Szymon Łukowski Quartet - Short Sketches (2020)

Szymon Łukowski Quartet

Szymon Łukowski - saxophones, bass clarinet
Adam Lemańczyk - piano, keys
Wojciech Pulcyn - double bass
Sebastian Frankiewicz - drums

Short Sketches

HEVHETIA 0197


By Adam Baruch

This is the third album by young Polish Jazz saxophonist/composer Szymon Łukowski, recorded in a quartet setting with keyboardist Adam Lemańczyk and superb veteran rhythm section comprising of bassist Wojciech Pulcyn and drummer Sebastian Frankiewicz. The album presents seven original compositions, four by Łukowski and one each by Lemańczyk, Pulcyn and Stankiewicz. The music was recorded at the excellent Studio Tokarnia and engineered by Jan Smoczyński, with the usual first class sonic quality.

The music is all within the modern mainstream Jazz convention, but Łukowski's progress as a composer and instrumentalist is again clearly apparent in comparison to his earlier work. His bass clarinet parts expand the sonic palette considerably and his compositions are more complex and excellently arranged for the quartet, which results in these performances being highly absorbing from start to finish.

The strength of the quartet as a tight musical unit also adds to the success of this material. Lemańczyk is equally effective on acoustic piano and electric keyboards, playing some truly mesmerizing parts. Pulcyn, as always, keeps everything in check and his highly melodic bass lines offer a steady ground for the music to lean on. Frankiewicz adds a highly percussive and dynamic drum parts on the up-tempo numbers and delicate ornamentation on the ballads, like a professional he truly is.

Overall this is a truly fine piece of Jazz music, diverse, interesting and aesthetically satisfying, which all Jazz lovers should find worth listening to. As usual it perfectly reflects the high level of original music being created in Poland these days, which is as good, if not better, as Jazz created all over Europe these days, without any inferiority complex. Well done indeed!