Milo EnsembleMilo Kurtis - various instruments
Rasm Al-Mashan - vocals
Mateusz Szemraj - oud
Buba Kuyateh - kora, vocals
Mariusz Kozłowski - saxophone
Adeb Chamoun - percussion
Live At Prom Kultury
MILO 303
By Adam Baruch
This is a live recording by an ensemble led by Polish multi-instrumentalist/composer/band leader Milo Kurtis, which comprises of some of the top Jazz-World Music Fusion Polish or resident in Poland musicians: vocalist Rasm Al-Mashan, oud player Mateusz Szemraj, kora player and vocalist Buba Badjie Kuyateh, saxophonist Mariusz Kozłowski and percussionist Adeb Chamoun. The album presents eight original compositions, five of which were composed by Kurtis, one was co-composed by him and Al-Mashan and one each composed by Kuyateh and Kozłowski.
Kurtis, in addition to being a
charismatic bandleader and a colorful personality has also a rare talent of
gathering around him excellent musicians, amalgamating their often diverse
backgrounds into a stylistic blend, which is simply much more than just a sum
of its ingredients. This happened with the Naxos
ensemble, in which some of these musicians were members, as well as in his
earlier ensembles, and it applies to this one with the exact same efficiency.
The music on this album combines many seemingly dissimilar World Music elements
from Africa, Middle East and other sources,
wonderfully weaving them together with Jazz improvisation, producing an
irresistible and enchanted musical flying carpet ride.
Each of the ensemble members
represents a different aspect of the music and their cooperation, despite the
short lived period of preparation, works like magic. Al-Mashan is a soulful
vocalist, bringing to life the great tradition of female vocalists from the
Arab World, like the diva Umm Kulthum, updating it to the contemporary World
Music idiom. Szemraj is an oud virtuoso and he can easily stand shoulder to
shoulder with Middle Eastern Masters of the oud. Kuyateh adds a wonderful color
and tonal harmony to the proceedings, Kozłowski is the Jazz element and Chamoun
superbly creates a polyrhythmic foundation, which keeps the music flowing.
Kurtis, as usual, is in charge of the atmosphere and leads the ensemble firmly
on track.
Although Jazz-World Fusion
music is quite popular in Poland and produces some excellent recordings, only a
very few of those come close to the level of this album, which is full of
spontaneity, happiness of making music and unpretentious but highly effective
and honest music. Hopefully this ensemble will
record a studio album sometime in the future, but in the meantime let's feast
on this little gem of an album, which proves that music is one and universal,
that borders are meaningless and that good music goes directly to the heart of
people! Don't miss that one!
