The Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel has put together quite a support team for his latest album, Where the River Goes. The all-star quintet includes Brad Mehldau, Ambrose Akinmusire, Larry Grenadier, Eric Harland.
On Finding Gabriel (Nonesuch), which dropped in May, Mehldau, who turns forty-nine in August, eschews the acoustic landscape and the written word for musical ruminations on Old Testament prophecy and wisdom.
“How many musicians do you know who can work with Ray Charles, Chick Corea, and Brad Mehldau, and also play completely free and make it work?” Lionel Loueke asks rhetorically in a promotional video for drum-master Jeff Ballard’s new release, Fairgrounds.
