The Mirror Sessions is a 2-volume collaborative project between jazz pianist Tobin Mueller and his many friends who have recorded with him in the past. The music is divided into uptempo (Volume 1) and chill (Volume 2), running the jazz gauntlet from funk, contemporary jazz, blues, be-bop, and modal post-bop. Most compositions are by Mueller, with a few notable exceptions (examples of Mueller's dynamic arranging skills).
The list of soloists is a diverse as the compositional styles:
• Woody Mankowski: soprano & tenor saxophones (Los Angeles, USA)
• Beto Braga: soprano saxophone (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
• Tomás Martinez, alto saxophone (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
• Juan Torres Fernández, tenor saxophone (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
• Doug Schneider: tenor saxophone (Chicago, USA)
• Luke Moller: violin/fiddle (Brisbane, Australia
• Pierre Mendola: flute (Montreal, Canada - via Strasbourg, France)
• Amit Erez, acoustic and electric guitars (Portland OR, USA, via Tel Aviv, Israel)
• Fran Dagostino: electric guitar (Boston, USA)
• Mikie Martel: fluegelhorn (Nashville, USA)
• Ron Carter: standup bass (New York City, USA)
• Yoed Nir: cello (New York City, USA)
• Ruben de Ruiter: hand percussion (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
• Shahar Haziza: soprano & tenor sax (Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel)
The Mirror Sessions will be release digitally as two separarte volumes, April 13, 2027 and April 27, 2027. It will also be released as a double album CD, date TBA, for those who still enjoying owning their music, physically.
• Tobin Mueller: organ, electric fretless bass, electric piano
• Pierre Mendola: flute
• Shahar Haziza: drums
Float the Funk started as an experiment in which drummer Shahar Haziza came in first with the drumming groove, and Tobin arrange the piece around his drumming. Although flutist Pierre Mendola is the featured player, Shahar lays the foundation and gets his solo moment.
• Tobin Mueller: organ, electric fretless bass, brass sampler
• Amit Erez: electric guitars
• Tomás Martinez: alto saxophone
• Juan Torres Fernández: saxophone section
• Shahar Haziza: drums
Funkaffliction is classic 70s funk, played with a modern flair by contemporary players. The dual soloists - rock guitarist Erez and jazz saxophonist Martinez - create a perfect fusion feel.
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano
• Woody Mankowski: alto & tenor saxophones
• Fran Dagostino: electric guitar
• Jeff Cox: electric bass
• Dane Richeson: drums
Struttin' Up Bourbon is an electric blues jam, referring the New Orleans' Bourbon Street. Strolling down the famous road, as music spills out from nearly every doorway, is the perfect inspiration for fusion blues.
• Tobin Mueller: organ, electric pianos
• Anton Mueller: electric bass
• Beto Braga: soprano saxophone
• Amit Erez: electric guitars
• Shahar Haziza: drums
Coexistence is the jazz fusion instrumental version of a song by Anton Mueller from WONDER REBORN, Vol. 3, progressive rock/Americana collection by Tobin & Anton Mueller. After recording the rock version, Tobin rearranged the piece for his jazz fusion players.
• Tobin Mueller: organ
• Chris Mueller: acoustic piano
• Doug Schneider: tenor sax
• Woody Mankowski: soprano sax
• Bob Levy: trumpet
• Ken Schaphorst: fluegelhorn
• Jeff Cox: standup bass
• Dane Richeson: drums
Cliff's Edge is most heralded recordings. Originally from his award-winning "Rain Bather" recording session, it has been remastered for inclusion in this set.
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano
• Woody Mankowski: tenor sax
• Jeff Cox: standup bass
• Dane Richeson: drums
When recording Distortion of Memory, Tobin asked his long-time collaborator Woody Mankowski to not clean out the spit from his saxophone, but use it to create extra texture. The result helps illustrate the title concept: distortions of memory. Chill, yet somehow discomforting.
Monk's Thelonious Sphere is one of the hit tracks from the Mueller/Martinez duet album, Blue Side, Vol. 1 & 2. This new version includes drummer Shahar Haziza, adding extra rhythmic layers to the original blues-jazz composition.
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano
• Tomás Martinez: alto saxophone
• Juan Torres Fernández: tenor saxophone
• Shahar Haziza: drums
Based in Mueller's solo piano composition, Chromatisome Swing, one of Mueller's many homages to Thelonious Monk, Hurricane Hop is a post-bop quartet combining the two best saxophonists from Buenos Aires, Argentina: Tomás Martinez and Juan Torres Fernández.
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano, organ, electric bass
• Pierre Mendola: flute
• Juan Torres Fernández: tenor saxophones
• Shahar Haziza: drums
Saint Louis Blues is one of the earliest jazz compositions. Mueller covered it before on his Standard Deviations album. This time, he uses his current band of French flutist Pierre Mendola, Argentinian tenor saxophonist Juan Torres Fernández and Israeli drummer Shahar Haziza to put yet another contemporary spin on his standard classic. Mueller plays piano, organ and bass.
A longer take of Shades of Blues in the Night was first released on Blue Side, Vol. 1 & 2. But this shorter version has marvelous solos that also needed to be heard.
• Tobin Mueller: clavinet, organ, electric piano
• Ron Carter: standup bass
• Pierre Mendola: flute
• Ruben ded Ruiter: hand percussion
A different version of Rubber Submarine was first released on Come In Funky, a collection of jazz etudes by Mueller and legendary bassist Ron Carter. This new version adds French flutist Pierre Mendola, transforming the piece.
• Tobin Mueller: organ, electric piano, electric bass
• Amit Erez: electric guitar
An earlier version of Prowl was released on Come In Funky, which was just Tobin overdubbing himlself. Adding guitarist Amit Erze to the mix adds not just extra textures, but a sense of transcendant spirituality.
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano, electric fretless bass
• Shahar Haziza: drums
A very different version of Mueller covering Giant Steps is on his highly regarded jazz fusion album Prestidigitation, featuring clarinetist Bill Barner. that version used hand percussion instead of drums. This version features Mueller's fretless bass and electric piano, which brings out the complex and innovative chordal structure of the arrangement, accompanied by drummer Shahar Haziza.
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano
• Doug Schneider: acoustic piano
A longer take of this piano duet is on What Survives: Deluxe Edition. This radio edit captures all the best moments of that live recording, in a slightly shortened version, remastered.
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano
• Amit Erez: nylon string acoustic & electric guitars
Even though this is listed as a duet, Amit Erez plays both acoustic and electric guitars, although the electric guitar is more like a synth wash floating like a mist in the background. An ethereal, haunting piece that warms, thawing the river ice as it flows.
A beautiful composition, with a straightforward yet probing, internal sensibility. Beto Braga's solo soprano is exceptional, finding unexpected spaces to add new thoughts and new questions. He creates a journey of mind and spirit.
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano
• Luke Moller: violins
There is an unmistakably Celtic feel to this piece, which Luke Moller's violins accentuate. Mueller continually moves the tonal center with constant key changes in the intro and recapitulation, but it is the middle section that dances like fairies in the night sky.
Mueller & Martinez first released their initial recording of Gershwin's Summertime on their debut album, Blue Side, Vol. 1. This is a version that includes blues drumming by Shahar Haziza. He combines the Led Zeppelin spirit with Mueller's unique jazz arrangement.
Mueller first introduced this composition on his piano/spoken word album Afterwords (2016) as an homage to author T. H. White's novel, "The Once and Future King."
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano
• Amit Erez: acoustic & electric guitars
Another ethereal collaboration with Amit Erez, Time As Emergent Phenomenon floats beyond time, through several gently opening portals, into countless imaginative worlds.
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano
• Luke Moller: fiddles
Another Celtic inspired collaboration with fiddle player Luke Moller, The Emerald Path is a trio in which Mueller provides the central theme on piano as Moller dances around the edges, both left and right, overlay two moving, balanced voices.
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano
• Luke Moller: all fiddles & violins/violas
• Ruben de Ruiter: Celtic bass bodhrán
Eruption of Previous Life expands Moller's role as he overdubs multiple strings, creating an intimate yet epic framework to this stirring, heroic composition. Although there is also an element of Dante's Inferno that Mueller brings into the arrangement.
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano
• Beto Braga: soprano saxophone
Mueller has used this melody many times, starting with his stage musicals Creature and Runners In A Dream. He also created very different arrangements for inclusion on his albums What Survives and Afterwords. This collaboration with soprano saxophonist Beto Bragg is the most intimate, however. Letting Beto open the piece is the perfect touch.
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano, organ, synth, electric piano
• Woody Mankowski: soprano saxophone
• Ruben de Ruiter: hand percussion (shaker, cow bell, congas, bass bodhrán
• Lamar Moore: drums
This recording was first released on Mueller's 2018 album Standard Deviations, but its continued success on streaming media convinced Mueller to include a remastered version on this album... mainly to feature his collaborator with whom he's work the most: Woody Mankowski.
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano
• Luke Moller: violins
This the first piece Mueller wrote for his first solo piano album, Morning Whispers (2006), and he wanted to create a new arrangement as a vehicle to his favorite violinist: Luke Moller. It's tender yet unsentimental melody finds new life under Luke's fingers.
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano
• Mikie Martel: flugelhorns
The fabulous brass playing by Mikie Martel would've figured more prominently in this collection had his Nashville studio not been destroyed by flash flooding when this project began. Luckily, he recorded this sweet ballad before tragedy struck. His mellow flugelhorn is played witha straightforward grace, with honest simplicity, a wonderful model for relationship communication.
• Tobin Mueller: acoustic piano
• Beto Braga: soprano saxophone
One of Mueller's most haunting compositions, Beto Bragga's soprano sax emerges as if from another dimension. The theme and variations grew as the piece morphs like a stream-of-consciousness poem. An unbroken sigh of anguish and longing, infinite it its search.
There is something fitting to end a 2 volume 28 track collection of mostly duet with a solo piece by the composer. It highlights how Mueller's solo piano pieces often sound like duets, due to his use of counterpoint and orchestral phrasing. This meditative piece brings to mind many things, lost and found, hoped for and regretted, but, mist importantly, made manifest by a life well lived.