Wolfgang Muthspiel was once described as the “the most quiet guitarist in the world”. But one must also take the adjective’s nuances into consideration: in Muthspiel’s playing quiet means subtle, precise, refined, careful, virtuous and floating. This refinedness can be heard on all the musician’s albums and especially on his CD “Rising Grace” (2016), recorded with his “dream band”, as he himself says. Here he created magical moments together with Brad Mehldau (p), Ambrose Akinmusire (tp), Larry Grenadier (b) and Brian Blade (dr). His compositions seem made for this band, the pieces transport optimism and gentleness, the musician’s voices merge unnoticed, almost melting together and sometimes one is released setting filigree accents. Muthspiel’s warm tone is withdrawn yet pronounced. The ensemble is beautifully balanced. Now Muthspiel is playing in Schwetzingen in a quintet no less exiting: trumpeter Ralph Alessi is part of the New York avant-gardist scene, has played with Steve Coleman, Uri Caine and Ravi Coltrane. Jon Cowherd is a versatile pianist, known especially for his work with Brian Blade and Iggy Pop. Bassist Scott Colley is Charlie Haden’s student and has performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Hart, Chris Potter and Herbie Hancock, amongst others. Eric Harland worked with Jason Moran, McCoy Tyner, Dave Holland and Charles Lloyd. So you can see: this is also a dream band
