Trylobity Group – Burning Stones (2017)

Trylobity Group

Janusz Brych - tenor & baritone saxophones
Sławek Dudar - alto saxophone
Mateusz Maniak - drums

Burning Stones

LUNA 410



By Adam Baruch

This is the debut album by Polish Jazz trio Trylobity Group, which consists of saxophonists Janusz Brych and Sławek Dudar and drummer Mateusz Maniak. The album presents seven original compositions, five by Brych and two by Dudar. The album is under thirty minutes in duration and should be considered rather as an EP sample of things to come.

The concept of a trio consisting of two saxophones and drums is certainly quite unusual one, but this album proves that it certainly is a valid and quite fascinating approach. Obviously the focus of this music is in the saxophone duets, with the drums providing a rhythmic backbone to the proceedings. Since the saxophonists use different instruments (Brych plays baritone and tenor and Dudar alto) there is no clash between their parts and they compliment each other amicably. As a result the album presents a fully developed sound, which does not need any additional elements to make it sound complete.

The music is very melodic and pretty straightforward and the improvisations are kept well within the mainstream Jazz idiom, although they are often passionate and quite complex. The rapport between the two saxophonists is excellent and they exchange licks, move forward and back playing behind and in front of each other, skillfully produce unisono riffs and so on. There is not a dull moment on this album, and saxophone connoisseurs will find this album truly delightful.

Overall this is a surprising, quite unusual and novel Jazz album, which finds a way to produce something fresh within the mainstream idiom, without moving out into the avant garde ground. As such it is certainly praiseworthy. Hope to hear more of this music soon!

Jazz Trio – For The Future (2009) ****

Janusz Brych - saxophone
Marek Piatak - piano
Michal Zduniak

POLJAZZ/ ANEX 320







By Adam Baruch

This album features the Polish Jazz trio called simply The Jazz Trio (probably the most unreasonable name one can adopt in such circumstances), which consisted of saxophonist Janusz Brych, pianist Marek Piatak and drummer Michal Zduniak. The pianist composed four of the five compositions present here and co-composed the fifth with the saxophonist. Although little know and mostly forgotten, this is, in retrospect, quite an excellent and unusual album, which Polish Jazz connoisseurs should definitely seek out.

The music is a very strange amalgam of melodic, pre-composed intriguing music, mixed with excellent saxophone improvisations, which are very Free Jazz oriented and superbly executed. Sometimes the saxophone parts are overdubbed, which creates an even stronger "wall of sound" effect, common in Free Jazz. Also the absence of bass, which dramatically influences the sound of the music, contributes to the "strangeness" and of course transfers the responsibility of keeping time towards the piano player and the drummer, who is quite unusual as well. The overall result is definitely fresh and surprising, quite different from what was happening on the local scene at the time. Perhaps it was an early precursor of the Yass scene, which was about to explode in Poland shortly after this album was recorded.

The overall level of individual virtuosity as well as the interplay between the three musicians makes this album a hidden gem, which simply begs to be discovered. It is a pity they never recorded together again (as far as I know) as the trio certainly had the potential of becoming one of the hottest groups on the Polish Jazz scene. But, alas, we'll never know what might have happened. In the meantime let's enjoy what we can hear!

Side Note: The Poljazz label, which originally released this album, was active for 20 years (between 1972 and 1991) and was owned by the Polish Jazz Society. Considering the fact that the music industry in the Socialist State was centralized and totally controlled, with just one State owned music company producing all the albums, the possibilities to record and release Jazz albums were extremely limited. Poljazz was conceived and founded in order to allow for many more Jazz (and other) albums to be released independently from the State owned Polskie Nagrania / Muza and as such revolutionized the music industry at the time, being the only such enterprise in Eastern Europe. The Polish label Anex reissued many of the original Poljazz albums on CD, bringing this fabulous music back to life.