George Freeman, The Good Life, HighNote ***1/2

The product of a remarkable jazz family the brother of Chicago legend Von, nephew sax hero Chico and now in his nineties, guitarist George Freeman whose long recording career includes appearances on albums by Gene Ammons, Richard Groove Holmes and …

Published: 3 Aug 2023. Updated: 53 days.

The product of a remarkable jazz family the brother of Chicago legend Von, nephew sax hero Chico and now in his nineties, guitarist George Freeman whose long recording career includes appearances on albums by Gene Ammons, Richard Groove Holmes and pertinently here Jimmy McGriff proves a stately presence on The Good Life an album also notable for one of the last featuring Joey De Francesco - see also the recently reviewed Jack Jones release ArtWork. With something of an American jazz straightahead A-list of a cast list in tow - Christian McBride is on four tracks while Carl Allen and Lewis Nash share drum duties - with Joey in mind gravitate most to 'Mr D' but check out the full toned Christian McBride sound sprinkled generously that Freeman responds to well. Everyone came to swing for an elder still hanging with some of the greatest cats around and holding his head high.

Tags: reviews

JS Bach, Kurt Weill and Joni Mitchell material are in the mix for Wolfgang Muthspiel's autumn release Dance of the Elders

Among the top new albums just announced for the autumn Dance of the Elders from Wolfgang Muthspiel certainly stands tall on paper at this vantage point - the Austrian guitar master in trio formation with distinguished bassist Scott Colley and …

Published: 3 Aug 2023. Updated: 52 days.

Next post

Among the top new albums just announced for the autumn Dance of the Elders from Wolfgang Muthspiel certainly stands tall on paper at this vantage point - the Austrian guitar master in trio formation with distinguished bassist Scott Colley and Colley's fellow American drummer Brian Blade whose own 2023 album Kings Highway with his band the Fellowship tops our new album selections for the year to date.

Out on 29 September this ECM release follows on from 2020's excellent Angular Blues. The new album was recorded after touring in Europe, the US and Japan last year at La Buissonne in France and includes studio improvisation, a take on Bach chorale 'O Sacred Head, Now Wounded' (which inspired Paul Simon's 'American Tune'), Muthspiel original 'Cantus Bradus,' Kurt Weill’s 'Liebeslied' a classic that Muthspiel and fellow guitarist the late Mick Goodrick covered on 2010's Live at the Jazz Standard, Joni Mitchell Hejira evergreen 'Amelia' and 'Folk Song' - a Muthspiel piece inspired by Keith Jarrett. Muthspiel says of the last of these: “I had a vague idea of Keith’s music when coming up with this one, especially his vamp improvisations from the Belonging-era. You can always tell how harmonically inventive someone is when they play around one chord for a long stretch. Everything Keith implies with his upper lines, his middle voices, shows you all the chords he could play but then only teases at. I love that about Keith.”

  • Read a 2014 interview with Wolfgang Muthspiel here