Górczyński, Piernik - Energa (2002); Piernik, Zabrodzki - Nemanga (2008)

Górczyński, Piernik (duo)

Michał Górczyński - tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute
Zdzisław Piernik - tuba

Energa One (2002)

Piernik, Zabrodzki 

Zdzisław Piernik - tuba
Piotr Zabrodzki - piano, electric piano, doublebass, bass guitar, organ
Hubert Zemler - percussion, vibraphone
Wojciech Kondrat - violin

Namanga (2008)

Let us be frank: Polish artists, including musicians, are rather conservative persons. Few among them are really creative. Few dare to be mad, crazy, twisted. Yet great music usually needs some of those features to happen. That's why it is relatively so rare and consequently so precious. Going back to Polish music, especially jazz, few such personalities ever existed in this country. Who comes to my mind? Stańko, first of all, is among those gifted as much musically as spiritually. Few others indeed, to greater or lesser extent, like Tomasz Szukalski or Andrzej Przybielski. Many more in so called yass movement including Tymon Tymański, Jerzy Mazzoll, Jacek Olter or Mikołaj Trzaska to name just a few. Zdzisław Piernik should be included among them although he stands alone as part of no movement. He was always dedicated to improvisation in music. Uncomproming in this attitude he has become legendary over the years inspiring new generation of musicians to take alternative route in jazz, the route towards spontaineity, towards freedom. Looking from these perspective two of recent recordings by Zdzisław Piernik with very young muscians are interesting to us: 

"Energa One" is duo where Piernik as usual plays on tube while young Górczyński on saxophone, flute and clarinet. Everything here is pure improvisation. No melody keeps direction of this music. It is therefore no wonder that an outcome of such an adventure is mixed. Sometimes it is pure chaos which I find difficult to digest (even for my rather free jazz inclined ears!) but there are moments, especially in second part of this album, that compensate for such a pain with beautiful music indeed. It is a pity that whole album is not at this level! All in all, this is definetely fresh yet at moments too incoherent music. (By Maciej Nowotny, http://kochamjazz.blox.pl)

As for "Nemanga" please ready this text by Danny (http://killedincars.blogspot.com):

"(...) Polish jazz does it again. The entanglements that build the line-up of this album are rather complicated. Apparently, it's Zdzisław Piernik that's the leader of the group and the tuba player. Apparently, he's conducting/leading/performing Piotr Zabrodzki's music. But, apparently, Piotr Zabrodzki is also in the group, playing piano, electric piano, doublebass, bass guitar and organ. There are a few other players around, with instruments ranging from vibraphone to violin. Anyway, the tuba is definitely the highlight here, as it is processed, digressed and distressed into sounds that some times evoke Prokofiev's mysticism, other times throw you into a melange of Krzysztof Komeda and Mikołaj Trzaska, suggest what Supersilent would sound like if they were actually good, or remind us of last year's excellent EAQuartett. Oh, if we've mentioned that one - yes, it has a plus compared to it, a big plus: way more creativity. A minus? The production is not as good.(...) For fans of: "We don't know if this is jazz, classical music, electroacousic improvisation or a chamber music rehearsal." 

Hardcore:


and less explosive: