The Austrian jazz musician and composer Christian Muthspiel presents the traditions of yodelling in a completely new context. Freed from tourist stereotypes, Muthspiel has arranged these traditional folk tunes for a contemporary jazz line-up featuring leading musicians from both sides of the Atlantic.

Christian Muthspiel's Yodel Group began as a commissioned project for the Saalfelden 2009 Jazz Festival, where this music was heard for the first time. The musical components were so fine and the sound of the players so exciting that it was immediately clear this would not be a one-time-only event. After all, this was a venture involving two experienced free form-anarchists of the New York scene, two luminaries of the Franco-Swiss avantgarde and two Austrian freethinkers, in a joint effort to transcend the current pan-Atlantic stylistic clichés.

Personnel: Christian Muthspiel (trombone, piano, voice, vocoder, loops), Gerald Preinfalk (clarinet, bassclarinet, soprano/altosaxophone), Matthieu Michel (trumpet, flugelhorn), Franck Tortiller (vibraphone), Brad Jones (electric bass), Bobby Previte (drums)