HeFi Quartet - Parallax Error (2017)

HeFi Quartet

Leszek HeFi Wiśniowski - flute
Dominik Wania - piano
Tomasz Kupiec - double bass
Bartek Stromiejski - drums

Parallax Error

SJ 019



By Adam Baruch

This is the fourth album by Polish Jazz flautist/composer Leszek HeFi Wiśniowski and the second under the HeFi Quartet moniker. The quartet features this time the excellent pianist Dominik Wania and the familiar rhythm section which accompanies Wisniowski since several years: bassist Tomasz Kupiec and drummer Bartek Staromiejski. The album presents fourteen relatively short original compositions, all by Wiśniowski, two of which were co-composed by Kupiec and one by Wania.

From the very onset of this album it becomes clear that this is by far the most mature, coherent and balanced recording by Wiśniowski, which presents him as a gifted composer and excellent instrumentalist in a best possible setting. The music ideally combines melodic elements with modern Jazz approach, which allows the players plenty of space to express their individual statements and at the same time maintains the unity of the quartet as an organic ensemble.

Wisniowski treats his instrument with an utmost respect, flirting and even making love with it all along, always in perfect harmony and perfect balance between the emotional expressionism and the technical virtuosity. The pieces move between solos, duos and quartet performances, each of these settings emphasizing different aspects of the music, which is completely absorbing and magnetic in its depth of emotion.

The presence of Wania is a crucial element of the album's aura and its overall success to create to desired effect. Among the many Polish Jazz pianists, Wania is not only one of the very best, but also the most modest and most profound as a player, being able to find the ideal expression suitable to a diverse set of environments. He never "steals" the show and always fills the space with his stunning, delicate and perfect phrases. His performances on this album are definitely among his most beautiful and Wiśniowski made a very wise decision to select him as a partner, which resulted in a brilliant piece of recorded music, definitely one of the best so far this year on the Polish Jazz scene.

It is very satisfying to see that Wiśniowski finally found his true realm on this album. After many years of searching, this album is simply a pinnacle of his achievements and a well deserved glorification of his talents, which will hopefully be followed by many more such fabulous musical vistas. Well done indeed!

HeFi Quartet feat. Krzesimir Dębski - Live (2013)

Leszek Hefi Wiśniowski - flute, saxophone

Paweł Kaczmarczyk - keyboards

Tomasz Kupiec - bass

Bartek Staromiejski - drums

Krzesimir Dębski - violin

PRIVATE EDITION





By Adam Baruch

This is the third album by young Polish Jazz flautist / saxophonist / composer Leszek HeFi Wiśniowski, this one being released under the moniker of his current HeFi Quartet, which also includes the fabulous keyboardist Paweł Kaczmarczyk, bassist Tomasz Kupiec and drummer Bartek Staromiejski. The music includes one studio track (from 2013), three live radio tracks (from 2012) and six live concert tracks (from 2011), which also feature the veteran violinist Krzesimir Dębski. All the music was composed by Wisniowski except one track which is credited to the entire group and one which is a traditional folklore tune.

The music is exciting Modern mainstream with some World Music influences, a bit of Fusion and other ingredients, all well amalgamated compositionally and beautifully executed. The first part of the album (the radio/studio recordings) is mostly calm and relaxed, whereas the second part (the concert recordings) with Dębski is much more energetic, loud and expressive, with Dębski's input being quite dominant. Overall the music is truly excellent, but the album suffers a bit from being a somewhat hectic collection of music recorded under different circumstances rather than an integral statement.

Wiśniowski also makes a mistake of employing/inviting musicians, who are simply excellent, which sadly makes him the least impressive player of them all, even if he's the leader. Kaczmarczyk completely "steals" the show with his superb solos, which are all simply brilliant, both technically and emotionally. The rhythm section also performs beautifully, way beyond just supporting the soloist, but actually contributing actively to the process of creating the music. These young musicians have already quite a lot of experience performing and even recordings behind them, which is immediately noticeable. Dębski, as already mentioned, is a veteran with a very flamboyant style of playing. As a result the leader's solos really sound rather pale in comparison.

Nevertheless this is still a very strong album, which many Jazz listeners will enjoy immensely. Not too complex and yet interesting and versatile stylistically, this is definitely something worth listening to and at the same time accessible to a relatively wide range of connoisseurs.

Leszek HeFi Wiśniowski - Kinetyka (2010)

My yesterday's visit to music shop was very rewarding. The shelf that contains Polish Jazz was full of new and intriguing items of which I shall mention only few: Aga Zarayan's, Polish talented jazz singer and her new album for legendary Blue Note label titled Looking Walking Being; Piotr Wyleżoł, pianist playing in tradition of Bill Evans and Keith Jarret, and his album Children's Episodes for good Spanish label Fresh Sound New Talent and avantgarde and indiejazz issue Goose Talk by Mikołaj Trzaska accompanied by Christian Bauer and Peter Brotzmann. Of all those excellent recordings of this week I nonetheless choose another one titled Kinetyka by Leszek HeFi Wiśniowski.

This is mainstream jazz played in creative and intriguing manner. The leader of the band is Leszek Wiśniowski, for whom this is second album after first titled Lechoechoplexita. He is second flutist I write about on this blog, after Krzysztof Popek, however second to no one in Poland. On this CD he was able to gather excellent band with such stars as violinist Krzesimir Dębski, pianist Paweł Kaczmarczyk (whose album Complexity In Simplicity for ACT label was probably the best polish jazz record last year), Tomasz Kupiec on bass, Bartek Staromiejski on drums, Dominik Bieńczycki on violin and Pramath Kiran on percussion.

The music itself on this album is really extraordinary, although it's mainstream but it is full of tension, anxiety, distress. Exactly like the title of the album suggests there are present in this music so many conflicting directions but yet the personality of the Wiśniowski, his flute and saxes, miraculously give the artistic unity to  this creative chaos. The strongest side of the album are numerous dialogues between Wiśniowski on flute, Kaczmarczyk on electric piano and Dębski on violin. I can not recollect anything similar to those in Polish jazz, it is simple astonishing to listen to them!

Last but not least all this music is so close to the best tradition of Polish jazz and such its masters as violinist Zbigniew Seifert or legendary Labolatorium group, one of the most imporant groups of Polish fusion jazz. This is probably going to be one of the best jazz recordings in Poland in 2010. 

The music from this fantastic album can be heard at the following link:
http://www.hefi.pl/mp3.htm
Thanks to Mr Leszef Hefi Wiśniowski kindness I received two clips containing fragments of concert with music from above described album. I want to turn your attention especially to Prestigitator, truly a gem! It is really a pleasure to update post with music of such high quality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utPJSj-C6X8&feature=player_embedded
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm4WW00WvLE&feature=player_embedded