Support Burning Ambulance on Patreon • Get the Burning Ambulance email newsletter

Episode 61 of the Burning Ambulance Podcast features an interview with saxophonist Muriel Grossmann.

Links to listen: Osiris // Apple // Spotify

Muriel is a very interesting musician; she’s from Austria, and currently lives in Spain. She started out as a flutist, studying classical music from the age of five, but when she was in her early twenties she switched to saxophone and moved over into jazz, and that’s what she’s been doing ever since. She’s been recording as a leader since about 2007, and has 12 albums out. Since 2016, she’s been working with a steady band that includes guitarist Radomir Milojkovic, bassist Gina Schwarz, and drummer Uros Stamenkovic. On her last two records, 2019’s Reverence and the new Quiet Earth, Llorenç Barceló plays organ.

Her music is very much in a modal and spiritual jazz vein, reminiscent of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane, but there’s also a lot of funk and soul to it; Stamenkovic really swings the groove, and Milojkovic is a very Grant Green-esque player, though he can also do a kind of West African highlife thing very well. Grossmann’s sax playing is rhythmic and melody-based, and she never really goes out into free jazz screaming; it’s all about group interplay. She’s also very interested in African music, and uses the studio as a tool, adding extra layers of percussion and drone instruments like sitar and harp.

If you enjoy this podcast, please consider visiting patreon.com/burningambulance and becoming a subscriber. For just $5 a month, you can help keep this show and Burning Ambulance as a whole active and thriving. Thanks!

Music heard in this episode:

Muriel Grossmann, “African Call” (Quiet Earth)

Muriel Grossmann, “Title Here” (Title Here)