Gaba Kulka - Hat, Rabbit (2009)

Gaba Kulka 

vocals, piano, keyboards - Gaba
drums - Robert Rasz
guitar - Piotr Aleksandrowicz
bass, cowbell - Kornel Jasiński
violin (Lady Celeste) - Konstanty Kulka
additional vocals (Aaa, Niejasności) - Czesław Mozil
saxophone, flute - Tomasz Duda
trumpet - Tomasz Ziętek
trombone - Marcin Muras

Hat, Rabbit (2009)

'Hat, rabbit' went gold the year it was released (2009), it was also nominated for Best Alternative Album (at the Polish record industry awards - Fryderyki), garnered high critical praise, and won over a great number of fans, beginning a new chapter for Gaba. 

Most notably, it was her first departure from solo-piano sound - 'Hat, rabbit' is most of all a band record (recorded with her longtime stage allies, Raalya), and a live-band energy permeates almost every song. And while it has its share of mysterious, dark ballads, the over-the-top-cabaret-rock prevails. Think 'Queen', and you won't be far from the mark! 

This time, we've included an extra track - 'Devil's Headlights', which was recorded for the album but dropped shortly before release (mostly because we wanted to keep the album a certain length, and partly because it didn't fit in). And now here it is! 

Track listing:
2. Heard the Light
3. Aaa
4. Niejasnośc
5. Love Me
6. Challenger
7. Emily
8. Kara Niny
9. Lady Celeste
10. Propaganda
11. Bosso
12. Słuchaj
13. Over

source:  http://music.gabakulka.com

Contemporary Noise Quintet - Pig Inside The Gentleman (2006)

 

With this record Contemporary Nosie Quintet made quite an impact on polish scene because there were before them almost no recordings in such style. This style may be described as blend of jazz, improvised and film music. It reminds me of such bands I heard recently as french-japanese United Future Organization, british Nostalgia 77 or american Hypnotic Brass Orchestra. 

The band was created by Kapsa brothers who are very well known on polish rock scene as they created one of the most important young rock bands of recents years called Something Like Elvis. It was big surprise when at the height of popularity of this band they decided to finish it and start new one dedicated to jazz. Beacause of the success of their previous creation they had not no diffculty in inviting to the band  excellent jazz musicians. They were joined by saxofonist Tomek Glazik who played in top jazz avant-garde band Sing Sing Penelope (I wrote about them in this blog), trumpeter Wojtek Jachna (also Sing Sing Penelope) and bassist Paweł Urowski (who last year recorded excellent album titled Dziki Jazz - Wild Jazz). Guests taking part in this recording are no less prominent as they comprised young but very talented guitarist Kamil Pater, trombonist Marcin Muras and double bass player Radosław Manthey.

One may only admire creativity of all these guys moving freely between different styles being able to reconcile punk  agressivness with jazz sense of space and improvisation. What is even more admirable that Kapsa brothers set up their own record company called Electric Eye which issued this album and is developing quite well. Additionaly recording was made in their own studio in Szubin and one must appreciate its high level as nonetheless loud character of music, its sense of space and granularity is more than satisfactory.

By Maciej Nowotny

http://kochamjazz.blox.pl