Krzysztof Herdzin – Dancing Flowers (2005)

Krzysztof Herdzin - keyboards
Marek Napiorkowski - guitar
Zbigniew Wegehaupt - bass
Cezary Konrad - drums
and others

FUSION 001





By Adam Baruch

This album by Polish keyboardist / composer / arranger Krzysztof Herdzin presents yet another aspect of his seemingly universal musical personality. It is basically a Funk album, which consists of seven instrumentals and three songs, all composed by Herdzin. The arrangements, especially those involving the horn section, have some proximity to Jazz, but overall it is a Pop album with some Jazz-Rock Fusion elements.

The music is performed by an excellent team, which includes guitarist Marek Napiorkowski, bassists Zbigniew Wegehaupt (in a rare appearance on bass guitar), Filip Sojka and Miroslaw Wisniewski and drummers Cezary Konrad, Grzegorz Grzyb and Michal Dabrowka and horn players like saxophonists Michal Kulenty, Marek Podkowa and Mariusz Melczarek and several others. The vocals are handled by three young Pop vocalists, two female and one male, all of them quite unimpressive

The music is based on the American Funk model, which was developed in the 1970s / 1980s by a plentitude of mostly African American musicians, especially the archetypical Earth, Wind & Fire, but also by many partly Jazz oriented artists like George Duke, Stanley Clarke, Grover Washington, Jr. and even Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock during some periods of their extensive careers. Herdzin presents his version of Funk, which is based more on the melodic content than the rhythmic progression and is therefore somewhat softened, or simply more European. Herdzin often states that anything he does is by no means inferior to whatever the Americans are doing, and to tell the truth he is often correct when saying so, but on the other hand as it was once so adequately put: "White Man Can't Jump" and Funk is after all about "jumping" more than anything else. When asked if he ever played Funk, Herdzin can most certainly answer positively, following this recording.

Overall this is a well done, pleasant album (except for the vocal tracks), which is ideal for driving on sunny days (pretty rare in Poland) with the volume up and a pretty blonde beside you. Enjoy!