Muriel Grossmann

“Golden Rule”

scum stats: limited to 200 copies

OH BOY!

I’ll be the first to admit I do not know shit about jazz music. Never really understood it, had extreme difficulty “connecting” with it…just failed to laser through into my skull.

Well, I dig Alice Coltrane alright, but for some reason that stands out in a way that feels non-jazzy to me. I don’t really know how to explain it.

But this Muriel Grossmann record is blowing my mind. I grabbed it because it’s on the estimable RR Gems label…an imprint who’s track record is impeccable. A label where I own a copy of everything they put out.

But I had slept on this one and didn’t get the urge until AFTER they had sold out of the admittedly limited 200 press run.

Tracked one down more expensively than I would’ve liked, but shit, it is sooooo worth it.

Swank tells me it hits on a lot of the production and phrasing cornerstones of the John Coltrane oeuvre. I know enough to be able to say that the cover looks like a golden age Impulse album cover.

Add to it the fact that Muriel is a white Austrian female saxophonist who absolutely nails it…well, that’s all the more reason to dig it.

Apparently there’s a repress coming, so don’t blow all your dough trying to track down one…yet. But I do urge ALL of you to check it out on streaming.

My enthusiasm for this album knows no bounds. It is THAT good. I just hope this isn’t the domino that ultimately finds me trying to track down original deep-groove Blue Note pressings. Cause jazz collecting is a whole other beast.