Live at the Jazz Standard
Wolfgang Muthspiel, guitar (left channel)
Mick Goodrick, guitar (right channel)
MRE-029-2
Mick Goodrick and Wolfgang Muthspiel have given us a map of the
world of the guitar.
The guitar fretboard is vexing terrain. Unlike the piano
fingerboard, which proceeds with relentless logic from the lowest note
on the left to the highest on the right, the fretboard has a geometry
all its own. Exploring the possibilities of the guitar involves
endless stumbling into cul-de-sacs; combinations and series of notes
easily realized on the piano simply can’t be done, but there are
special possibilities lurking within the maze of fretting options if
you’re willing to contort your left hand in wildly improbable ways.
This recording presents us with the most advanced research into
the unique possibilities hiding in plain sight on the guitar’s neck.
Nobody has confronted this instrument as fearlessly and doggedly as
Mick, and nobody has run with what Mick has learned and taught further
than Wolfgang. It’s clear they enjoy each other greatly, and this joy
radiates from the music they make. They’ve taken what they know with
them onto the bandstand and then, fortunately, just let it rip. What
results is music for four hands of the highest order.
Steve Swallow