Interpretations: Volumes 1 & 2 – Tobin Mueller (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

As a musician deeply immersed in the jazz world, amongst many others, Tobin Mueller is adept at the art of interpreting, reimagining, and generally breathing a new lease of life into existing pieces of music. So, as the title of this remastered and expanded collection of tunes suggests, we see him do just that across the length and breadth of the jazz and classical landscape.

If you are an existing fan of his, then such a form as found on these two volumes will be fairly familiar, though no less magical, ground, especially if you enjoyed Tobin Mueller: At The Piano, for which this album is a natural successor or Best of Tobin Mueller, Vol 2: Jazz Arrangements which can be seen as a companion piece. Moving between the classical and jazz sounds, he visits the works of the great and good of both worlds, from J.S. Bach to Hoagy Carmichael, Frédéric Chopin to Chick Corea, and Claude Debussy to Wayne Shorter and beyond.

Volume 1 opens with “Fantasy on Étude in C Minor, Op. 10, No. 12”, which sees Mueller injecting some jazz vibes into Chopin, an artist he has returned to and reinterpreted many times. But if you want to see how he can blur the lines between what many might see as such as opposite worlds, “Golliwog’s Cakewalk” sees Debussey go ragtime.

And what can work in one direction can also work in the other, and his renderings of popular standards such as “Fly Me To The Moon” and “Georgia on My Mind” are given such classical grace, such delicacy that their direction of travel is less than obvious…jazz being embraced by classical finesse, or classical music gently extrapolated by jazz’s more adventurous nature.

Volume 2 starts in a similar way as its companion, “Two-Part Invention No. 13 in A Minor, BWV 784” sees Mueller add some contemporary rhythm into Bach’s sonic world; the result is a piece that is both an echo of the past and a piece of the here-and-now…Baroque ‘n’ roll! “Be-Bop” takes us from the style’s early form and then through post-bop improvisations as he runs through Keith Jarrett’s piece, and “Waltz For Debby” sees him reworking Bill Evan’s tribute to his niece in a suitable cinematic and sophisticated manner.

“On Green Dolphin Street” takes the Bronislaw Kaper & Ned Washington titular film score and infuses it with sonics inspired by Herbie Hancock, a delicate and dexterous visitation indeed.

This new collection of Interpretations is a place where worlds collide. Whether it is the sound of Mueller gently guiding jazz and popular standards into more graceful sonic fields or of classical grace being pepped up, the sound of the past washing up on modern shores, of the sonic tides receding in the other direction, or the sound of ornate musical pieces being given more accessibility and immediacy, or simpler pieces taken to a more mercurial conclusion, nobody does it as well as Tobin Mueller.