Maciej Garbowski/Kari Heinilä – Lines Of Poetry (2017)

Maciej Garbowski/Kari Heinilä

Kari Heinilä - saxophone
Maciej Garbowski - double bass

Lines Of Poetry

IMP 001





By Adam Baruch

This is the debut album by the impromptu duo comprising of Polish Jazz bassist/composer Maciej Garbowski and Finnish Jazz saxophonist/composer Kari Heinilä. The album presents twelve completely improvised pieces, all credited to Garbowski and Heinilä.

This meeting between two mature and experienced musicians/improvisers is a wonderful example of spontaneity and mutual respect. Garbowski, well known as the bassist of the RGG trio and participant in many other top Polish Jazz projects, and Heinilä famous for his work with Edward Vesala, the wonderful UMO Jazz Orchestra and his work as a leader, both bring into this meeting years of experience and more importantly unlimited amounts of sensibility and creativity.

For freely improvised music, the contents of this album could be considered as most communicative. Although there are no melodic motifs per se, Heinilä's saxophone lines are all extremely melodic, delicate and tender, flowing freely in time. Garbowski, who plays mostly in the background, is at all times in sync, both harmonically and rhythmically, with the saxophonist, listening attentively to his weaving of the notes.

Like all classic "Art of the Duo" albums, this music presents a document, which although of limited scope and intrinsic minimalism, is no less expressive than music created by much larger ensembles. It is up to the listener of course to expand the input received while listening to the music into inner emotions and virtual sound structures, but the contents of this album should be wonderfully supportive in such process. This music works for many reasons; apparently the mutual affinity between the two musicians, but also perhaps due to the emotional similarities between the characteristic qualities of both Polish and Finnish music: melancholy, sadness, reflection and introvert perspective. But whatever the reasons, the meeting proved to be very inspiring and productive, as reflected by these recordings.

Improvised music has a priori a limited audience, but this album is quite accessible to a relatively wider circle of listeners, regardless of its improvised character. Therefore it is my suggestion to the open-minded listeners to try it out without any preconceptions – the result might prove to be pleasantly surprising. For more experienced improvised music connoisseurs this album is obviously a gem!