Scott Colley

Wolfgang Muthspiel, whom The New Yorker has called “a shining light” among today’s jazz guitarists, returns to the trio format with Angular Blues, the Austrian’s fourth ECM album as a leader, following two acclaimed quintet releases and his trio debut. Like Driftwood – the 2014 trio disc that JazzTimes dubbed “cinematic” and “haunting” – Angular Blues finds Muthspiel paired with longtime collaborator Brian Blade on drums; but instead of Larry Grenadier on bass, it’s Scott Colley, whose especially earthy sound helps give this trio its own dynamic. Muthspiel alternates between acoustic and electric guitar and, along with his characteristically melodic originals – including such highlights as the bucolic “Hüttengriffe” and pensive “Camino” – he essays the first standards of his ECM tenure (“Everything I Love” and “I’ll Remember April”), as well as his first-ever bebop rhythm-changes tune on record (“Ride”). Angular Blues also features a single guitar-only track, “Solo Kanon in 5/4,” with Muthspiel’s electronic delay imbuing the baroque-like rounds with a hypnotic glow.

Jim Hall is no stranger to guitar/bass duets after several memorable outings with the likes of Ron Carter and Red Mitchell, but this series of studio sessions is even more challenging, mixing it up in pairings with Dave Holland, Christian McBride, Charlie Haden, George Mraz, and Scott Colley. Only three of the 13 pieces are standards, including a soft and sparse treatment of "All the Things You Are" with Mraz, a whisper-soft and slowly savored "Don't Explain" with Haden, and a switch to acoustic guitar for a tense "Besame Mucho" with Colley. Hall's skills as a composer are vastly underrated by the jazz audience as a whole, but his fellow players recognize his formidable skills. He makes a relatively rare appearance on a 12-string acoustic guitar in his challenging opener, "End the Beguine," in which he and Holland rise to the demands of this captivating piece…

Celebrating the life-giving power of light, the Lux Quartet is an exploratory new quartet co-led by two of the most celebrated and visionary artists in modern improvised music: pianist Myra Melford and drummer Allison Miller. Drawing on a shared passion for the preservation of nature and a boundary-stretching approach to music, the two innovative composers and bandleaders are joined by saxophonist Dayna Stephens and bassist Scott Colley, together crafting a sonic environment that glows with its own intense yet nurturing radiance.