Krzysztof Komeda – Astigmatic (Polish Jazz Vol.05, 1965)

Krzysztof Komeda - piano

Tomasz Stańko - trumpet
Zbigniew Namysłowski - alto sax
Krzysztof Komeda - piano
Gunter Lenz - bass

 Astigmatic (Polish Jazz Vol.05, 1965)

This music, encapsulated for eternity in a piece of plastic, is one of the great milestones of human Culture, an ultra-rare eruption of human genius. Recorded by a quintet led by Polish pianist / composer Krzysztof Komeda, the legendary Godfather of Polish Jazz, this is definitely the most important piece of music recorded in Eastern Europe, which changed the face of Culture far beyond what most people realize. Universally accepted as a model and artistic / aesthetic climax by generations of Jazz musicians in Komeda's native Poland and far beyond the country borders, this modern Jazz recording influenced innumerable minds and prompted endless artistic processes. 

The album includes just three pieces of music: the title track; "Kattorna", which was a theme in the soundtrack of a movie by the Danish director Henning Carlsen; and "Svantetic", a tune dedicated to the Swedish poet Svante Forster, Komeda's friend. The quintet included trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, saxophonist Zbigniew Namyslowski, German bassist Gunter Lenz and Swedish drummer Rune Carlsson. Playing in every possible grouping, from solo to a full quintet, these brilliant and inspired musicians manage to achieve a whole, which is so much more than a sum of its parts. The result goes way beyond soloing, improvising, interplaying and exchanging ideas; it is a sort of group creation, which builds upon the basic structures, which are the mesmerizing Komeda's melodies and soaring infinitely towards a musical heaven. There is everything here: melody, harmony, freedom and structure, rhythm and space, all simultaneously represented without conflicting and fighting for supremacy. Such harmonious music-making is indeed very rare and therefore priceless. 

One might wonder how this wonderful music happened in Poland of all places. Well the reasons for this are numerous and complex, but of course genius knows no geographical limitations and catalyzed by the fertile intellectual background of the 1960s Poland, struggling with Socialist regime and longing for Freedom, Jazz became an escape route, which in this case found its true vocation. Of course the fact that Stanko and Namyslowski were (and thank God still are) exceptionally gifted musicians helped to materialize the potential of Komeda's music. One might as well look into Komeda's fascination (and adoration) of the music and life of John Coltrane, who served as a beacon and a model in the composer's path to inner enlightenment. And yet Komeda did not succumb to Coltrane's (or indeed the entire American Free Jazz movement) ideas blindly and unconditionally, as did many of his peers. He decided to incorporate the struggle for Freedom, which was a central scheme in Coltrane's philosophy (both musical and personal) with his deep European cultural roots and heritage, building his very personal bridge between Cultures. This is why his music works so well, regardless if it's a concert played in a Jazz club or a movie soundtrack. It is simply transcending stylistic or circumstantial limitations, as any higher level of Art is able to do. The fact that this music was created almost fifty years ago is a sad reminder of how little progress (if any) we managed to achieve since. In face of this fact we should cherish the great achievements of our Culture and keep them close to our hearts. This is definitely one of those great achievements, so let's treat it accordingly. Absolutely essential!

Track listing: 1. Astigmatic [22:50]; 2. Kattorna [7:20]; 3. Svantetic [15:50]

By Adam Baruch
www.adambaruch.com

Zbigniew Namyslowski Quartet w/Joachim Kuhn - Live at Kosmos, Berlin (2008) by Maciej Nowotny

This is simply an invaluable disc! First and most important of all it contains splendid music. Recorded in 1965 it proves how forward thinking was Polish jazz at those days. Almost everybody knows what Komeda or Stańko did but there were others doing equally interesting things like Trzaskowski, Kurylewicz, Seifert and Zbigniew Namysłowski. Namysłowski is a legend in Poland, great hero and master of Polish jazz but unlike Stańko he never was recognized enough outside Poland. In 1964 he was first EVER Polish jazz musician who made recording for foreign label, namely for Decca with album titled "Lola", containing a truly fantastic piece of music. And only year later he made this recording which is going another step forward because by inviting German pianist Joachim Kuhn he injected into his top-notch mainstream a drop of avantgarde placing this music among one of the most interesting recordings of all European jazz in second half of sixties. 

Unfortunately we are given an opportunity to get to know with this album only after 44 years since its recording!!! What could be Namysłowski career if he would live in West rather than in communist Poland is perhaps evidenced in story of Joachim Kuhn life. One year after this recording he left East Germany and settled in its Western part. Being since then able to move freely around world he became colossus of European jazz immortalized by such sessions as 1996 duo with Ornette Coleman titled "Colors". He remains  active up to this date his latest incredible "Out Of Desert" being more than necessary proof for that.

PS. Namysłowski and Kuhn are accompanied on this album by Janusz Kozłowski (bass) and Czesław Bartkowski (drums).

Please listen to a piece of music from this album, a song titled "Bye Bye Black Cat".

Author of text: Maciej Nowotny

http://kochamjazz.blox.pl/html

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Krzysztof Komeda Quintet - Astigmatic (Polish Jazz vol. 05, 1965)

Linear notes by Adam Stawiński from this probably the most significant Polish jazz recording ever (source chazzforjazz.com):

"Innovator with a complex of tradition, romanticist expressing himself in the contemporary idiom, poet of piano - this is KRZYSZTOF KOMEDA, one of those musicians who have widened the essence of jazz. 

He has proved that the world of emotions hitherto remaining within the scope of symphony music could manifest itself in jazz as well. He did it by introducing into it dramatic lyricism and pathos which in their ecstatic, even mystic intensity are in the late-romantic, Promethean, Skriabin-like modes of expression. 

This new aesthetics in jazz required its new form. Instead of the static conventional sets of variations, preceding without direction, he has initiated a dramatic form which develops from the exposition towards culmination and final solution. This form, let us call it roughly "the bow form", has been used in two major pieces by Komeda recorded on this disc: Astigmatic and Svantetic (after Svante Forster, Swedish poet and writer, friend of the composer). The solo parts have ceased in it to be blowing choruses and have taken on instead a definite function, while the simple construction of the piece, concentration on a single idea (one movement, one theme), as well as much scope for improvisation and the psychic contact between the players contribute to the fullest realization of the composition. 

The dramatic and constructional elements are not the only characteristics of Komeda's style. The particular "Slavonic" feeling of his pieces results from the fusion of all sorts of stuff: beside contemporary technique of composition (sound spots, clusters, aleatoric and poliagogic structures) there are structures getting out of fashion (modalism or the extinct harmonics of the last century) or the "fossilized", long forgotten forms of the musical prematter (as for instance the simple drum beating - the obsessive rhythm, how very fresh and revealing nowadays!, or the uncontrolled instrumental "cry"). 

The force that unifies these elements is the jazz rhythm and sound. It must be said, however, that the sonority and articulation have been here considerably widened. 

Komeda's pieces are outlines to be performed by a group of chosen instrumentalists. No wonder that Komeda selects his partners carefully. 

Among the musicians connected with him there is RUNE CARLSON, a distinguished Swedish percussionist, extraordinarily musical, with a rapid reflex and an unusual sensitivity to the quality of sound. Though in his style similar to Anthony Williams, in details completely different from him. 

Then there is in Komeda's group TOMASZ STANKO, a leading Polish trumpeter, a striking individuality. Since recently he has been playing on the flugelhorn, extracting from it a fine, voluminous sound. 

As guest performers appear with Komeda: GUNTER LENZ, playing double-bass with the West-German Albert Mangelsdorff ensemble, a musician of rich technique and imagination; and ZBIGNIEW NAMYSLOWSKI from Warsaw, one of the leading alto axophonists of the younger generation (b. in 1939), known in numerous countries in Europe and in USA. 

KRZYSZTOF KOMEDA himself (born on April 27, 1931) is a pianist, a musician whose career has been very rich. He has been playing as jazz musician since 1959, appearing in many European countries and having a particularly great success in Scandinavia. He has written music to over thirty films both Polish and foreign. Among others to "Two Men with a Wardrobe", "Mammalia", "Knife in Water", "Cul-de-sac", all by Polanski, to "Innocent Sorcerers" by Wajda, "Hvad Medos" and ?Kattorna" (Cats) by Henig Carlssen. Just from the latter comes the second of the pieces recorded on this disc. of the four individualists appeals strongly to our imagination. And that is what they are aiming at".

Author: Adam Stawiński (original line notes from the album's back cover). 

PS. Sample of music from this album: