Kazimierz Jonkisz Energy – 6 Hours With Ronnie (2015)

Kazimierz Jonkisz Energy

Borys Janczarski - tenor saxophone
Tomasz Grzegorski - tenor saxophone
Ronnie Cuber - baritone saxophone
Robert Murakowski - trumpet
Jan Smoczyński - piano
Wojciech Pulcyn - double bass
Kazimierz Jonkisz - drums

6 Hours With Ronnie

FOR TUNE 0070

By Adam Baruch

This album documents the meeting between veteran Polish Jazz drummer Kazimierz Jonkisz and his ensemble Energy with legendary American baritone saxophonist Ronnie Cuber. The following musicians also take part in the recording: saxophonists Borys Janczarski and Tomasz Grzegorski, trumpeter Robert Murakowski, pianist Jan Smoczyński and bassist Wojciech Pulcyn. The album was recorded at the fabulous Studio Tokarnia, owned by Smoczyński, who also engineered and mastered the album, with the usual spectacular sonic result. The music includes six compositions, two of which are originals by Pulcyn, one is by Cuber and the remaining three are standards.

The music is, as expected, straightforward mainstream Jazz, with the two Pulcyn tunes being by far the most refreshing pieces on this album. It is executed without a flaw by all the participants, although the session seems to be lacking any high energy or particular joy of life, which is typically present on the best Jazz recordings.

Overall this is a nice, well played and well recorded mainstream Jazz album, which is no different from thousands of similar albums recorded before. As such it contributes nothing to the Jazz milieu and with all due respect is simply banal. Smoczyński plays some great introvert piano parts and Pulcyn, as always, keeps time beautifully, but other than that it's all déjà vu. Of course since baritone saxophone is not heard very often, this is a good opportunity to enjoy this beautiful instrument being played well.