Maciej Fortuna - trumpet
Mack Goldsbury - tenor & soprano saxophones
Erik Unsworth - double bass
Frank Parker - drums
Zośka
FM 020
By Adam Baruch
Polish Jazz trumpeter/composer Maciej Fortuna is consistently building a reputation for himself both on the artistic and professional level; he releases his own records, he develops international collaborations with other musicians, he is active in social networking and organization and so on. In addition he manages to create some superb music on the way and keeps establishing his position in the top echelon of Polish Jazz trumpeters. For a young musician this is definitely very impressive.
Modern Polish Jazz is
characterized, among other things, by amalgamation of Polish Folklore motifs
with jazz. Such approach enjoyed a lot of popularity in the 1960s and 1970s,
when it had its political significance as well, and now, in the second decade
of the 21st Century it seems to be in full bloom again. Many top
Polish Jazz musicians, like Irek Wojtczak, Piotr Orzechowski, High Definition
Quartet (which also features Orzechowski), Marcin Masecki and many others,
recorded albums based on this concept Fortuna adds his valuable contribution to
this wonderful multicultural puzzle. In this case, similar to what Wojtczak
did, Fortuna recorded the music with a quartet which except for him features an
all American lineup: saxophonist Mack Goldsbury, bassist Erik Unsworth and
drummer Frank Parker. The album presents ten tracks, six of which are
traditional Polish Folklore songs/dances and four are original compositions,
all by Fortuna, composed especially for this project.
Wojtczak's album proved that
American Jazz musicians can play Polish folklore-based music quite brilliantly
and this album does it again. Goldsbury, Unsworth and Parker are all up to the
challenge and honestly they play better on this album than on any album I have
heard them play earlier on, which of course shows that when seriously
challenged, musicians often perform better that usual. As Fortuna says, and I
quote: "Following decades of Polish Jazz musicians playing American Jazz,
it's time for American Jazz musicians to play Polish Jazz". I couldn't
agree more.
The music is a Jazz-World
Fusion project, but only well trained listeners will be able to recognize the exact
origins of the tunes used here, both on the melodic and rhythmic layer.
Fortuna's originals fit in excellently to the overall sound and become an
organic part of the project. Fortuna is the main soloist of course, but all the
members of the quartet have plenty of opportunity to show their chops and the
overall level of musicianship is superb.
Polish Jazz connoisseurs and
enthusiast of Jazz-World Fusion explorations should enjoy this album immensely.
All I can do is to urge everybody to give it a try ASAP, as it is definitely
worth everybody's attention. Well done, as usual!
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