibrant. He creates a repeating rhythmic pattern that he likens to the sound of a ride cymbal. Its a whoosh of rhythm and it hauntingly works so well. Colley's bass takes the lead, laying down the line, beautifully played like singing, commanding the mid-range. Muthspiel overdubs his electric guitar and enters the mix ringing through in a higher range like a clarion voice in the wind. The melodicism is stunningly creative as the two match each other lines with precision, tonally distinct yet in simpatico. Blades gently drum work propels the music in the background. Muthspiel orchestrates this music so well. He creates a tableaux skillfully meshing the highs, the lows and every tone in between. The music creates drama, as Colley's bass strings hum with beauty, and the trio brings the music to a powerful conclusion at the coda.

"Roll" opens with Blades pointedly cadenced trap work, before Muthspiel's acoustic guitar-picking and aggressive rhythmic strumming offers a rock-inspired  drive that forcefully flows. The guitarist once observed that Pat Metheny is particularly good at using dramatic strumming effectively. This one, and the other song "Strumming," demonstrates how an inspired Muthspiel can use strumming to create drama and drive. Colley's ostinato bass adds his own urgency to this one. The music is infectious, a musical romp that gets you rolling!

"Christa's Dream," finds Muthspiel's electric guitar accentuated with some tasty  use of chorus and tremelo, creating  a dreamlike aura. Blade's drum and cymbal work embellishes on the atmospheric feel. Colley's bass provides his own buoyant touches to make this one a musical walk in the ether.

"Diminished Augmented" has a modernistic feel with its angular lines complimented by some fleet finger-picking guitar work that just follows it's own muse. Patterns shift, meters change, as Colley's bass work mimics Muthspiels' lines even though its hard to predict where they are going. Blade somehow seems to find his own way, adding precise rhythmic pushes and pulls magically. If you ever doubted these guys possess telepathic powers, this one should put all doubts to rest.

"Traversia" is the second of the compositions Muthspiel penned on that Spanish hike. His work on the acoustic guitar is precise, warm and melodic. Colley's arco bass swells with cello-like beauty, as Muthspiel's classical-like finger-picking shines brightly.

"Strumming" finds Muthspiels' guitar rhythmically strumming energetically creating a whirl of movement, an eddy current of action. Colley's bass bows a moaning counter offer that touches your heart, and Blade's drum anchors the motion. The music wraps you in its intensity with excitement and pathos. Muthspiel's electric guitar lines can excite you or caress you. His probing fluidity and relentless strumming can be mesmerizing.

"Weill You Wait" is a beautiful chamber jazz-like homage to the writing of the composer Kurt Weill, who had a prolific career. His most famous work was "Three Penny Opera" and it's famous song "Mack the Knife" became a pop and jazz standard. Muthspiel was an admirer of Weill's musical compositions and he has said this piece was inspired by Weill's music and by the singing of Lottev Lenya, Weill's wife. 

The closing bookend of this set of music, features a song, "Abacus," a piece composed by the drummer Paul Motian. Muthspiel was inspired by the drummer's unique approach to rhythm.  He has called Motian "...THEE master of rubato." The music is built on the theory that music doesn't always require a set rhythmic base. The music opens with the guitarist and the bassist in a free improvisational conversation. Muthspiel explores lines that inspire his bandmates to free associate in ways that are not predictable, but somehow these guys are in synch. Mid way through, the music fades before Colley's bass takes the lead. The music ends with a gently played finger-picked statement that is responded in like by the bass and the drums to the coda.

Saxophone Titan Joe Lovano Creates Magic with the Marcin Wasilewski Trio on "Homage"

Joe Lovano w/ Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskiewicz; Homage; ECM

There is no denying that saxophonist Joe Lovano is one of this era's giants on his instrument. On his latest release Homage from ECM released on April 25, 2025, we find Lovano's titan tenor brilliantly matched with the Polish trio of pianist Marcin Wasilewski that includes bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskjewicz. My most recent exposure to this anticipatory trio was on the late Tomasz Stanko's album September Night released in 2024. As their work with Stanko, this trio is a remarkably intuitive unit that meshes so well with Lovano's extemporaneously fluid approach to this music . Consequently the music has a unified feel  that makes this release just a joy to listen to.

Homage, the title song, was written by Lovano as an homage to ECM's founder Manfred Eicher for saxophonist's appearance at the celebration of Eicher's 80th birthday in Hamburg, Germany in 2023. Lovano has a special feeling for the music that Eicher has so steadfastly produced since the early seventies. The song is an acknowledgment of the excellence that the body of work created and the appreciation for how it influenced him and so many other artists over the decades. 

The album was recorded in the Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey when the group  had a residency at the Village Vanguard in New York during the autumn of 2023. This wasn't the first time the group played together or recorded, as they also released Artic Rift  back in 2020.

Joe Lovano with Marcin Wailweski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskjewicz. 

The opener is a composition by Polish violinist Zbgniew Seifert titled "Love in the Garden." The song was originally released on his Man of the Light from 1977 and had a distinctive poignancy with Seifert's emotionally charged violin playing this ballad over  drone-like organ work by Jasper Van't Hof. The artist, who unfortunately died from cancer, at the age of thirty-two,  was dedicated to bringing the music of John Coltrane into the world of jazz violin. The song was purportedly dedicated to Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner. Seifert's Polish heritage and his connection to trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, who he played with in 1968, make this music so vitally important to Wasilewski and his trio.

On Lovano and the trio's just over four minute interpretation of this music, it is  quite apparent that the music never loses any of Seifert's intended poignancy. Wasilewski's piano delicately opens the music before Lovano's tenor is heard briefly presenting the melody. His rubato treatment of the lines resonate with emotional commitment and simple beauty. Wasilewski's facile, light touch, and glorious embellishments enchant, as Kurkiewicz's bass and Miskjewicz's cymbal work provide subtle accompaniment.  As sensitive and endearing a take on this beautiful music as I have heard.

"Golden Horn" is a Lovano composition that takes a more modal approach. Here the trio is committed to creating a repeating framework as the armature on to which the group creates extemporaneous musical improvisational excursions for just over ten minutes. Lovano opens with some percussive accents from what sounds like shells, as Miskjewicz's trap and cymbal work set the tone. Kurkiewicz's ostinato bass line is mimicked by Wasilewski's repeating piano line, before Lovano's husky horn enters here. Joe's tenor is free, fluid and exploratory. His sound is mellow at times, deliberate and thoughtful, and yet he changes the pace of his playing in a split second, blowing a gush of notes that flow out of his horn like a cascade of free thought covering the listener. Wasilewski's piano is equally revelatory. His lines are swift and unpredictable, rippling, ascending and descending in bursts that shower you, as Miskjewicz's deft cymbal work adds another element to the feel. Lovano returns with shells before he adds the sinewy sound of his tárogató, a Hungarian woodwind instrument, that just adds a more exotic feel to the mix. The music feels so organic, a musical testament to just how simpatico these musicians are, as the group fades into a calming coda. Splendid! 

The title cut "Homage" finds Lovano and Wasilewski in a free mode. The two develop lines that seem to be released from the ether in the moment. There is some probing piano, tárogató , and tenor solos that spur interaction of the musicians, all intuitively responding to each other. Kurkiewicz has a short feature where his plucky bass is given a chance to express on a solo demonstrating his own free thinking. Lovano's higher-pitched instrument is often the  instigator that spurs  Wasilewski to respond in kind. Miskjewicz's facile drum skills produce a percussive answer to the magical interaction.

"Giving Thanks" is a two-plus-minute meditation of sorts. Lovano's large sounding tenor is featured solo here, as he musically offers thanks. There are no fireworks here, simply a heartfelt, reverent outflow of this man's feelings, brilliantly played on an instrument he has made another extension of his soul. 

"This Side-Catville" is another Lovano composition that is probably the most "in-the -moment" of the songs on this album. Lovano's overblown tenor sets the tone as Wasilewski and the trio respond in a truly reactive way. Wasilewski explained this in the notes- “It was a spontaneous choice – no discussion about how or what to play. We just went for it, and the music unfolded naturally.” Listening to the way music can be created like this is a treat. No preconceived notions, just going with the flow, pure creativity at its finest. The music bubbles with a home grown essence that cannot be repeated, so rather then explain this, just enjoy and be happy it was preserved for us all to hear.

The closing piece  is another Lovano piece titled "Projection" and opens with a clashing cymbal or is it a gong? The changing rhythmic patterns on bells, rims, cymbals are continued like a exploration in sounds, tones and timbres. A peaceful two minute rhythmic excursion.

The Tomasz Stanko Quartet from a 2004 Concert in Munich, Germany: "September Night"

Tomasz Stanko Quartet: September Night: ECM Recorded Sept 2004

The Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko created his own approach to the sound of his instrument. Inspired by the Polish modern pianist and film scorer Krzysztof Komeda, the saxophonist Ornette Coleman and the American trumpeter Miles Davis' sparse approach to the trumpet. The more is less style allowed Stanko to add elements of drama, Slavic melancholy, sadness and a metaphysical, free-style sense of pain into his expressive music. He had a distinctive tone. There was never any doubt of who you were hearing when you listened to Tomasz Stanko. His music had an identity,  a tattoo-like imprimatur all his own. 

Tomasz Stanko was born on July 11, 1941 in the city of Rzeszów, Poland. He attended the State Higher Music School in Kraków, where he had a classical music education and studied violin, piano and trumpet. Despite his classical training, Stanko was attracted to the expression and freedom of jazz music. Following his muse, he founded a quartet with a fellow secondary school student and received some critical recognition. In 1963 at the age of twenty-one, Stanko was asked to join the quartet of the progressive and influential pianist Krzysztof Komeda. Komeda was renowned for his free approach to piano as well as his formidable film scoring talents. Komeda scored over forty films, including all of Roman Polanski's, from his first in 1958 to the last one being the score to Rosemary's Baby, before the pianist's untimely death due to an accident in 1968. Stanko's four year stint with Komeda was artistically expansive.

In 1973 Stanko became one of the early Polish musicians who embraced the use of electronics and experimented with synthetic sounds in music, but by the nineteen nineties the artist returned to his acoustical format. In 1980 Stanko released a solo album recorded at the Taj Mahal and the Buddhist Karla Caves in India. Besides his Polish musician based groups, in the eighties and beyond Stanko collaborated with a rainbow of jazz luminaries. These included bassists Dave Holland, Arild Andersen, Palle Danielsson, Thomas Morgan and Gary Peacock, multi-reedist John Surman and Tomasz Szukalski, pianists Cecil Taylor, David Virelles and Bobo Stensen, guitarists Terje Rypdal and Jakob Bro, drummers Jon Christensen, Gerald Cleaver and Tony Oxley, in various formations. In all these diverse combinations and as a solo artist it was always the frail humanity, the  and expressive emotion that came through so clearly from Stanko's plaintive horn.

Stanko's perceptive use of romanticism, melancholy, developed melodic patterns and his evocative trumpet tone provide the listener with a uniquely penetrating music that reaches the soul. 

            Tomasz Stanko photo credit John Broughton

Perhaps the most symbiotic group of the bunch was the quartet Stanko formed  in 1993 with then sixteen-year-old drummer Michal Miśkiewicz and his two friends pianist Marcin Wasilewski and bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz. This quartet was first  recorded work on the Stanko album Balladyne from 1994 on GOWI Records. The group became a working band for Stanko over the years and they released three other albums on ECM, Soul of Things (2002), Suspended Night (2004), and Lontano (2006) all studio albums.

The Tomasz Stanko Quartet ( photo credit unknown)

In June of this year, ECM decided to release September Night, a live recording from a Stanko and this quartet concert recorded in September 9, 2004 in Munich.  To any fan of Stanko and his music, it is certainly of interest to get a chance to look back and capture this soulful group in its most fluid situation, in front of a live an appreciative crowd. The album shows just how much this group had matured under the leadership of Stanko. Particularly noted is how much the quartet telepathically functioned with a heightened acuity to each other's ideas and responded accordingly.

The album has seven compositions six of which are by Stanko with only "Kaetano" credited to the group in total. The songs run from five and half minutes in length to almost eleven minutes. The opener "Hermento" starts with a pedal point bass line by Kurkiewicz as Stanko's searching horn enters the fray. Wasilewski's piano creates the barest of melodies upon which Miśkiewicz adds rolling percussive accents. Stanko creates the mood and you just find it enchanting.

"Song for Sarah" opens with Wasilewski's gentle piano lines that almost whisper out the melody. Stanko's horn has a film noir quality to it and the piano and trumpet dance with an elegant dialogue. Stanko goes silent as the trio show their own musical sympatico as a fully whole entity that can create their own beauty.  Stanko's plaintive horn always seems to bring a human voice-like quality to the music.

Kurkiewicz's plucky bass opens "Euforila" with tonally rich exploratory lines before he settles into a quick paced ostinato line that sets the music up for its throbbing pulse. Wasilewski and Miśkiewicz enter the swelling rhythm before Stanko's fluttering trumpet takes flight with repeating lines that raise the tension. Stanko and Wasilewski state a sparse melody before the pianist takes center stage with his own elastic solo that is beautiful and has elements of free jazz to it. Stanko's trumpet returns with his own sense of urgency to his horn as his backing trio create their own cauldron of excitement. Miśkiewicz finishes the composition with a roiling drum solo that leads to the group restating the brief melody at the coda.

Stanko's stark trumpet opens up "Elegant Piece" accompanied minimally by probing piano lines and roiling tom work. The music blooms into a beautifully  meandering trumpet stated melody. Stanko adds brief flutters, staggered stabs and piercing high register darts to low toned slurs create a tonal potpourri of aural delight that never losses it's elegance. Wasilewski's piano solo is particularly notable, filled with emotion, facility and harmonic creativity that is accented by uncanny angular sense of time and space. He plays his instrument with confidence and yet  chooses to never use speed or flair over expressiveness and taste. The music runs for over ten minutes and gives the team a real chance to stretch out within the concept of elegance and to demonstrate their individual strengths.

The group composed "Kaetano" and features a Latin-inspired rhythm that features a vibrant bass line by Kurkiewicz, some shimmering cymbal work by Miśkiewicz and a Wasilewski piano solo that bustles with inventiveness and melodicism. It's one of Stanko's most energetic and boisterous trumpet solos of the set. The group seems to be reveling in the vibe that they create.

"Celina" has Stanko stating the theme work with sensitive piano accompaniment and rolling tom work in the background. The trumpeter modulates back and forth establishing mood and tension. At the two minute thirty-four-second mark Kurkiewicz starts another ostinato bass line that builds under its own repetitive groove. Stanko's trumpet is like a clarion, an at times shrill warning  that can revert to an emotional gasp or a melancholic cry. Wasilewski's piano solo flows with a modernist approach that has a propulsion all its own, as the rhythm section maintains the heartbeat on the music. 

The final piece on the album is "Theatrical." The music develops like a theatrical story slowly, carefully building interest and being led into revelation. Stanko effectively utilizes changing rhythmic speeds to orchestrate his musical story. From a sauntering opening, the music is introduced as a simple melody with Stanko's trumpet leading the way. Suddenly, he blares a line that changes the pace abruptly. His trumpet erupts once again introducing another shift with shrieks and slurs slowly building the motion, increasing the pace, until he and his group again change direction. He returns to a slow descending pattern on his horn, a reduction of volume, intensity and pace that deflates, fading away to the disappearing coda.

Sadly, Tomasz Stanko transitioned from this world into the next on July 29, 2018, so we will no longer have this moving artist around to add to his musical canon, but it comforting to know that with retro releases like September Night we can continue to rediscover some previously unreleased music from this master. The trio of Wasilewski, Kurkiewicz, and Miśkiewicz continue on without him as a unit. They continue to grow on their own creative path but they will always be inspired by their association with their impressive mentor.

Guitarist Dominic Miller's "Absinthe" from 2019: A Beautiful Palliative for What Ails You

Dominic Miller: Absinthe: ECM

The guitarist Dominic Miller has been a session musician with such groups as The Pretenders and Phil Collins amongst others. He has been an important collaborator with the singer/bassist/songwriter Sting who he has toured with since 1991. He co-wrote the musician's hit song "Shape of My Heart" which was released in 1993. The talented guitarist also recorded a classical album focused on the music of  Bach, Beethoven, and Edward Elgar titled Shapes in 2003.

In 2019, he released an album titled Absinthe on ECM Records. Absinthe is an alcoholic drink made up of wormwood, green anise, sweet fennel, and medicinal herbs. It was famously in fashion among artists and writers in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The drink purportedly had psychoactive and hallucinogenic properties that supposedly were one of the factors that made the creative Impressionistic era so vital The drink was used by notable artists, musicians, and writers including Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Erik Satie, Edgar Allan Poe and Pablo Picasso The drink's effects were so malaligned that it was banned in many countries for a period. 

Miller's point of reference to Absinthe is his personal acknowledgment of the creative aspects that the drink was supposed to have to have inspired the artists and writers of the Impressionist age, particularly the French Impressionists.

Miller is a sensitive, facile guitarist. He uses his guitar like a paintbrush in the hands of a landscape master, coloring the music with warmth and meaning in a most emotive way. He is found playing both steel and nylon stringed guitars and enlists the talented Bandoneon player Santiago Arias as his perfect foil. The two demonstrate an eery sense of intuition in complimenting each other's musical ideas. Miller's keyboardist Mike Lindup creates atmospheric settings that give the music an otherworldly sound. Nicholas Fiszman provides some anchored bass work and the drum master Manu Katché adds his own touches of percussive magic to the mix.

                  Mike Lindup, Santiago Arias, Dominic Miller, Manu Katché, Nicolas Fiszman
                                                        (Photo credit: Gildas Boclé)

The music is beautiful and creates a sense of tranquility that acts like a palliative to whatever maybe be pressing on your mind. I've found myself replaying this album several times and each time I play it, I am transported into a state of peace and contentment. Not a small achievement. 

There are ten Miller compositions Absinthe, Mixed Blessing, Verveine, La Petite Reine, Christiana, Etudé, Bicycle, Ombu, Tenébres, and Saint Vincent.

The album starts off with the title track "Absinthe," which opens with Miller's nylon string work, Katche's shimmering cymbals, and Arias's swelling bandoneon sound. At the two-minute fifteen-second mark the music morphs into a dynamic, drum-driven vibe that grabs you with a sophisticated funk. Arias's bandoneon pulses with a voice-like expression. Lindup's eerie keyboard work tantalizes the senses like a Siren drawing Odysseus to the rocks. Katche's drum and Fiszman's bass keep the pulse true and the music vibrates to the beat of your sympathetic heartbeat. 

There are romantic guitar/bandoneon duets with subtle brushwork by Katché and airy keyboard work by Lindup like on "Mixed Blessings." It's got a Parisian-like feel to it and you find yourself transported, sipping an espresso on the Rue Montogueill with a special someone as you listen to Miller's music.

The short "Verveine" has a melancholic sound to it. Fiszman's bass booms with authority. "La Petite Reine" has a repetitive tom-tom percussion line over which Miller's guitar lays a filigreed line of floating finger-picked strings. "Christiana" is a conversational song that has Arias' moaning bandoneon laying out human-like sighs as Miller's guitar has almost Sitar-like expressiveness and Katché's percussive work is a marvel of intuition.

"Etudé" has a Tango-like quality to it and with Tango, there is always dance. The beat is created by the repetitive lines by Miller, Lindup's ostinato work, Fiszman's bass, and Katché's metronomic trap work. To make my point, the album released a video with dancing on it and you can see for yourself how danceable it is.

"Bicycle" is music in motion. There is a traveling feel to this one. Miller sets it in motion with his facile guitar finger-picking, Arias's swelling bandoneon lines, Katche's roiling drum work, and Fiszman's bass maintain the pulse as Lindup adds the color. Just a delightful aural representation of riding a bike on a pastoral road somewhere in the country.

The album ends with "Ombu" with some impressive syncopated drum work by Katché, the slow sauntering "Tenébres" and the vibrant"Saint Vincent," with Miller's quick-paced rhythmic guitar work setting the stage for Aria's probing bandoneon lines over the rhythm sections driving pulse. Dominic Miller's Absinthe is a delight.

Double Bass Virtuoso Marc Johnson Plays it Solo on his brilliant : "Overpass"

Marc Johnson: Overpass ECM Records

There is something very special, very visceral when a listener is given the opportunity to share a solo musical performance. It can be one of the most personal and intimate experiences that a musician can offer to his audience. Marc Johnson was said to have found inspiration to do his latest solo bass album Overpass after listening to fellow bass virtuoso Dave Holland's solo bass album Emerald Tears from 1977. Johnson's beautiful offering Overpass on ECM records, like Holland's, will clearly become another must-have inspiration to any musician who wants to tackle the formidable challenge of making a viable solo offering on such a beautiful but unforgiving instrument. 

Marc Johnson photo credit Jos Knapean

The album is bare, naked, and yet resplendent in its musical sensitivity and personal declarations. The bassist relies only on his skills, his instrument, and an internal compass that leads him to choose and interpret his musical selections so deftly. The album is a little over forty-three minutes and includes eight compositions that range from Eddie Harris’ stirring “Freedom Jazz Dance” to Miles Davis’ “Nardis” and Alex North’s moving “Love Theme from Spartacus,” the latter two made famous as standards in the Bill Evans’ repertoire. Johnson includes five of his own compositions that are both beautiful and deeply personal, “Samurai Fly,” “Life of Pai, ”And Strike Each Tuneful String,” “Yin and Yang,” and “Whorled, Whirled World.”

Bassist Marc Johnson was born in the heartland of America, Omaha, Nebraska, and grew up in Texas. He attended the then North Texas State University and was part of the school’s acclaimed One O’clock Lab Band with fellow alumni keyboardist Lyle Mays and drummer Steve Houghton. Mays and Houghton were enlisted into Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd, and later it was Mays who recommended Johnson to join Herman’s band. Mays stayed eight months with Herman before leaving to join with guitarist Pat Metheny and forming the Pat Metheny Group. Johnson’s stay with Herman brought him to NYC where an opportunity to sit in with the pianist Bill Evans resulted in his joining Evans trio in 1978. Johnson and drummer Joe LaBarbera would be the pianist’s last trio until his death in 1980.

By his own admission, Johnson was young and had limited experience when he joined Evans’ trio, but he had a fluidity, velocity, and melodic sensitivity that captured Evans’ attention. After Evans’ death, Johnson had to find a way to expand his growth and continue in the musical direction that he had only begun to explore in his brief time with the pianist. Instead of continuing in a piano-based configuration, Johnson looked toward forming a group that could change his musical pallet,  expanding on the group's musical possibilities. In 1996 he formed the influential Bass Desires with dual guitarists John Scofield and Bill Frisell and the drummer Peter Erskine. He also became part of guitarist John Abercrombie’s Trio, again with Peter Erskine in the mid-eighties and through 2007. One of my favorite albums of this group was November released in 1993. Johnson’s proclivity and skill for working with guitarists led him to be sought after by other notable guitarists including Pat Metheny, Ben Monder, Pat Martino, Ralph Towner, and Wolfgang Muthspiel.

Johnson’s proficiency on his instrument led him to work with a rainbow of musical artists including pianist Enrico Pieranunzi and saxophonists Stan Getz, Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, Charles Llyod, Michael Brecker, John Surman, and drummers Jack DeJohnette, Paul Motion, Joey Baron and Armenian percussionist Arto Tuncboyaciyan to name a few.

It was in 1988 when Johnson first worked with his present wife, Brazilian pianist Eliane Elias. It was an Erskine project titled Motion Poet. A few years later he was asked to join Elias’ group and their musical and personal compatibility led to marriage in 1999. It has been a lasting relationship for over thirty years. His musical priorities since joining Elias once again changed back to working with a pianist. Johnson said in a Jazz Times interview from 2020 “My Musical choices ... have been dictated by prioritizing my work with Eliane…It’s wonderful that we can be together and play music together."" For me, it’s been the best of both worlds.”  

Johnson’s focus on his work with Elias has come with a greater appreciation for the important influence of Brazilian music. He has won two Grammys for co-producing Elias’ Made in Brazil (2016) and Dance of Time (2017.)

With all his achievements, Johnson’s work on Overpass is a welcome addition to his personal body of work. The album opens with the pulsing Eddie Harris composition “Freedom Jazz Dance,” an often-overlooked gem of free spirit. He does an incredible job of maintaining pace with throbbing pedal point and dances out the melody with liquid precision and enviable precise speed. It is no surprise that even alone, the bass in the right hands can really swing.

“Nardis” is a Miles Davis composition. The title was created by Davis reversing the last name of his friend Ben Sidran and was written for a 1958 Cannonball Adderley session Portrait of Cannonball. The tune was well explored by Bill Evans’ last trio. Here the bassist, perhaps under the spell of Evans’ preoccupation with the song’s many intriguing iterations, explores the composition on his own terms. Johnson uses his sonorous bass to create a drone. He juxtaposes a musical path through the sparse melody with his rich pizzicato facility and his inventive interpretation. His tone is deep, warm, and resonates with a sustain that hangs in the air like a warm gust from a sirocco.  The bassist creates an impressive meditative chant that will not be forgotten.

Johnson’s beautifully playful “Samurai Fly” is a reimagining of what he originally released as “Samurai Hew-Haw” on his Bass Desires album from 1986.  Here, without the distinctive dual voices of guitarists John Scofield and Bill Frisell, the bassist re-creates this East meets West song. He gently overdubs himself playing a dynamic lead on a slightly dissonant, almost buzzing arco. It at times reminds me of an Americana-style fiddle-like approach and he accompanies himself with an anchoring rhythmic pizzicato. The song conjures up fanciful visions of a militant Samurai fly that is buzzing defiantly to this east meets west war song. Priceless.

“Love Theme from Spartacus” was a theme from the Stanley Kubrick film Spartacus starring Kirk Douglas back in 1960 and was written by composer Alex North. Yuseff Lateef was apparently the first jazz musician to see the potential of this song in the genre, recording it on his oboe in 1961 on his album Eastern Sounds.  Bill Evans had purportedly gone to see the film several times and was taken by the beauty of the music. There is no doubt he made the song an important part of his repertoire, most famously being memorialized from his solo album Conversations with Myself from 1963. 

Marc Johnson finds this moving piece of music the perfect vehicle for his own singularly personal interpretation of this love ballad. It’s hard to imagine such a seminal love theme could be so well expressed by the single voice of a virtuosic double bassist, but Johnson makes it his own. He starts with several multiple-string plucks that set the stage. The sparse ringing of his decaying notes on the repeating theme resonates with sincerity and his playing barely waivers from the truth of the music’s original iconic essence.   

Johnson's composition “Life of Pai” is a dirge-like song that he has dedicated to the passing of both his father and his father-in-law. Sadly both transitioned within months of each other. “Pai” is Portuguese for father and thus " Life of Father." The music utilizes a somber descending feel, sometimes using multiple strings in tandem, and Johnson creates a solemnity that might be considered a sacred requiem.

“And Strike Each Tuneful String” is based on a folk song, “Wonderous Love,” that Johnson's mother used to sing in a church choir. Using these personal recollections- tiebacks to his life experiences and his upbringing- makes his music a living, breathing, DNA-like part of his creative process. You hear the bassist building on ideas, motifs that inspire him, and he expands on them like a meditation that he follows religiously to see what develops. During the process, other ideas emerge, other patterns are introduced, further extrapolations are developed and the music expands organically. Johnson creates a rapidly repeated pattern on his bass that hums, whirls, and vibrates like a turbine in action. There is a visceral connection to the turbulence he creates on his bass patterns that can draw you in, hypnotize you.

“Yin and Yang” is a song developed by Johnson when he was working on experimenting with the sonic aspects of his custom-made double bass made by the Brazilian luthier Paulo Gomes. In his interview with Bass Magazine, which was so valuable to understanding the bassist's thoughts about this album,  Johnson said “I got into this strumming thing one day and I said ‘Wow, listen to that.’  I put my ear down in front of the instrument and hit all the strings-when you hear all the harmonics bouncing off each other, it’s really cool.” 

Johnson strumming created this drone-like, harmonically rich background that has drum-like qualities. He overdubbed his Eastern-influenced arco to create this contemplative composition. Take a seat in a comfortable recliner, grab a set of good headphones and just lose yourself into this one. Guaranteed to lower your stress and blood pressure and leave you at peace for a little over four precious minutes.

The closing composition “Whorled, Whirled World” has a minimalist form that Johnson created in admiration of such composers like Philip Glass and Steve Reich. The bassist opens with a repeating, cyclical pattern that creates a whirl-like rush. He changes between time signatures without ever losing the flow. He minimally accentuates the whirlwind with improvisational accents that he creates in the moment. There is a feeling that more than one person is creating this gyroscopic-like storm, but it is only Johnson and his marvelous instrument. He modulates his velocity at times and eventually allows the music to fade out at the coda. He creates the impression that this energy-charged musical pattern has a perpetual life all its own.

You can sample some of the music of this great album by going to the ECM: https://www.ecmrecords.com/shop/1619621465/overpass-marc-johnson

You can also sample some of the music of this great album by going to the ECM: https://www.ecmrecords.com/shop/1619621465/overpass-marc-johnson