Maciej Fortuna Trio – Jazz (2016)

Maciej Fortuna Trio

Maciej Fortuna - trumpet, live electronics
Jakub Mielcarek - bass
Frank Parker - drums

Jazz

FM 021



By Adam Baruch

This album by Polish Jazz trumpeter/composer Maciej Fortuna finds him returning to the trio setting, which was his favorite format during the early days of his career a few years earlier. The trio includes bassist Jakub Mielcarek and drummer Frank Parker, both musicians that Fortuna played with earlier on. The album presents eight original compositions, all by Fortuna. These compositions are all rather concise and as a result the entire album lasts only slightly above half an hour, which really means in today's standards that it is an EP rather than a full album.

The music is up to the usual Fortuna's high class, presenting modern acoustic Jazz with little touches of electronics. The melodies are very melancholic and even somber, displaying the typical Polish Jazz tendency towards sustained tension and long lingering notes. Fortuna performs these tunes masterfully and is supported amicably by the rhythm section, which adds additional layers in parallel to the trumpet notes floating loftily above.

Fortuna is a master of the trade, capable of creating atmospheric pieces full of beauty and suspense. His somewhat distorted tone makes things interesting and shows him experimenting while searching for new ways to express his Art. His prolific recording activity presents a vide scope of stylistic diversity, which is quite unique.

The Polish Jazz trumpet triumvirate, which includes Fortuna, Tomasz Dabrowski and Wojciech Jachna, is an unprecedented phenomenon in the Jazz world. Such amount of talent and ingenuity, held by just three relatively young Master players is a clear testimony as to the vitality and unprecedented strength of the Polish Jazz scene in the last decade, especially in view of the fact that similar triumvirates could be named for other instruments.

Getting an album by Fortuna is a completely risk-free deal as far as Jazz connoisseurs are concerned, and this one is no different. Although short and concise, this is a powerful statement, which should be listened to by all Polish Jazz and trumpet fans anywhere in the world.