Jazzpocalypse feat. Caterina Palazzi - Sisyphonic (2017)

Jazzpocalypse feat. Caterina Palazzi - Sisyphonic

Jakub Skowroński - saxophone
Sebastian Zawadzki - piano, keys
Wojciech Świeca - guitar
Caterina Palazzi - double bass
Janosch Pangritz - drums

Sisyphonic



SAINT LOUIS JAZZ COLLECTION 017.1

By Adam Baruch

This is the second album by the quartet Jazzpocalypse, which comprises of Polish saxophonist Jakub Skowroński, keyboardist Sebastian Zawadzki, guitarist Wojciech Świeca and German drummer Janosch Pangritz, expanded to a quintet with the addition of Italian bassist Caterina Palazzi. The album presents ten original compositions, two by Skowronski, three by Zawadzki, two by Swieca and three by Pangritz.

The music is typical contemporary European mainstream Jazz, with solid compositions and excellent improvisations by the ensemble members. The tunes are melody based and present diverse approaches used by the four young composers, each creating a slightly different sonic world, but with all the compositions adding up to a coherent musical kaleidoscope. Some of the tunes are pretty straightforward, some are close to Jazz-Rock Fusion, mostly due to the strong presence of the electric guitar and yet others are relatively open and feature less restrained improvisations.

The performances are all top notch, with the soloing evenly distributed between the front line players and a steady solid background provided by the rhythm section. All Jazz and Fusion connoisseurs should be able to find a lot to their liking here, and overall the album is a great fun to listen to, but also full of European Jazz aesthetics, superb compositions and depth rarely found across the pond. The album definitely fulfills the expectations that the group's semi-official debut released some years ago managed to create. Hopefully we won't have to wait so long for their next release!