CONCERT | WOLFGANG MUTHSPIEL: VIENNA WORLD
Legendary Austrian guitartist Wolfgang Muthspiel is currently on a five city Vienna World recording project tour, and his next stop is the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. In this trio he teams up with two forces on the American jazz scene: young vocalist Becca Stevens and pianist Billy Childs.
In 2011, Wolfgang Muthspiel embarked upon a great musical challenge. He set about composing a song cycle that would feature only his guitar and – in its recorded debut – his voice.
Vienna Naked is the debut album from the cycle, released June 15th, 2012. An album of sparsely instrumented songs laid bare against Muthspiel’s strong lead vocal, with the kind of lyrical twists and turns more usually associated with the coffee houses of the folk underground. It’s deep and it’s very personal.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Wolfgang Muthspiel, guitars and voice
Becca Stevens, voice
Billy Childs, piano
“The only constant in the work of celebrated jazz guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel is change” (Ralf Dombrowski)
Wolfgang Muthspiel‘s voice has fragility and depth, much like his virtuoso guitar playing for which he has previously been known. His playing no doubt informs some vocal melodies but also works well as a frame for his voice, and allows for more interactive musicality within the arrangements.
Even though Wolfgang’s early years were spent in the world of classical music, leading to a long relationship with Jazz and Improvisation, the art of songwriting has caught his interest early on. So there is a long list of influences from the rock, country and folk scene: among them Joni Mitchell, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Police, Leonard Cohen and Prince stand out as lynchpins for this album. “Vienna Naked” is the first step of a long-term project which will see a group of songs develop from demo stages, through to a stripped-down live presentation (of 3 players) and ultimately joined by more songs and a larger presentation culminating in a fully-expanded group line-up, both on record and on the concert stage.
Los Angeles-born Billy Childs demonstrated an aptitude for piano as early as age six, and at age sixteen entered the USC-sponsored Community School of the Performing Arts, studying theory with Marienne Uszler and piano with John Weisenfluh. In 1975, he entered USC as a composition major, graduating four years later with a bachelor of music in composition under the tutelage of Robert Linn.
Since then Mr. Childs has received a number of orchestral commissions from, among others: Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leonard Slatkin, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, The Kronos Quartet, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the American Brass Quintet, and the Dorian Wind Quintet.
After apprenticing with Freddie Hubbard and J.J. Johnson in the late seventies and early eighties, Childs’ solo jazz recording career began in 1988, when he released Take For Example, This… the first of four critically acclaimed albums on the Windham Hill Jazz label. He followed that album with Twilight Is Upon Us (1989), His April Touch (1992), and Portrait Of A Player (1993). His next album, I’ve Known Rivers on Stretch/GRP (now Stretch/Concord) was released in 1995, followed by The Child Within, released on the Shanachie record label in 1996. Most recently, Mr. Childs has recorded two volumes of jazz/chamber music – Lyric, Vol. 1 (2006) and Autumn: In Moving Pictures, Vol. 2 (2010) – music which is an amalgam of jazz and classical elements, developed with his ensemble through rehearsal, performance, and recording, over the course of ten years.
Thus far, in his career, Childs has garnered ten Grammy nominations and three Grammy awards: two for best instrumental composition (Into the Light from Lyric and The Path Among The Trees from Autumn: In Moving Pictures) and one for best arrangement accompanying a vocalist. Most recently in 2013, Childs was awarded the prestigious Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. In 2009, Childs was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 2006 was awarded a Chamber Music America composer’s grant.
As a pianist Childs has recently performed with, among others, Yo-Yo Ma, Sting, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony, the Kronos Quartet, Wynton Marsalis, Jack DeJohnette, Ron Carter, the Ying String Quartet, the American Brass Quintet, and Chris Botti. In January 2010, The Detroit Symphony (Leonard Slatkin conducting) premiered Childs’ Concerto For Violin And Orchestra with Regina Carter as soloist. Upcoming projects include a new piece for Duke University composed for his Jazz/Chamber Ensemble featuring Dianne Reeves and the Ying Quartet and a recording for Sony Masterworks: a re-imagining of the music of Laura Nyro.
North Carolina-bred, New York-based singer/composer/guitarist Becca Stevens’s status as a lifelong music-maker is more than apparent on the Becca Stevens Band’s Sunnyside debut Weightless. Although she’s already won significant acclaim for her membership in Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra and her prestigious collaborations with such esteemed musicians as Taylor Eigsti and Brad Mehldau, the sparkling 12-song set reveals the accomplished young songstress to be a startlingly original, refreshingly distinctive talent in her own right.
After graduating from the high school program at the North Carolina School of the Arts with a major in classical guitar, Stevens attended The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, where she received a BFA with high honors in vocal jazz and composition.
Since 2004, Becca has served as lead singer of Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra, fronting a genre-bending 18-piece jazz orchestra interpreting the songs of Björk. She has also toured and recorded with, and written lyrics for, jazz pianist Taylor Eigsti, singing on five songs on his 2010 album Daylight At Midnight. She recently performed at Carnegie Hall as featured singer with pianist Brad Mehldau. She’s also toured as part of drummer/composer Eric Harland’s all-star band; and has written and/or recorded with such notable players as Clarence Penn, George Garzone, Julian Lage, Kendrick Scott, Jeremy Pelt, Logan Richardson and Andy Milne.
2010 saw the debut of Stevens’ first choral composition, Soli Deo Gloria, commissioned and performed by the Melodia Women’s Choir in New York. Becca also moonlights as one-third of Girls Gone Mild, a trio with fellow singer/songwriters Rebecca Martin and Gretchen Parlato.
In addition to those projects, Stevens has also worked extensively as a teacher, teaching guitar and songwriting to students ranging from juvenile delinquents to senior citizens. She also recently rekindled her childhood affinity for acting, playing the lead role in Shakespeare’s As You Like It and supporting parts in Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth with the Adirondack Shakespeare Company.
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