Marcin Wądołowski - Chamber Avenue (2020)

Marcin Wądołowski

Marcin Wądołowski - guitar
Piotr Lemańczyk - double bass

Marta Różańska - oboe
with Neo Quartet

Chamber Avenue

DUX 1539

By Adam Baruch

This is the sixth album by Polish guitarist/composer Marcin Wądołowski, which continues his new path of bringing together Jazz and Chamber Classical Music influences. He is accompanied by his faithful cohort and extraordinary bassist Piotr Lemańczyk, oboist Marta Różańska and the Neoquartet string quartet. The album presents nine pieces, five of which are original compositions by Wądołowski and four are Classical pieces, two each by Frederic Chopin and Jacques Berthier, all arranged by Wądołowski. Same as its predecessor, the duo album with Lemańczyk "Preludes For Guitar And Double Bass", this album was beautifully recorded by Piotr Łukaszewski and considering the fact that this is a live recording, the result is simply phenomenal.

During the decade that passed since the recording of his debut album, Wądołowski took his followers on a wonderful and highly unusual ride, which crossed such distinct genres as Rock, Blues, Fusion and Jazz, finally arriving at the footsteps of Classical Music. This process of searching reflects just one of Wądołowski's many qualities, all plainly visible/audible on this album: fabulous guitarist, wonderful composer and a person of refined music aesthetics.

The original compositions are all superb examples of Wądołowski's skill to create gems encapsulating melody, harmony and song weaving talent. His arrangements of the music composed by others follow suit, making the entire album sound brilliantly coherent and enjoyable, without compromising an iota of quality.

The performances are, as expected, also perfect, and fondly reminiscent of the a.m. duo album. Lemanczyk, one of the absolutely top Polish bassists, is a virtuoso in every cell of his body and every touch of his fingers on the strings generates pure magic. Wądołowski also plays wonderfully, with great sensitivity, feeling and emotion, and his improvisations, which still show a shadow of the Blues from time to time, are absolutely heartwarming.

Overall this is a brilliant album, full of excellent music and sublime performances, which should deeply move every true music connoisseur on this globe, regardless of their genre affiliations. Great taste and professionalism like this are rare and should be cherished. Hats off!