Christian Muthspiel 4 - Seaven Teares (2013)

Austrian trombonist, pianist, composer and conductor Christian Muthspiel converts the master of English Renaissance music John Dowland (1563-1626) to jazz on his ACT debut Seaven Teares . To accopmpany him his wish was to find musicians who are at home in the worlds of both composed music as well as improvisation and jazz. This is true for the Swiss trumpeter Matthieu Michel as well as for the French vibraphonist Franck Tortiller who, amongst other things, became famous as the director of the Orchestre National du Jazz. And naturally also for the fourth man in the team, Steve Swallow, who is not only the grand old man of electric bass and has played with almost all US jazz stars, but also an acclaimed composer. Together they start a fascinating journey along ten songs of Dowland s ingenious instrumental cycle Lachrimae, or Seven Teares . The compositional metamorphoses of the compendium of tears from Tears of Love and Bitter Tears to Crocodile Tears are thematically similar to the original. With this album Christian Muthspiel joins the group of ACT artists who combine different sounds and make music for listeners who are not interested in dividing music in genres and categories, but are rather fascinated by intelligent, contemporary and unique music.

Tracklist:

01. Tears of Love
02. Happy Tears
03. Tears of Joy
04. Bitter Tears
05. Dancing Tears
06. Crocodile Tears
07. Tears of a Clown
08. Frozen Tears
09. Tears of Laughter
10. Endless Tears

Personnel:

Christian Muthspiel - trombone, piano, e-piano, recorder;
Matthieu Michel - trumpet, flugelhorn;
Franck Tortiller - vibraphone;
Steve Swallow - electric bass.