Quartado - Quartado 2 (2019)

Quartado

Jan Rejnowicz - keyboards
Marcin Wądołowski - guitar
Karol Kozłowski - bass
Tomasz Łosowski - drums

Quartado 2

SOLITON 938



By Adam Baruch

This is the second album by Polish Fusion quartet Quartado, which comprises of keyboardist Jan Rejnowicz, guitarist Marcin Wądołowski, bassist Karol Kozłowski and drummer Tomasz Łosowski. The album presents eight original compositions; four by Rejnowicz, two by Wądołowski and one each by Kozłowski and Łosowski.

The music continues exactly where the debut left off, with the same Fusion feel based on highly melodic compositions and full of typical Fusion riffs, which have been around for the last fifty years, which means that this album might have been recorded anytime between 1970 and now and nobody would be able to pinpoint the recording date. This of course proves that Fusion is one of the most stable (or stale is one wants to be nasty) Jazz idioms out there. Having said that, this music is really quite excellent as far as Fusion is concerned, full of great tunes, excellent playing and "positive energy", as the quartet states on the album's cover.

The technical level of the performances is much better than on the debut, especially the keyboards, which offer a diverse sonic kaleidoscope of instruments between acoustic and electric pianos, organ and synthesizers. The soloing is solid and very well structured this time. The only pity is that the keyboards completely dominate the proceedings, and the role of the guitar is sadly much less prominent. Wądołowski is obviously a growing force on the Polish guitar scene and his playing is significantly superior, which is an asset the quartet could have explored more efficiently. The rhythm section does a perfect job all the way through, doing exactly what is expected in the Fusion environment, i.e. keep the beat steady and the groove swinging.

Overall this is a splendid Fusion album, perfectly in the middle of the Fusion mainstream, which should keep most of the fans of the genre perfectly happy. It is certainly as good as anything produced by American Fusion bands that are still around, if not better than most. Highly recommended to Fusion-heads the world over!

Quartado - Quartado (2014)

Quartado

Jan Rejnowicz - keyboards
Marcin Wądołowski - guitar
Karol Kozłowski - bass
Tomasz Łosowski - drums

Quartado

PRIVATE EDITION



By Adam Baruch

This is the debut album by young Polish Jazz ensemble Quartado, which consists of keyboardist Jan Rejnowicz, guitarist Marcin Wadolowski, bassist Karol Kozlowski and drummer Tomasz Losowski. The album presents ten original compositions, eight of which are by Rejnowicz and one each are by Wadolowski and Losowski.

The music can be generally classified as Jazz-Rock Fusion, but it certainly has quite an unusual approach, mixing the standard Fusion tricks of the trade with Latin rhythms, Jazzy acoustic piano passages and many other devices, which sets the quartet apart from most of their competition. The level of the compositions is quite surprising, with solid melodic and harmonic ideas rather than the usual Fusion chord progressions which only purpose is to serve as a basis for endless doodling.

The personal contributions are all impressive, with the rhythm section driving the music forcefully forward. The bass has a very thick sound and the drums are very busy, and although together they are well synchronized, personally I think that the rhythm section is too dominant and comes way to forward in the mix, which causes a listening fatigue after about half the album, actually hurting the listeners ears. The overall sound is not great either, sounding muddy and condensed as if recorded in a tiny box, which is a great pity as this album could have sounded infinitely better.

Rejnowicz, who wrote most of the music, comes up as a gifted composer, but his playing is not sensational and fails to make a unique personal statement, probably due to the fact that he is still very new at it. However, Wadolowski, who has been very busy in the last few years and participated in quite a few recordings, is the absolute star of this album, playing his heart out and sounding really good from start to finish. His solos are inventive and well developed, obviously making hordes of young guitarist to cringe with envy. It is truly satisfying to follow a musicians for a period of time and see (or rather hear) his progress and development.

Overall quite a nice debut with many fine moments and a lot of potential, just take it a bit easy next time around and channel the testosterone elsewhere.

The Moongang - Taxi (2012)

Joanna Knitters - vocals
Roman Badenski - harmonica
Marcin Wadolowski - guitar
Hubert Swiatek - piano
Karol Kozlowski - bass
Piotr Gora - drums

ALLEGRO 024




By Adam Baruch

This is the debut album by a young Polish Blues-Rock / Funk band Moongang, fronted by female vocalist Joanna Knitter, with harmonica player Roman Badenski, guitarist Marcin Wadolowski, pianist Hubert Swiatek, bassist Karol Kozlowski and drummer Piotr Gora. The album comprises of eleven original songs and one instrumental. The guitarist composed eight of the pieces, the vocalist two and the bassist and pianist contributed one each. Knitter wrote the lyrics to all eleven songs, ten of which are in English and one is in Polish.

Obviously based on the Blues tradition, the music stretches out into other genres, like Rock, Funk and even occasionally Fusion. Almost all the tunes are up-tempo and have a very funky feel about them, which certainly tends to make the listeners dance or at least tap their feet. The instrumental performances are all quite excellent, especially the beautiful harmonica parts, which are the link to the Blues roots of this music, but also the guitar and electric piano solos are a delight. The rhythm section does an excellent job keeping the music moving forward and providing the funky feel. The vocalist has a worm, strong voice, which she uses cleverly and effectively and which is ideal for this kind of music. She has a great timing and phrasing and overall her performances are just what this music needs.

Having said all that, there are some points about this album, which bother me personally, although most local listeners probably won't mind them at all. I understand the desire of Polish bands to sound "international" and use English lyrics. The vocalist's English pronunciation and accent are actually quite passable and are not a problem as such, but the lyrics are. Using slang and dirty words does not make lyrics more "native" English, does it? One does not have to even go beyond this very album to see that the sole song in Polish sounds so much better that all the others, in order to learn a lesson not to make the same mistake again, hopefully.

But all in all this is an excellent debut album by a band with a lot of abilities and even more potential in the future. This band most probably kicks ass on the stage like few others and gives the audiences a great time. The album is great for driving, as I've experienced, making the long stretch of the road to pass unnoticed. Well done indeed!

The Moongang - Taxi (Allegro Records, 2012)

The Moongang (band)

Joanna Knitter – vocal
Piotr Góra – drums
Karol Kozłowski – bass guitar
Marcin Wądołowski – guitar
Hubert Świątek – piano
Roman Badeński – harmonica

Taxi (Allegro Records, 2012)

By Maciej Nowotny

The Moongang started in 2009 on initiative of harmonica player Roman Badeński. Although his main interest is in blues he was going with this band to out-step boundaries of one genre and saturate this music with elements of jazz, funk, R&B and pop. The necessary versatility gave him players known from local Tri-City jazz scene: bassist Karol Kozłowski recorded with Paul Band and their album "Second Face" was one of the most interesting releases as far as jazz rock is concerned in Poland in recent years; young guitarist Marcin Wądołowski recorded in 2011 his debut album "Git Majonez" which was kept in mainstream jazz stylistic and was warmly received by critics and audience; vocalist Joanna Knitter appeared on this year release "Take It Easy III" by veteran of this scene saxophonist Przemek Dyakowski. Other players like drummer Piotr Góra and pianist Hubert Świątek are less known to me but they fit well in overall idea of this music.

Musically there are no surprises here but nonetheless I must say that I like this album. It has some necessary characteristics of good jazz that is enthusiasm, authenticity and the spirit of collective music making. Whole album wheels around vocalist Joanna Knitter who penned texts (all English except one in Polish)  to all songs while music was written mostly by Marcin Wądołowski (8 out of 12 tunes) but also by Knitter (2), Kozłowski (1) and Świątek (1). But they seem alike, they must be a result of collective creative work and they all sound well. I am especially very pleasantly surprised by singing by Joanna Knitter who on above mentioned Dyakowski's album was rather unconvincing. It is obvious that she fells much, much better in her own material than in interpretations of old standards which she sung on "Take It Easy". She showed here sense of humour, immense energy and vitality. She obviously delights most in music that is full of emotions, concrete and wholesome and on "Taxi" she found a space and partners to do what she likes best.

The same can be said about the rest of the band as they clearly seem to relish the experience of recording this session. It sounds as if group of old friends gathered together and was exchanging as much some of their most cherished musical ideas as simply taking joy in having good time together. This mood of joy spreads over to music whose optimism is contagious soon making listener swinging hard. Good job!

Tracklist:
1. Taxi [2:54]; 2. Rainy Day [3:26]; 3. Exaltation [4:43]; 4. Future [3:08]; 5. The Doors Are Open [3:35]; 6. The Message [3:50]; 7. Over You [3:29]; 8. Chooser [3:29]; 9. More And More [3:05]; 10. Ty [4:59]; 11. Swift [3:18]; 12. Nie całkiem smutny blues [3:00]

Paul Band - Second Face (Soliton, 2011)

Paul Band

Krzysztof Paul - guitars

Artur Jurek - keys

Karol Kozłowski - bass

Adam Golicki - drums

Soliton, 2011

Frank Gambale or Alan Holdsworth, great virtuoso players of rock guitar in jazz, one might thought that their times are long gone. But no! Recently on my desk has landed new album of Krzysztof Paul (leader of the group) who plays on guitars with Artur Jurek - accompanying him on keys, Karol Kozłowski on bass and Adam Golicki on drums. Athough jazz rock seemed to me dead and last Polish jazz rock band I listened to with pleasure was Laboratorium approximately 20 years ago, I must confess that listening to newest album by Paul Band titled "Second Face" was pure pleasure. Although you may attribute my positive feeling toward this record to a long period of deprivation from good jazz rock music, I prefer to turn your attention to lively and energetic performances this CD contains. 

Once I start to dig in the net to learn more about these artists, previously completely unknown to me, I discovered that Paul Band has indeed quite long history. It existed already in 2003 when they won some minor jazz competion in Poland but at some point in following years Krzysztof Paul disbanded it. Fortunately it was reactivated in 2009 and in 2010 they recorded CD titled "Wanted" and very soon after that CD at the beginning of 2011 this album "Second Face". I cannot execute routine comparison of those two recordings since up to few days ago I was totally unaware of this band's existence. However judging from level of music recorded on "Second Face" I come to conclusion that it seems like effect of long process of maturation as music is perfect in every aspect: composition, interplay, internal coherence.

"Second Face" was therefore very pleasant surprise and I expect it will be very warmly welcomed by large group of lovers of sound of electrical guitar in Poland. As for my jazz soul it is perhaps too constrained  and predictable to stay longer in my CD player but that is why I also rather seldom reach to even such masters of this genre as above mentioned Gambale or Holdsworth. If however Paul Band ever moved closer towards Miles Davis jazz rock period as exemplified by "Bitches Brew" I would probably reconsider my position...

Author of text: Maciej Nowotny

http://kochamjazz.blox.pl/html