Łukasz Juźko Quartet – First Breath (2017)

Łukasz Juźko Quartet

Łukasz Juźko - tenor saxophone
Michał Wróblewski - piano
Bartosz Świątek - bass
Sebastian Kuchczyński - drums

First Breath

SJ 027



By Adam Baruch

This is the debut album by Polish saxophonist/composer Łukasz Juźko, recorded in a quartet setting with pianist Michał Wróblewski, bassist Bartosz Świątek and drummer Sebastian Kuchczyński. The album presents nine original compositions, presumably all by the leader, although the album's artwork does not state it. The album is beautifully recorded and the sound quality is truly remarkable.

The music is a highly melodic mainstream Jazz, easy on the ear, romantic and basically belonging to the Smooth Jazz idiom, which of course does not mean, contrary to popular opinion, that the music is not ambitious or well played, far from it. The compositions are all very well structured and coherent harmonically and serve as perfect vehicles for the improvisations created by Juźko and Wróblewski.

All four instrumentalist are excellent, playing as well as can be expected from these well educated and talented young musicians, who already have remarkable achievements behind them. Juźko has a nice tone, and his tenor saxophone performances sound highly professional and inspired. Wróblewski is a superb pianist and his chord structures and solos are simply perfectly suited for this music. The rhythm session also performs brilliantly, with a strong rhythmic signature, which gives the music quite a kick. Overall this is an impressive debut album, which presents Juźko as a mature composer and player, and which shows a lot of potential for his future endeavors. Highly recommended to connoisseurs of melodic Jazz and ageless romantics!

Sekstans - Sekstans (2013)

Łukasz Juźko - saxophone
Piotr Chęcki - saxophone
Dawid Lipka - trumpet
Szymon Burnos - piano
Maciej Sadowski - bass
Tomasz Koper - drums

MULTIKULTI 010



By Adam Baruch

This is an excellent debut album by the young Polish Jazz sextet called Sekstant and originating form the Baltic Tricity, founded and led by saxophonists Łukasz Juźko and including saxophonist Piotr Chęcki, trumpeter Dawid Lipka, pianist Szymon Burnos, bassist Maciej Sadowski and drummer Tomasz Koper. The album comprises of seven original compositions, two of which (the opening and closing tracks) are improvised pieces, three are composed by Juzko and one each by Sadowski and Koper.

As usual with the young Polish Jazz ensembles the music crosses all possible boundaries and is almost impossible to be neatly categorized. On top of the obvious Jazz tradition there are traces of Rock and even Punk (especially in the somewhat hassle-free attitude), Free Jazz and even Improvised Music excursions and many other elements, which of course make this music fascinating and unpredictable. The usage of electric piano and the brass arrangement on certain pieces take the ensemble close to Jazz-Rock Fusion, but then electronics and Ambient elements remind the listener that this is 21^st Century and music is constantly changing and expanding its idioms. Underlying these stylistic explorations, the compositions present solid melodic themes, which are all quite impressive.

Both the individual abilities of these players and their collective cooperation are very impressive. As usual it's hard to believe that these are such young players only starting their musical life's journey. The open-mindedness and personal courage to explore non-trivial music and eschew mediocrity are truly admirable.

I eagerly anticipate the next step on this ensemble's path, which in view of this promising debut could be even more thrilling. In the meantime this is a true little gem, which should give Jazz connoisseurs a most pleasurable listening experience. Well done!