Polish-Jazz: Główczewski Jerzy

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poniedziałek, 27 maja 2013

Baszta – Baszta (Swinging Tricity Vol.1) (2011)

Leszek Dranicki - guitar, vocal
Jerzy Główczewski - saxophone
Zbigniew Kędzierski - saxophones
Edward Kolczyński - trumpet, piano
Adam Ochocki - trombone
Jan Rucki - drums
Piotr Sapieja - percussions
Stanisław Suchecki - trombone
Aleksander Śliwa - bass guitar
Lech Woś - Fender piano

SOLITON 074

By Adam Baruch

This is the first installment in the excellent archival series documenting Polish Jazz created in the country's Tricity on the Baltic Sea, one of the important centers where Polish Jazz thrives and over the years produced numerous first-rate musicians and superb bands. The series presents material, which in most cases never previously appeared in any form and therefore is of immense historic importance.

This chapter presents the Baszta ensemble, a Jazz-Rock Fusion / Funk outfit, which was very popular locally as it held the position of the house band at the local student club. The group was founded in 1976 and existed for about five years until the late 1970s, and unfortunately never managed to record even one album, which sadly was the fate of many Polish Jazz artists during the Socialist regime. However they did record for the Tricity Polish Radio station in Gdansk, where about half of the material included on this album comes from, the other half being live recordings from the student club, which was their residence.

Baszta was one of few Polish Jazz ensembles playing "Horn Rock", i.e. horns oriented Jazz-Rock Fusion, similar to Blood, Sweat & Tears, Chase and many other ensembles representing this particular sub-genre. It was founded by trumpeter Edward Kolczynski and over the years featured the following musicians present on this album: guitarist Leszek Dranicki, saxophonists Jerzy Glowczewski and Zbigniew Kedzierski, trombonists Adam Ochocki and Stanislaw Suchecki, keyboardist Lech Wos, bassist Aleksander Sliwa, drummer Jan Rucki and percussionist Piotr Sapieja.

The group performed both their original compositions, mostly by Kolczynski and some by Wos, which were first-rate, as well as their arrangements of Jazz, Rock and Pop standards, which were quite witty and intelligent. The radio recordings have excellent sonic quality, but the live recordings are somewhat low-hi, but still definitely worth listening to. The overall level of performances is superb, except for a few vocal tracks (among the live tracks), which is less appealing.

This is another great piece of Polish Jazz history, which should definitely be told and preserved as part of the country's Cultural Heritage. Kudos to Marcin Jacobson for creating this series and keeping it going!

piątek, 2 marca 2012

Swingujące Trójmiasto (Series) - Baszta (Soliton, 2011)

Baszta (band)

Slowly some of the Polish jazz archive recordings are making their way to the public. It happens thanks to such jazz maniacs as Marcin Jacobson who for Soliton Records prepared framing for whole series of albums dedicated to history of lively jazz scene in Tri City (Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot). This is first record inaugurating this project which is dedicated to band called Baszta. It was started in 1976 by trumpeter, composer and arranger Edward Kolczyński. From the beginning Baszta played dancing version of jazz strongly influenced by funk. It seemes that such a music was kind of exotic caprice in Poland but audience and (surprisingly) critics thought otherwise. The band took part in famous Jazz Nad Odrą contest of young bands and won a distinction. That revealed to be a pass to concerts as much in Poland as abroad and could be a perfect entry to significant career. But it wasn't. In 1978 soon after this preliminary success the leader left the band which lingered after his departure for 2 years but without previous energy and creativity. Few recordings were all that was left after disappearance of this ephemeral entity. However we are very fortunate that Soliton decided to realease them because they show how attractive this music is even more than 40 years after its recording.

Track listing: 1. Taniec pawia; 2. Wysoki parter; 3. Turniej; 4. Czekając na wyjazd; 5. Pick Up The Pieces; 6. Watermelon Man; 7. In A Silent Way; 8. Poszły konie po betonie; 9. W gaju; 10. Zwrot; 11. Bird Of Beauty; 12. Can't Buy Me Love; 13. One Woman Man; 14. Harmony Junction; 15. Honey Pie; 16. Naked Man; 17. Pick Up The Pieces; 18. Watermelon Man; 19. Yesterday's Music

By Maciej Nowotny

http://kochamjazz.blox.pl/html

poniedziałek, 4 lipca 2011

Krzysztof Herdzin - Symphonicum (Universal Music, 2010)

Disclaimer: First of all let me warn that I may not be objective as far as this recording is concerned since my own gusto has moved recently very significantly towards free jazz and avantgarde.

This album has very little in common with jazz idiom except for two saxmen playing: altoist Jerzy Główczewski ("Narrations") and tenorist Piotr Baron ("Consolation"). In a very daring move renown jazz pianist Krzysztof Herdzin decided to record wholly classical music for his 40th birthday. And this album shares all possible sins of classical music recordings of famous jazz musicians: it draws heavily on many influences immediately obvious to any listener to classical composers like in three part concertino clearly inspired by Prokofiev piano concertos No 3 and 4 (at least in my humble opinion). Other influences are American classical music composers (good observation by Piotr Kałuzny from Jazz Forum) like for example George Gershwin, Aaron Copland or Leonard Bernstein whose Broadway style is evident in take of "Hymn o św. Albercie Chmielowskim" (BTW a bit funny yet original idea for hymn dedicated to Catholic saint).

But I admit that all these sins are redeemed by incredible sound the musicians managed to achieve in this recording which is first of all due to marvelous Sinfonia Varsovia: one of the best symphonic orchestras in Poland, here graciously directed by Krzysztof Herdzin himself. Tone they managed to attain is so lavish that it simply catapult whole project to stratosphere. All other players like Malicki on piano, Baron and Główczyński on saxophones plus vocalist Jacek Kotlarski adjust to this incredible level of musicianship as displayed by Simfonia Varsovia conducted by Herdzin (one must also appreciate very high level of recording & mixing by Tadeusz Mieczkowski).

So I can wholeheartedly recommend this record for any jazz lover interested in classics while as far as classical music fans it shall first of all appeal to fans inclined towards neo-clasissical idiom whom I can also recommend such Polish composers as late Penderecki, Kilar or Górecki.

Please, check artist web page for sample of his music.

Author: Maciej Nowotny