Three’s Company
AMERICAN GUITAR AFICIONADOS have known about Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel for nearly 30 years, going back to his two-year tenure in Gary Burton’s band during the early ’90s and his own acclaimed 1991 debut on Antilles records, the Burton-produced The Promise. That record featured the potent lineup of tenor saxophonist Bob Berg, pianist Richie Beirach, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Peter Erskine. Muthspiel followed in 1992 with the more biting Black and Blue on Polygram before he joined drummer Paul Motian’s Electric Bebop Band in 1994 and bassist Marc Johnson’s Right Brain Patrol in 1996. He returned back home to Vienna in 2002 and started up his own Material Records label.
Muthspiel’s reputation as a master improviser with an uncanny ability to cast, his exploration of jazz standards in a trio setting with bassist Johnson and Wayne Shorter drummer Brian Blade, and 2007’s , his duets project with Blade.
