Levity - Afternoon Delights (Lado ABC, 2011) by Maciej Nowotny

Levity (band)

Jacek Kita - keys
Piotr Domagalski - bass
Jerzy Rogiewicz - drums

Afternoon Delights (Lado ABC, 2011)

Stop crying. Stop shouting. Stop yelling at me. That jazz is dead. I hate this kind of bullshit! It only has changed. Faster than you or me, that's true. It doesn't remind Miles music. Coltrane music. Coleman music. Monk music. It has evolved into new language. Reflecting our times. Our problems. Our reality. Are you ready for a test? In my hands I have two pills - blue and red - and it is for you to decide whether you want to stay in jazz as it was devised 100 years ago in New Orlean or you want to wake up to new music? It may be unpleasant, rough, coarse and very different from what you already know but it is as fresh, authentic and genuine as jazz we used to love for so many years...

For example it may sound like music on newest Levity album titled 'Afternoon Delights'. It all started almost too conventional with their debut recording 'Levity' in 2005 which spoke in jazz trio language rooted in tradition of Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett and Brad Mehldau legendary combos. But already on that first disc something was not exactly right... notes were going slightly mad... spiraling away like rebelling snowflakes going not only down but in all possible directions. Yeah, that was cool but at the same time weird and... fascinating, beautiful! This process deepened on their next album 'Chopin Shuffle' when they somehow managed to decompose Chopin without falling into trap of being either too obvious or too detached from it. But their latest disc is by far the best of all these albums. Why? Because it retains lightness of their first album with innovative approach of second while retaining this unmistikable feature of slight madness present in all recordings by Jacek Kita (keys), Piotr Domagalski (bass) and Jerzy Rogiewicz (drums). It is as much ambitious as accessible, as much appealing to ageing connoisseur as to novice, speaking shortly: it is very, very good disc and our NEW ALBUM OF THE MONTH!!! 

Unofficial video to song "Clap Your Hands Pikku My" from "Afternoon Delights":

Clap your hands Pikku My (unofficial) from kasai on Vimeo.

Author: Maciej Nowotny

http://kochamjazz.blox.pl/html