JazzBlaster – Night Out (2019)

JazzBlaster

Tadeusz Kulas - trumpet, flugelhorn, electronics, vocals
Piotr Rachoń - piano, hammond organ, synth
Dominik Bieńczycki - violin, electronics
Roland Grzegorz Abreu Krzysztofiak - double bass
Marcin Rak - drums


Night Out

V RECORDS 017

By Adam Baruch

This is the second album by Polish ensemble JazzBlaster, which comprises of trumpeter/vocalist Tadeusz Kulas, keyboardist Piotr Rachoń, violinist Dominik Bieńczycki, bassist Roland Grzegorz Abreu Krzysztofiak and drummer Marcin Rak. Bassist Wojciech Bergander plays on one track and additional synthesizers are played by Paweł Konikiewicz, who was also involved in the recording process. The album presents eight original tracks all composed by Rachoń (except one co-composed with Kulas) and all texts (in English) are by Kulas.

The music moves away from Jazz even more significantly than on the debut album and the overall sound and musical direction of the ensemble are entirely Pop/Rock oriented with the Jazz accents present only within the instrumental passages, which are sadly less prominent on this album. Kulas almost completely resigned from his role as a trumpeter and is manly featured as vocalist. As it usually happens with Polish vocalists singing in English, his accent and pronunciation are really unacceptable, but perhaps on the local Polish scene this is less noticeable. I wander if JazzBlaster and EABS are about to create the Wrocław sound, as there are strong similarities between these two young bands' sound?

Having said all that, the album does have its moments and the overall Punkish attitude probably does it for the younger generation of the Polish listeners. The heavy bass sound and presence of the bass up front in the mix creates a trance like somewhat Funky mood, which is quite effective. The piano parts are all very well played and the addition of the violin also enriches the sonic ambience. The trumpet, when finally played, is also pretty helpful.

To sum it up, take away the vocals (or perhaps make them wordless vocalese) and what is left becomes quite a tasty piece of youthful Funky/Punk Jazz, which is danceable and overall quite entertaining. Sorry guys that I can't be more enthusiastic, but as usual to each his own. The music shows tons of potential for sure, and just a little push in the right direction and everything will click!

Miłosz Skwirut - Road Movies EP (2019)

Miłosz Skwirut

Katarzyna Pietrzko - piano
Dominik Bieńczycki - synth
Miłosz Skwirut - double bass
Max Olszewski - drums
Jorgos Skolias - vocals
and others

Road Movies EP



PRIVATE EDITION

By Adam Baruch

This is the debut EP album (under half an hour of music) by young Polish Jazz bassist/composer Miłosz Skwirut, recorded with several other young Polish Jazz musicians like pianist Katarzyna Pietrzko, keyboardist Dominik Bieńczycki, guitarist Marcin Hilarowicz, drummer Maksymilian Olszewski, percussionist Łukasz Kurzydlo, vocalist Susanna Jara-Małecka and veteran vocalist Jorgos Skolias, who appears on one track. The album presents five original compositions, all by Skwirut.

The cinematic term "road movie" refers to the genre which tells a story of a person leaving home and venturing on a journey of discovery, which often changes the hero's perspective of life and shapes his character. The strong World Music influences, which are reflected in Skwirut's music, are the analogy to a virtual journey into different cultures, with the compositions serving as mini-soundtracks of that imaginary journey's chapters.

The music is based on strong melodic motifs, which are then ornamented by World Music rhythms and an atmosphere of mysticism and exoticism, crated by the vocalese and synthesizer parts and Skwirut's use of arco. All the participants do a truly splendid job, which suits the intended atmosphere of the music ideally. As expected the vocals by Skolias are one of the highlights of this offering.

The album is obviously just a glimpse at Skwirut's abilities as a composer and a player, rather than a full-fledged musical offering, for which we have still to wait. But this glimpse is certainly fascinating and intriguing enough to create an anticipation of things to come. Considering the fact that Jazz-World Fusion is not a very popular and strongly present idiom on the contemporary Polish Jazz scene, especially that exploring World cultures beyond the Slavic sources, this music is a breath of fresh air. In short, this is a very nice introduction to the musical world of Milosz Skwirut, which offers great compositions and excellent playing by his cohorts, rising high hopes for his future ventures!

Tempero – 6 PM (2012)

Tempero

Dominik Bieńczycki - violin
Konrad Ligas - accordion
Krzysztof Augustyn - double bass
Łukasz Kurzydło - percussion

6 PM

PRIVATE EDITION


By Adam Baruch

This is the debut album by young Polish Klezmer Jazz quartet Tempero, which hails from Krakow, as do many other similar ensembles, and comprises of violinist Dominik Bieńczycki, accordionist Konrad Ligas, bassist Krzysztof Augustyn and percussionist Łukasz Kurzydło. The album presents ten traditional tunes, not all of which are of Jewish origin, arranged for the acoustic quartet.

Since Tempero do not have a clarinetist as a lead instrumentalist, they are not a typical Klezmer ensemble to start with. The arrangements they utilize are also not really associated with Jewish music per se, and therefore although the repertoire might point towards Jewish musical sources, the result has almost nothing to do with true Jewish music. The overall sound and attitude are simply to refined, accurate and temperate for a Klezmer band.

Having said that the members of Tempero are all excellent musicians, especially Bienczycki, whose performances are nothing short of virtuosity, but all three of his cohorts play excellently as well. The arrangements are all nontrivial and at times even quite interesting and the music is performed with zest, passion and elegance, resulting in a highly entertaining musical voyage. Jazz enthusiasts will find plenty of improvisation, again mostly by the violinist, who is simply divine. It would be most interesting to hear him in a bona fide Jazz setting. Overall this is quite nice album, which Jazz-World Music Fusion enthusiasts should find most entertaining. Definitely worth investigation!

Leszek HeFi Wiśniowski - Kinetyka (2010)

My yesterday's visit to music shop was very rewarding. The shelf that contains Polish Jazz was full of new and intriguing items of which I shall mention only few: Aga Zarayan's, Polish talented jazz singer and her new album for legendary Blue Note label titled Looking Walking Being; Piotr Wyleżoł, pianist playing in tradition of Bill Evans and Keith Jarret, and his album Children's Episodes for good Spanish label Fresh Sound New Talent and avantgarde and indiejazz issue Goose Talk by Mikołaj Trzaska accompanied by Christian Bauer and Peter Brotzmann. Of all those excellent recordings of this week I nonetheless choose another one titled Kinetyka by Leszek HeFi Wiśniowski.

This is mainstream jazz played in creative and intriguing manner. The leader of the band is Leszek Wiśniowski, for whom this is second album after first titled Lechoechoplexita. He is second flutist I write about on this blog, after Krzysztof Popek, however second to no one in Poland. On this CD he was able to gather excellent band with such stars as violinist Krzesimir Dębski, pianist Paweł Kaczmarczyk (whose album Complexity In Simplicity for ACT label was probably the best polish jazz record last year), Tomasz Kupiec on bass, Bartek Staromiejski on drums, Dominik Bieńczycki on violin and Pramath Kiran on percussion.

The music itself on this album is really extraordinary, although it's mainstream but it is full of tension, anxiety, distress. Exactly like the title of the album suggests there are present in this music so many conflicting directions but yet the personality of the Wiśniowski, his flute and saxes, miraculously give the artistic unity to  this creative chaos. The strongest side of the album are numerous dialogues between Wiśniowski on flute, Kaczmarczyk on electric piano and Dębski on violin. I can not recollect anything similar to those in Polish jazz, it is simple astonishing to listen to them!

Last but not least all this music is so close to the best tradition of Polish jazz and such its masters as violinist Zbigniew Seifert or legendary Labolatorium group, one of the most imporant groups of Polish fusion jazz. This is probably going to be one of the best jazz recordings in Poland in 2010. 

The music from this fantastic album can be heard at the following link:
http://www.hefi.pl/mp3.htm
Thanks to Mr Leszef Hefi Wiśniowski kindness I received two clips containing fragments of concert with music from above described album. I want to turn your attention especially to Prestigitator, truly a gem! It is really a pleasure to update post with music of such high quality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utPJSj-C6X8&feature=player_embedded
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm4WW00WvLE&feature=player_embedded