Best of 2019 #37: Muriel Grossmann – “Golden Rule”

John Coltrane’s “India.”  I could live in that moment forever when Coltrane returns to the melody after a wild divergence.  The way in which meditative drones and chaotic upheaval live in a state of unison within the same piece, and often expressed at the same time, is the kind of miracle that exemplifies humanity at its best.  The spiritual jazz phase of Coltrane’s creative trajectory is a personal favorite, and I am not nearly alone in that regard.  It was a time when an addictive melody could exist in harmony with dissonance and a driving tempo, and despite Coltrane’s prodigious recorded output, the saxophonist still didn’t leave us with enough of it.  Thank god there are musicians who seek to capture that sound and exist in a similar place.

On Golden Rule, Muriel Grossman captures it about as well as anyone I’ve ever heard.  She gives it her own voice and imbues it with a life that speaks to the present day, but it fills an emptiness in the soul that’s existed since Coltrane moved onto more avant-garde territories and, eventually, moved on to another plane.  But, truly, Coltrane never dies, because music like this is timeless, and the way Grossman creates it, the manifestation is the stuff of life.

Your album personnel:  Muriel Grossmann (soprano & tenor saxophones), Gina Schwarz (bass), Uros Stamenkovic (drums), and Radomir Milojkovic (guitar).

The album is Self-Produced.

Music from Ibiza, Spain.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon