Brass Federacja – Go, Go, To Be On Time! (2019)

Brass Federacja

Maurycy Idzikowski - trumpet
Marcin Malarz - trumpet
Andrzej Rękas - trombone
Bartek Lupiński - trombone
Szymon Wojdak - trombone
Piotr Wróbel - sousaphone
Maciek Wojcieszuk - drums

Go, Go, To Be On Time!


REQUIEM/LYDIAN 2019/5

By Adam Baruch

This is the debut album by Polish Brass ensemble Brass Federacja, led by sousaphone player/composer Piotr Wróbel, which also includes trumpeters Maurycy Idzikowski and Marcin Malarz, trombonists Andrzej Rękas, Bartek Lupiński and Szymon Wojdak and drummer Maciek Wojcieszuk. Six additional brass players guest on one of the tunes. The album presents eight original compositions, all by Wrobel, and one arrangement of a standard. There is also a humorous hidden bonus track! Wrobel might be familiar to the Polish Jazz buffs as the sousaphone player of the fabulous Jazz Band Młynarski – Masecki, which also works without a bass player in its ranks.

The music is on the Funky side of the Brass ensemble music spectrum, offering straight forward melodic themes, which serve as vehicles for all the brass mania around, spiced by wonderful soloing by the ensemble members. The entire sound of the ensemble works wonderfully with the unique sousaphone / drums "rhythm section", which adds full bodied bottom range and swings wonderfully.

The music is somewhat similar to what the Brass Rock ensembles of the 1960s and 1970s were doing at the time, missing of course the guitar / keyboards / bass guitar Rocky side of things, but still being quite attractive to lovers of that idiom, which sadly disappeared from the face of the earth. The music displays an affinity to Traditional Jazz on some of the tracks, and an entire album of more Traditional Jazz oriented music might also work excellently – perhaps sometime in the future?

Overall this is an absolutely delightful piece of music, very different from everything else appearing on the Polish Jazz scene and showing the limitless extent of the genre. It is full of originality and passion and is of course wholeheartedly recommended!