Review by Marc Sarrazy, ImproJazz June 2018


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