Mateusz Puławski - guitar
Itai Weissman - tenor saxophone
Fernando Sanchez - tenor saxophone
Hendrik Mueller - double bass
Aron Nyiro - drums
Evgenii Bondarev - trumpet
Esther Van Hees - voice, lyrics
Change Of Seasons
STEMRA MPLH02
By Adam Baruch
This is the second album by Polish (resident in Amsterdam) guitarist/composer Mateusz Puławski and his Lunar Quartet, which also includes Israeli saxophonist Itai Weissman, bassist Hendrik Mueller and Hungarian drummer Aron Nyiro. Saxophonist Fernando Sanchez plays on three tracks, vocalist Esther Van Hees guests on two and trumpeter Evgenii Bondarev guests on one track. The album presents nine tracks, seven of which are original compositions by Puławski, one is a standard and one is by fellow Amsterdam saxophonist Emiel Wienholts.
The music is mostly well within
the modern Jazz mainstream, based on melodic themes, which sometimes get lost
within the proceedings when the quartet members and guests start to play their
respective solos. The tunes develop slowly and hesitantly and the harmonics are
harsh, which makes listening to the music an effort. When the music moves into
less constrained environment, everything gets better, but that happens only on
a couple of tracks.
Technically all the
participants play well, with Puławski displaying an impressive fluency and
proficiency as a player, but this is not translated effectively into creating
notable music. The rhythm section and the saxophonist play straightforwardly
and are obviously happy within that idiom, but offer no challenge or innovation
as far as the music is concerned. Perhaps Puławski is still searching
for his direction and personal voice, but at this stage he is not there yet.
Nevertheless he seems to be consistently developing his career, and I can only
wish him the best of luck.
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