Various Artists – Polish Radio Jazz Archives Vol. 31 (2018)

Various Artists

Tomasz Stańko - trumpet
Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski - saxophone
Jacek Bednarek - bass
Grzegorz Gierłowski - drums
and others

Polish Radio Jazz Archives Vol. 31


POLSKIE RADIO 2076

By Adam Baruch

This is the thirty-first installment in the series of releases initiated by the Polish Radio, which presents archive Jazz recordings from the radio vaults. Radio recordings are always a fabulous source of remarkable material, and as far as Polish Jazz history is concerned, the Polish Radio, which was a state monopoly for 45 years, recorded over time a plethora of invaluable material, which apart from the albums released by the Polskie Nagrania record company (also a state monopoly), is the only available additional source of Polish Jazz recordings. For many years Polish Radio recorded concerts presented during Poland's most important Jazz venues, including the annual Jazz Jamboree Festival and many other festivals as well. The tracks presented here were recorded live in October 1966 during the ninth Jazz Jamboree Festival in Warsaw and are the third volume of a collection of tracks from that event.

The first four tracks present the American violinist/vocalist Stuff Smith, accompanied by an ad hoc trio which included Czech (at that time) pianist Jan Hammer, Swedish bassist Kurt Lindgren and Italian drummer Franco Manzecchi. The quartet performs four standards and the entire set is rather unimpressive to say the least. Smith died shortly after this appearance and these ware among his last recordings.

The next track presents a quartet led by Swedish trombonist Eje Thelin with French saxophonist Barney Wilen (mistakenly listed as Wilen Barney), Swedish bassist Palle Danielsson (misspelled as Danielsen) and American drummer Billie Brooks. The quartet performs one lengthy (almost half an hour long) just about entirely improvised piece of Free Jazz, which at the time was considered quite avant-garde, but portrays the rapid development of European Jazz at the time, catching up with the Free Jazz developments in the US.

The next track presents a quartet co-led by two USSR Jazz musicians: guitarist Nicolai Gromin and saxophonist Georgy Garanian, with bassists Adolf Satanowski and drummer Aleksander Goretkin (all the Russian names are misspelled). The quartet performs one original composition by Gromin, kept in the mainstream Jazz idiom.

The next and last and most interesting track presents a Polish/Czech quintet comprising of trumpeter Tomasz Stańko, saxophonist Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski, pianist Jan Hammer, bassist Jacek Bednarek and drummer Grzegorz Gierłowski. The quintet performs one original composition by Stańko, brilliant and typical of the era, which is an absolute cherry on top of the entire album and reflects the strength of the Polish Jazz scene at the time.

The beautifully restored sound quality is excellent and the warm ambience of the analog recording is a true joy. As usual with this series, which is very reasonably priced, I miss the presence of "in depth" liner notes/booklet, which should convey the circumstances at which this music was recorded and its importance to the development of Jazz in Poland. Nevertheless this is an absolutely essential piece of Jazz history which every Jazz fan will surely consider an absolute must.

Jerzy Milian – Semiramida (2015)

Jerzy Milian

Jerzy Milian - vibraphone
Jacek Bednarek - bass
Jacek Ostaszewski - bass
Grzegorz Gierłowski - drums

Semiramida

GAD 024



By Adam Baruch

This is the fourth installment of the archival series released by GAD Records, which presents the work of Polish Jazz vibraphonist/composer/bandleader Jerzy Milian. This chapter is dedicated to the Milian trio, which was his basic platform in the mid to late 1960s and which was eventually used to record his formal debut album "Bazaar" in 1969. This album collects the recordings made by the trio during four consecutive editions of the Jazz Jamboree Festival in the years 1966-1969. The trio included bassist Jacek Bednarek, who was replaced in 1969 by Jacek Ostaszewski, and drummer Grzegorz Gierlowski. On the 1969 recordings the violinist Marian Siejka is also present. The album comprises of eleven compositions, five of which are Milian originals and one is co-composed by Milian and Ostaszewski, two are by Bednarek and the remaining three are standards.

Almost fifty years later a retrospective analysis of these recordings clearly shows how revolutionary and ahead of their time they were then and how relevant they still are now. The vibraphone trio by itself was quite a unique concept at the time with only very few parallels, and combined with the highly unusual musical approach led by Milian, which combined Cool, Third Stream and Polish Romanticism, presented the listener with an intellectual challenge of the highest degree. Additionally the World Music influence added by both Bednarek and Ostaszewski (the latter was about to start the legendary group Ossian soon after), was also utterly innovative at the time. It is fascinating to hear the progress from the first track of this album to the last, which turns out to be almost completely Free Form.

The album is also a powerful showcase of the incredible talents of two legendary Polish Jazz bassists, as these trio recordings allow us to hear their incredible contributions upfront. Gierlowski also plays beautifully and of course Milian's playing is phenomenal, but that is hardly surprising.

These live recordings suffer from minor sonic quality problems, even after they have been well remastered, but vibraphone always presents quite a challenge and considering the conditions available behind the Iron Curtain at the time it is miraculous this music sounds as it does. Overall this is another important addition to the recorded history of Polish Jazz, which should not be missed. Hopefully more gems like this one will be made available to the eagerly awaiting fans.

Jerzy Milian - Semiramida (2015)

Jerzy Milian

Jerzy Milian - vibraphone, marimba
Jacek Bednarek - double bass
Grzegorz Gierłowski - drums
also:
Jacek Ostaszewski - double bass
Marian Siejka - drums



Semiramida

GAD Records

By Maciej Nowotny

Jeśli zapytacie nawet nieźle znającą się na polskim jazzie osobę o wymienienie tzw. gigantów polskiego jazzu, to padną może nazwiska Komedy, Stańki, Trzaskowskiego, Seiferta, Kurylewicza, Namysłowskiego itd., ale rzadko albo i wcale Miliana. A jednak, biorąc pod uwagę jego wpływ na rozwój tej muzyki w Polsce, na wszechobecność jego wibrafonu na niezliczonych nagraniach w złotych latach jazzu w Polsce, czyli 60. i 70. ubiegłego wieku, to uważam, że absolutnie zasługuje on, by wymieniać go jednym tchem z największymi luminarzami jazzu w Polsce. 

Tym większa zasługa Michała Wilczyńskiego z wytwórni GAD Records, który od jakiegoś czasu w niezwykłej serii Jerzy Milian Tapes przypomina nam znane i nieznane dotąd nagrania tego instrumentalisty. Płyta, która trafia do naszych rąk w chwili obecnej, to już czwarta odsłona w tym cyklu i zatytułowana jest "Semiramida". Obejmuje utwory z lat 1966-69 nagrane w trakcie festiwalu Jazz Jamboree w Warszawie z pierwszym własnym zespołem Miliana, w skład którego oprócz lidera grającego na wibrafonie i marimbie wchodzili kontrabasista Jacek Bednarek oraz perkusista Grzegorz Gierłowski. Milian wspomina, że na pomysł stworzenia trio bez instrumentu harmonicznego wpadł po wysłuchaniu debiutanckiego albumu Victora Feldmana nagranego ze Scottem LaFaro i Stanem Levey'em "The Arrival Of Victor Feldman". Dla polskiego jazzu szczęśliwy był to zbieg okoliczności, bo dzięki niemu w 1969 powstał nagrany w tym składzie album "Baazaar", będący jednym z niekwestionowanych arcydzieł naszego jazzu. 

Tak dobrze rozwijająca się kariera tego trio uległa wtedy niestety przerwaniu i w tym samym roku zakończyło ono działalność. Z mojego punktu widzenia szkoda, że tak się stało, bo ten okres w twórczości Miliana jest mi chyba najbliższy i kiedy porównuję tworzoną wtedy przez niego muzykę z tego czasu z okresem późniejszym, zdominowanym przez współpracę z różnymi orkiestrami rozrywkowymi, to nie mogę się oprzeć wrażeniu, że te starsze nagrania lepiej bronią się przed nieubłaganym upływem czasu. Ale to już rzecz gustu, bo prawdę mówiąc każda z płyt w tej serii warta jest grzechu, nawet jeśli mi osobiście ta podoba się najbardziej, a na niej konkretnie niezrównana "Ballada", której mógłbym słuchać i milion razy. Polecam !!!

Jerzy Milian Trio – Baazaar (Polish Jazz Vol.17) (2014)

Jerzy Milian Trio

Jerzy Milian - vibraphone, marimba
Jacek Bednarek - bass, gidjak
Grzegorz Gierłowski - drums
with
Ewan Wanat - voclas
Janusz Mych - flute

Baazaar


GAD 017

By Adam Baruch

This is a newly remastered reissue of the debut album by Polish Jazz vibraphonist/composer Jerzy Milian, which was originally released in 1969 as part of the legendary Polish Jazz Series by the state owned Polskie Nagrania/Muza label. The album was recorded in a trio format, with Milian playing vibraphone and marimba, bassist Jacek Bednarek (who also plays the oriental gidjak on one tune) and drummer Grzegorz Gierłowski. Two members of the legendary Polish vocal quartet NOVI: Ewa Wanat (who adds vocals on five tracks) and Janusz Mych (who adds flute on one track) also participate in the recording. The original album presents eight original compositions, seven of which are composed by Milian and one is co-composed by him and Krzysztof Komeda. This expanded edition adds four tracks, recorded couple of years earlier for the Polish Radio, two of which are his original compositions, one is his arrangement of a Kurt Weil song and another is his arrangement of a Frederic Chopin nocturne.

Milian, who started his career on the Polish Jazz scene about fifteen years before this album was recorded, first came into prominence as a member of several ensembles led by Krzysztof Komeda. It was Komeda who persuaded Milian to drop the piano as his main instrument and switch to the vibraphone, thus enabling him to become a member of his ensembles. Later on Milian developed a prolific international career as a vibraphonist and as a composer, being one of the best known Polish Jazz musicians outside of Poland. Many of his achievements are documented by the ongoing archival "Jerzy Milian Tapes" series released by GAD Records, which also released this reissue.

In retrospect this is definitely one of the most idiosyncratic albums in the Polish Jazz Series, presenting one of the first occurrences of the Polish/European Chamber Jazz, which was an amalgam of modern Classical and Cool Jazz elements with many different less audible influences, like early World Music, Free Jazz, Ambient (before it was even called that) and others. The vocal parts by Wanat are completely spine-chilling, typical of her brilliant and unique style, which was the crucial ingredients of the NOVI magnetism. It is definitely a must to all Polish Jazz enthusiasts, wherever they might be on this globe (and beyond).

This album was already reissued a decade earlier, without the bonus tracks, but the entire run of CD reissues (incomplete by the way) of the original Polish Jazz Series LPs disappeared immediately after being released. The fact that these recordings are unavailable is shameful, and a sad testimony to the fact that State owned Cultural treasures are simply being disgracefully completely wasted!

Jerzy Milian – Baazaar (Polish Jazz Vol.17, 1969)

Jerzy Milian -  vibraphone, marimba

Jacek Bednarek - double bass
Grzegorz Gierłowski - drums
Janusz Mych - flute
Ewa Wanat - vocals

Baazaar (Polish Jazz Vol.17, 1969)

This is the debut album by veteran Polish Jazz vibraphonist / composer Jerzy Milian, one of the godfathers of modern Jazz in Poland. Milian started to play in the 1950s and was a member of the legendary sextet led by Krzysztof Komeda, who persuaded him to move from piano to vibraphone. In time Milian became one of the top vibraphone players in Europe as well as an excellent composer with highly personal style. His music was always quite sophisticated and unusual, quite ahead of its time. The early Komeda influence was replaced later on by his own original compositional direction, which flirted with Cool, Third Stream, contemporary Classical and World Music. This album presents eight of his original compositions (one co-composed with Komeda) performed by a trio, which includes bassist Jacek Bednarek and drummer Grzegorz Gierlowski. Two members of the legendary Polish vocal group NOVI: vocalist Ewa Wanat and flautist Janusz Mych also participate. This is a splendid example of European Jazz, which was rapidly developing in Eastern Europe by late 1960s and which still sounds great regardless half a century later. Highly recommended!

Track listing: 01. Memory of bach; 02. My Favourite Band; 03. Rewelacyjny Luciano; 04. Szkice Ludowe; 05. Tempus Jazz 67; 06. Bazar w Aszchabadzie; 07. Serial Rag; 08. Velse Ex Cathedra

By Adam Baruch

http://adambaruch.com/