Biography
Muriel Grossmann, a saxophonist, composer, and bandleader from Europe, has produced some of the most evocative and resonant jazz recordings to emerge during the first decades of the twenty-first century. Primarily released on her Dreamland Records imprint, Grossmann demonstrates equal facility across alto, soprano, and tenor saxophones. Her pieces, crafted expressly to highlight the particular abilities of her fellow musicians, occupy the intersection of post-Coltrane modalism, spiritual post-bop, and experimental approaches. As a trained vocalist she has absorbed techniques that shape her distinctive phrasing. While her second album, Quartet from 2008, asserted mastery of the post-bop vocabulary and highlighted her exacting, lyrical soprano work, Birth of the Mystery in 2010 ventured into expansive and at times forceful experimentation that incorporated dissonance, open space, and freely shifting textural and rhythmic layers. With the arrival of Golden Rule in 2018—an explicit homage to Coltrane—she fused these contrasting directions into a dense weave of Eastern modal exploration, intense feeling, and spiritual depth. Reverence in 2019, Quiet Earth in 2020, and Devotion in 2023 each incorporated Hammond B-3 organ into the sound of her quintet.
Born in Paris to Austrian parents who worked as educators, Grossmann relocated with her family to Vienna at age four. She pursued classical flute training beginning at five and continued until twenty-one, when an acquaintance’s loaned instrument prompted her switch to alto and soprano saxophones; the tenor came later. The saxophone’s capacity for greater airflow appealed to her desire for expanded expressive range, and she developed her skills by playing along with recordings. Jazz pianist Joachim Kühn served as her primary mentor and influence, and she eventually performed alongside him as well as his brother Rolf. Earlier inspirations included Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Grant Green, and Illinois Jacquet, whose playing conveyed a strong sense of soul. Following her formal studies she performed and toured with ensembles rooted in funk, R&B, world music, and jazz. In 2002 she settled in Barcelona and began leading her own groups for both concerts and recordings; two years afterward she moved to Ibiza, initiating a sustained period of activity that extended well into the following decade.
Her first release, Homecoming Reunion, was tracked in Barcelona with guitarist Milojkovich, drummer Marko Jelača, and bassist David Marroquin. The quartet performed locally, received favorable notice, and appeared at venues across Spain and Europe. Quartet in 2008 retained the same personnel and first presented her composed and improvised material within an integrated whole, marking the onset of her mature style as conventional harmony receded and her winding melodies grew more fleeting, anchored by personal phrasing rather than borrowed avant-garde mannerisms. That year she also recorded fresh material with drummer Udo P. Grossmann’s quartet; although several pieces were toured, she returned to the studio in 2009 to document Birth of the Mystery, a more outward-bound statement that concluded her work with the original lineup. She additionally issued her sole trio recording, the energetic Sudden Impact, featuring Milojkovic and bassist Chema Pellico.
After a three-year recording hiatus during which she assembled a new ensemble and maintained a steady performing schedule, Grossmann documented a 2011 concert at the Eivissa Jazz Festival that surfaced in 2013. The date introduced a quartet with Milojkovic on guitar, Robert Landfermann on bass, and Christian Lillinger on drums. Their interactive improvisation, guided by her written themes, reached a peak in the fourteen-minute “Ornette,” which concluded the program with expansive folk-like lines, intricate polyrhythms, and contrasting dynamics. The same group recorded Earth Tones, released in 2015. Conceived as a spiritual jazz suite after Grossmann immersed herself in an album of gong recordings throughout one winter, the project sparked an interest in “overtones, colors of tones, and Coltrane’s circular musical handwriting.” Seeking extended time on soprano, she shaped the suite around concise melodies, spare structures, and overtone exploration, aiming for an organic drone as its central thread. A drone orchestra of tambura, sarangi, piano, flute, melodica, maracas, and bells supported single-take melodies and solos that appear sequentially on the finished album; Milojkovic supplied guitar drones from four instruments before the rhythm section—acoustic bass, timpani, concert bass drum, chau and wind gongs, and Tibetan bells—entered. After brief touring she returned to the studio with a new quartet that included Austrian bassist Gina Schwarz and Serbian drummer Uros Stamenkovic. Natural Time, more immediate than its predecessor, offered a fluid examination of concise yet complex modal melodies, earning positive notices throughout Europe while the band attracted praise from Germany to Morocco. The recording served as a precursor to Momentum, a virtuosic immersion in spiritual jazz that grew directly from Grossmann’s pedagogical work designing a holistic curriculum at Belén Köhler’s international Universal Mandala schools; its depth and vitality drew acclaim from critics worldwide and larger audiences to live performances.
Throughout her career Grossmann has independently financed, released, and distributed every recording via the internet or at concerts, with occasional retail placement. The long-awaited breakthrough arrived in early 2018 with Golden Rule, her most expansive exploration—limited to soprano and tenor—of the spiritual jazz lineage associated with Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, and contemporaries such as Shabaka Hutchings, Nat Birchall, and Matthew Halsall, all refracted through her own emotionally charged signature. Issued on Dreamland and mixed and mastered by L. Henry Sarmiento II, the album also received meticulous double-vinyl treatment from Estonia’s RRGems Records in a limited-edition package. Released in September with the digital edition following in November, it garnered her strongest reviews to date in outlets including Downbeat, Jazziz, and UK Vibe, spurring sold-out shows in Berlin, Barcelona, Belgrade, and Mallorca. In subsequent years her visibility continued to grow as European jazz radio featured selections from the record.
Reverence, a double-length set issued on RRGems at the close of 2019, was captured at Dreamland Studios in Ibiza with her regular quartet and guest organist Llorenç Barceló. Its eight tracks drew inspiration from African musical sources and examined polyrhythm in an intensely personal manner. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic halted touring after March, prompting Grossmann to compose during lockdown in order, as she put it, to “… Find the strength, the positivity, and the clarity to go through any challenging situation, moment by moment,” while reassessing her artistic development. She convened the quintet to record Quiet Earth, comprising the new title track and “African Call” alongside studio versions of “Wien” and “Peaceful River,” both previously heard in different form on the 2011 live album Awakening. Quiet Earth appeared in December 2020, again featuring Barceló on organ. Devotion followed in December 2023 with Abel Boquera assuming the organ chair.
Born in Paris to Austrian parents who worked as educators, Grossmann relocated with her family to Vienna at age four. She pursued classical flute training beginning at five and continued until twenty-one, when an acquaintance’s loaned instrument prompted her switch to alto and soprano saxophones; the tenor came later. The saxophone’s capacity for greater airflow appealed to her desire for expanded expressive range, and she developed her skills by playing along with recordings. Jazz pianist Joachim Kühn served as her primary mentor and influence, and she eventually performed alongside him as well as his brother Rolf. Earlier inspirations included Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Grant Green, and Illinois Jacquet, whose playing conveyed a strong sense of soul. Following her formal studies she performed and toured with ensembles rooted in funk, R&B, world music, and jazz. In 2002 she settled in Barcelona and began leading her own groups for both concerts and recordings; two years afterward she moved to Ibiza, initiating a sustained period of activity that extended well into the following decade.
Her first release, Homecoming Reunion, was tracked in Barcelona with guitarist Milojkovich, drummer Marko Jelača, and bassist David Marroquin. The quartet performed locally, received favorable notice, and appeared at venues across Spain and Europe. Quartet in 2008 retained the same personnel and first presented her composed and improvised material within an integrated whole, marking the onset of her mature style as conventional harmony receded and her winding melodies grew more fleeting, anchored by personal phrasing rather than borrowed avant-garde mannerisms. That year she also recorded fresh material with drummer Udo P. Grossmann’s quartet; although several pieces were toured, she returned to the studio in 2009 to document Birth of the Mystery, a more outward-bound statement that concluded her work with the original lineup. She additionally issued her sole trio recording, the energetic Sudden Impact, featuring Milojkovic and bassist Chema Pellico.
After a three-year recording hiatus during which she assembled a new ensemble and maintained a steady performing schedule, Grossmann documented a 2011 concert at the Eivissa Jazz Festival that surfaced in 2013. The date introduced a quartet with Milojkovic on guitar, Robert Landfermann on bass, and Christian Lillinger on drums. Their interactive improvisation, guided by her written themes, reached a peak in the fourteen-minute “Ornette,” which concluded the program with expansive folk-like lines, intricate polyrhythms, and contrasting dynamics. The same group recorded Earth Tones, released in 2015. Conceived as a spiritual jazz suite after Grossmann immersed herself in an album of gong recordings throughout one winter, the project sparked an interest in “overtones, colors of tones, and Coltrane’s circular musical handwriting.” Seeking extended time on soprano, she shaped the suite around concise melodies, spare structures, and overtone exploration, aiming for an organic drone as its central thread. A drone orchestra of tambura, sarangi, piano, flute, melodica, maracas, and bells supported single-take melodies and solos that appear sequentially on the finished album; Milojkovic supplied guitar drones from four instruments before the rhythm section—acoustic bass, timpani, concert bass drum, chau and wind gongs, and Tibetan bells—entered. After brief touring she returned to the studio with a new quartet that included Austrian bassist Gina Schwarz and Serbian drummer Uros Stamenkovic. Natural Time, more immediate than its predecessor, offered a fluid examination of concise yet complex modal melodies, earning positive notices throughout Europe while the band attracted praise from Germany to Morocco. The recording served as a precursor to Momentum, a virtuosic immersion in spiritual jazz that grew directly from Grossmann’s pedagogical work designing a holistic curriculum at Belén Köhler’s international Universal Mandala schools; its depth and vitality drew acclaim from critics worldwide and larger audiences to live performances.
Throughout her career Grossmann has independently financed, released, and distributed every recording via the internet or at concerts, with occasional retail placement. The long-awaited breakthrough arrived in early 2018 with Golden Rule, her most expansive exploration—limited to soprano and tenor—of the spiritual jazz lineage associated with Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, and contemporaries such as Shabaka Hutchings, Nat Birchall, and Matthew Halsall, all refracted through her own emotionally charged signature. Issued on Dreamland and mixed and mastered by L. Henry Sarmiento II, the album also received meticulous double-vinyl treatment from Estonia’s RRGems Records in a limited-edition package. Released in September with the digital edition following in November, it garnered her strongest reviews to date in outlets including Downbeat, Jazziz, and UK Vibe, spurring sold-out shows in Berlin, Barcelona, Belgrade, and Mallorca. In subsequent years her visibility continued to grow as European jazz radio featured selections from the record.
Reverence, a double-length set issued on RRGems at the close of 2019, was captured at Dreamland Studios in Ibiza with her regular quartet and guest organist Llorenç Barceló. Its eight tracks drew inspiration from African musical sources and examined polyrhythm in an intensely personal manner. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic halted touring after March, prompting Grossmann to compose during lockdown in order, as she put it, to “… Find the strength, the positivity, and the clarity to go through any challenging situation, moment by moment,” while reassessing her artistic development. She convened the quintet to record Quiet Earth, comprising the new title track and “African Call” alongside studio versions of “Wien” and “Peaceful River,” both previously heard in different form on the 2011 live album Awakening. Quiet Earth appeared in December 2020, again featuring Barceló on organ. Devotion followed in December 2023 with Abel Boquera assuming the organ chair.
Albums
