Tokyo Wolfgang Muthspiel, Scott Colley, Brian Blade

• 1 Lisbon Stomp 05:17
• 2 Pradela 06:50
• 3 Flight 07:37
• 4 Roll 02:30
• 5 Christa's Dream 03:49
• 6 Diminished and Augmented 04:42
• 7 Traversia 05:35
• 8 Strumming 07:23
• 9 Weill You Wait 05:46
• 10 Abacus 06:27
• Total Runtime 55:56

Info for Tokyo

Wolfgang Muthspiel and his trio with Scott Colley on bass and Brian Blade on drums (“Together they have something of the empathy of the Bill Evans trio” – Downbeat) go into their third recording-venture swinging, setting the stage for what may be the group’s most adventurous trio recording with a delicate reading of Keith Jarrett’s “Lisbon Stomp”. Throughout the album however, the Austrian guitarist and his American cohorts turn the spotlight towards Wolfgang’s captivating originals, touching on balladic lyricism (“Pradela”, “Traversia”), subtle folk infusions (“Strumming”, “Flight”), as well as oblique chamber jazz (“Weill You Wait”) and twangy rock and roll (“Roll”).

“Everything is connected in this trio,” says Wolfgang. “It’s never about a solo-trip, but everything intertwined, forming one single narrative. And it’s interactive – a constant conversation. That’s what I love about playing with these guys.” Indeed, over the past years the Austrian guitarist has grown increasingly close and fluent with his trio mates Scott and Brian – a development that has been refined over several tours across Europe, the US and Japan. The latter has also been the recording location for all of the group’s output on ECM, including, as the title reveals, this album. Tokyo, the trio’s third studio date, is a testament to the profound dynamics and subtle interplay that perhaps only a working band can muster.

As has become custom, Wolfgang alternates between acoustic and electric guitars fluently and in equal measures, framing his soft touch and fluid lines in a programme that seems to encompass the entirety of the broad idiomatic scope he has unravelled over the past decades. The experience gathered playing alongside Scott for the better part of the past five years has lead to an almost telepathic understanding between the guitarist and bassist – a quality that can be heard in the freedom on songs like “Lisbon Stomp”. “After Keith's theme, it's concrete time and free changes. This way of inventing harmonic progressions in the moment, together with Scott, is something we have cultivated and deepened over the years,” Muthspiel notes. The same controlled spontaneity can be heard in several places across the album, breathing space into the wistful rubato piece “Pradela”, or bounce into the tuneful “Flight” and remarkable elasticity into the claustrophobic acoustic jam “Diminished and Augmented”.

On “Strumming” Wolfgang understands his role as that of the “ride cymbal. That kind of layer that lends the tune its rhythmic drive.” The acoustic signal of the electric guitar is emphasized in the mix here, adding even more percussive quality to Wolfgang’s playing. In his stead, Colley takes the melodic lead, playing arco in several instances (a modus operandi he repeats on “Flight” and “Traversia”). It’s an album that favours the unorthodox in that respect: Brian’s drum fills over a vamp on “Weill You Wait” are more of a non-solo in their sparsity and laidbackness. On “Strumming”, he becomes the driving force in the coda, conjuring a subtle percussive crescendo in place of an off-the-rack mid-song solo, and for the up-beat “Roll”, his back-beat groove never repeats the same way twice. On the same piece, Wolfgang plays “Jaco (Pastorius)-like basslines on guitar, while Scott’s bass parts work like a horn section,” to put it in Muthspiel’s own words. “Memories of Keith vamps on the one hand and Weather Report on the other” were on the guitarist’s mind when writing the song. Weather Report may also come to mind on dreamy “Christa’s Dream”, as Wolfgang channels his inner Zawinul with a brief synthesizer-guitar sprinkle towards the end.

Some of the inspirations behind Wolfgang’s compositions are unexpected; He refers to legendary songsmiths Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen in connection with his simple guitarist approach on the folk-tinged “Strumming” (he says the same is true for his older composition “Hüttengriffe” off the trio’s debut Angular Blues). “Traversia”, written while hiking the Camino de Santiago, Wolfgang associates “rather with Messiaen than Gillespie”, due to its unorthodox harmonic fabric, far removed from functional harmony but flirting instead with a modal design. He wrote it on a children’s guitar during his travels, forcing him to use a capo on his regular guitar to replicate the range of a fourth above the usual tuning. “It gives the guitar a Renaissance colour – something almost lute-like”.

Other songs wear their references on their sleeve: The punned “Weill You Wait” is a direct homage to composer Kurt Weill, whose “Liebeslied” from The Threepenny Opera the trio had a pass at on their last album Dance Of The Elders (2023). Wolfgang continues to cultivate his admiration for Weill here with a stubborn chamber music piece that sounds almost anatomical in its execution. During the recording, Wolfgang showed Scott and Brian Weill performances by the composer’s wife Lotte Lenya. “The impression from her unique interpretation style accompanied our playing during the recording. As a result, the piece almost became a bit sassy – we deliberately don’t play it in an overly emotional or lyrical way, but rather with edge, almost harshly”. By closing with a shrewd take on Paul Motian’s “Abacus”, Muthspiel bookends the album with implications of a large chunk of both the jazz and ECM history.

Tokyo was recorded in October 2024, then mixed in Munich in February 2025 and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Wolfgang Muthspiel, guitars
Scott Colley, double bass
Brian Blade, drums

Wolfgang Muthspiel
The musician Wolfgang Muthspiel (1965) lives in Vienna and is considered one of the most influential guitarists of his generation. After being classically trained on the violin, he discovered his love for guitar at the age of 15. An interest in both his own and improvised music eventually led him to focus on jazz. After studying with Mick Goodrick at the New England Conservatory and then later at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he toured with the Gary Burton Quintet (together with Larry Grenadier and Donny McCaslin) for two years, establishing an excellent reputation in the jazz scene. Starting in the mid-1990s, he lived and worked in the jazz capital of New York. He ventured into the world of pop music with the singer Rebekka Bakken, while also pursuing the electronic project Muthspiel/Muthspiel with his brother. He has also collaborated with artists such as Trilok Gurtu, Dhafer Youssef, Youssou N’Dour, Maria Joao, Dave Liebman, Peter Erskine, Paul Motian, Bob Berg, Gary Peacock, Don Alias, Larry Grenadier, Brian Blade, Brad Mehldau, Ambrose Akinmusire, John Patitucci, Dieter Ilg, the Vienna Art Orchestra, and many more.

In 2000, he founded the Material Records label, which has released numerous recordings of artists in an international format. After a European tour with his new quartet (2008) and the duo project Friendly Travelers, in collaboration with the drummer Brian Blade (2008), Muthspiel devoted himself more and more to the trio MGT (Muthspiel – Grigoryan – Towner), which, after several concert tours, released the highly acclaimed debut album From a Dream. In addition, he has composed pieces for various ensembles, such as the Klangforum Wien and, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Joseph Haydn’s death in 2009, a commissioned work for the Esterhazy Foundation. He has produced recordings of young musicians, and since 2004, he has led the guitar programme of the Basel University of Music FHNW.

In 2017, Muthspiel founded the Focus Year program at the Jazzcampus Basel and has since been artistic director of this globally unique year-long programme of intensive musical exploration.

In June 2012, the recording of the project Vienna Naked, a song programme composed by Muthspiel for guitar and voice, was released.

Muthspiel made his debut with MGT in 2013 with the album Travel Guide on the renowned Munich label ECM. In 2014, he made his debut as a band leader at ECM. The trio recording Driftwood with Brian Blade and Larry Grenadier garnered huge critical praise and in 2014, Muthspiel was given a contract for his own concert series at the Konzerthaus Wien. The Vienna World project was followed by another vocal recording in 2015, for which he performed and recorded with eighteen musicians in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, New York, Sweden and Vienna.

Rising Grace was released on ECM Records in autumn 2016. This quintet recording with Brad Mehldau, Ambrose Akinmusire, Brian Blade and Larry Grenadier adorned many of the bestof lists of 2016, was given five out of five stars by DownBeat magazine, and led to the Wolfgang Muthspiel Quintet playing numerous sold-out concerts worldwide. In 2018, the quintet performed and recorded Where The River Goes, with Eric Harland on drums, which led to many more performances and concerts.

The Wolfgang Muthspiel Large Ensemble was launched in 2019, which led to a programme consisting of pieces by Muthspiel in new arrangements by Guillermo Klein the following year. The 19-member ensemble combined European jazz legends with virtuoso representatives of chamber music, and toured and performed in the autumn of the same year in the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and the Wiener Konzerthaus, among others.

Recorded during a joint tour of Japan in 2018 with Scott Colley and Brian Blade, the trio album Angular Blues was released in the spring of 2020. Extensive tours through the US and Europe followed right after the pandemic.

The same trio released the album “Dance Of The Elders” in 2023, which received comprehensive and enthusiastic reviews. In the fall of 2023, the trio embarked on a several-week concert tour through Europe, performing in sold-out concert halls and jazz clubs.

Muthspiel’s numerous awards include the Hans Koller Prize for Musician of the Year and the award for European Jazz Musician of the Year 2003. In addition, Musicians magazine has selected him as one of the “top 10 jazz guitarists of the world”. December 2020

In 2021 he received the German Jazz Prize in the Category „String Instruments International“.

Scott Colley
originated in Los Angeles, California and at age 13, began studying with bassist Monty Budwig. As the recipient of a full scholarship at CalArts, Scott was able to continue his studies with Charlie Haden and the classical bassist Fred Tinsley. Before graduating college, Scott began touring with Carmen McRae, which led him to performing with Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Jordan, Joe Henderson and Art Farmer. After moving to New York City in 1988, Scott continued playing with artists such as Jim Hall, Andrew Hill, Herbie Hancock, John Scofield, Joshua Redman, Chris Potter, Gary Burton, and many others.

Brian Blade
was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1970. The first music he experienced was the Gospel and songs of praise at the Zion Baptist Church where his father, Brady L. Blade, Sr., has been the pastor since 1961. He has played and recorded with Wayne Shorter, Daniel Lanois, Joni Mitchell, Kenny Garrett, Ellis Marsalis, Chick Corea, Marianne Faithfull, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris and Bob Dylan. In 1997, Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band was formed with pianist Jon Cowherd and the band has recorded seven albums.

Booklet for Tokyo