Jazz.u – Grigio (2019)

Jazz.u

Michał Sasinowski - saxophone
Dominik Kisiel - keyboards
Krzysztof Pawłocki - guitar
Łukasz Łapiński - drums
Konrad Żołnierek - bass

Grigio




PRIVATE EDITION 5901571099736

By Adam Baruch

This is the debut album by young Polish Jazz-Rock Fusion band Jazz.u led by guitarist/composer Krzysztof Pawłocki and including saxophonist Michał Sasinowski, keyboardist Dominik Kisiel (who has a couple of albums as a leader under his belt), bassist Konrad Żołnierek and drummer Łukasz Łapiński. The album presents eight original compositions, all by the leader.

The music is pretty straightforward Fusion, based on melodic tunes, which serve as basis for the improvisations by the three lead instruments. The compositions are all well structured but rather simplistic, and with one or two exceptions, and do not share the Polish lyricism, which makes Polish bands special, obviously trying to be as universal as possible.

The performances are all without a hitch, with the sax, piano and guitar soloing on each tune and the rhythm section providing solid backing. The music flows rather uneventfully, again with a few exceptions. The bass parts deserve a special mention. Overall this is a solid, entertaining Fusion album, which offers pleasant listening experience to a wide range audience of listeners between ambitious instrumental Rock, Fusion and the lighter side of Jazz.

Considering the fact that this is a debut effort, the result is commendable and one can only hope the sequel will offer a tad more ambitious material. Fusion heads should have a great time with this music for sure and this album is definitely better than most of the typical Fusion recordings, especially those originating across the pond.