Jazz
Calligram Records · 2 October 2026
Twenty-eight years separate Tommy Muellner’s first album as a leader from his second: “(All) About Time” came out in 1998 and “Solitary Moon” is dated 2 October 2026. What he’s done with the second chance is a record of dedications. Ten of the fifteen tracks are dedicated to family members or to musicians he admires, and the last, “Why Did I Choose You”, he plays alone at the piano for Bill Evans, whom he names as his primary influence. Along the way there are dedications to Keith Jarrett, John Campbell, Steve Kuhn, Thelonious Monk and Fred Hersch.
Muellner works the Chicago circuit and has built the record by changing the line-up at every step: a trio with Clark Sommers on bass and Phil Gratteau on drums for five tracks, saxophonist Geof Bradfield added on eight, trumpeter Art Davis on six and all five together on four. Bradfield opens the palette widest, moving between tenor, soprano and flute: soprano on “Sandy’s Samba”, a Muellner original, flute on the slow samba of “Cuz Tune”, tenor on “Monk See, Monk Do”. Davis brings trumpet and flugelhorn, and on ballads like Henry Mancini’s “Soldier In The Rain” he’s the one carrying the tune. Nearly half of the fifteen tracks come from the Great American Songbook: Alec Wilder’s “While We’re Young” opens with the quintet, and then there are “Like Someone In Love”, “I Remember You”, “Polka Dots And Moonbeams”, “Make Someone Happy” and Bernstein’s “Somewhere”.
The programme doesn’t quite hold. An hour of music chosen by its dedications is left with no thread but the biographical one: the fifteen pieces are well distributed and well played, but the only places where Muellner’s writing sets the terms are “Monk See, Monk Do” and “Sandy’s Samba”. The “Diane / Danny Boy” medley, arranged for his aunt Diane and uncle Dan, stands for the whole record: knowing it is lovely and changes nothing about how it sounds. What doesn’t fail is the playing, and Gratteau’s brushes on “Like Someone In Love” and “I Remember You” are a lesson in accompanying without covering.
Rating: 6.5/10
Text by Aina Torrents