Andrzej Jagodziński Trio - Bach (2020)

Andrzej Jagodziński Trio

Andrzej Jagodziński - piano
Adam Cegielski - bass
Czeslaw Bartkowski - drums

Bach

SRMT 5907222840047

By Adam Baruch

This is an album by veteran Polish Jazz pianist/composer Andrzej Jagodziński recorded with his fabulous trio with bassist Adam Cegielski and drummer Czesław Bartkowski. As the title suggests, the album is dedicated to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and presents six of his compositions, beautifully transformed into the Jazz idiom.

Playing Bach by Jazz musicians is of course nothing new and the romance goes back to the early 1960s, when French pianist/composer Jacques Loussier made a grand career by Jazzing up Bach’s compositions for the crowds, and many other Jazz musicians since tried to tackle this task, including Keith Jarrett and Brad Mehldau, with varying results. Bach’s music, which undoubtedly is one of the absolute pinnacles of Human artistic ingenuity, in most cases is best served by being left alone in its original form and shape, with rare exceptions.

I am happy to see (or rather hear) that Jagodzinski and his trio are up to the challenge of successfully transforming Bach’s music into the Jazz realm, served by their great sensitivity, talents and of course extensive experience. They manage to avoid trivializing this great music, keeping the original sense of flow, melody and rhythm intact, and adding the Jazzy ornamentations with carful respect of the original compositions. This is not altogether surprising taking into consideration the sublime Jazz oriented interpretations of the music by Polish National composer Frederic Chopin, which Jagodziński and his cohorts managed to create in the past.

The performances are absolutely stellar, as expected, and although the piano is naturally in the epicenter of the sonic experience, the rhythm section also contributes some superb parts, which deserve no less admiration. Personally I hear a bit of Chopin on these interpretations of Bach, which again is hardly surprising, as Chopin’s music flows in the blood (or sub consciousness) of every Polish musician at all times.

Overall this is a wonderful album in every sense, both emotionally and intellectually, which deserves to be heard by every true lover of Jazz-Classical Fusion, Bach’s followers and Jazz piano trio enthusiasts all over the world. A true elixir for mind and body at these crazy days of misfortune and suffering.

On a personal note, almost exactly to a day last year I had the immense pleasure to attend a concert at a small Jazz club outside of Warsaw, where messieurs Jagodziński, Cegielski and Bartkowski (and others) were performing. This was an unforgettable evening of great music and friendship, especially since it was the last live concert I managed to attend before the pandemic and the last time I was abroad…