Soyka & Przybielski – Sztuka Błądzenia (2000)

Soyka/Przybielski

Stanisław Soyka - piano, violin
Andrzej Przybielski - trumpet

Sztuka Błądzenia

POMATON 026





By Adam Baruch

This is an album by the Polish duo which comprises of the vocalist/pianist/violinist Stanisław Soyka and legendary trumpeter Andrzej Przybielski. Soyka does not perform any vocals on this album and appears only as pianist and violinist. The album, recorded during two sessions held a couple of months apart, presents fifteen relatively short freely improvised pieces, not credited on the album's artwork and therefore assumed to be co-composed by the duo members. Soyka and Przybielski cooperated on several recording projects over the years.

The music is obviously a result of searching for new forms of expression, especially as far as Soyka is concerned, since he is mostly associated with Blues and mainstream vocal Jazz, in complete contrast to Przybielski, who was always associated with the avant-garde Polish Jazz movement, although he could play brilliant melodic music as well, when required to do so. Therefore the effort to bridge between the natural environments of the two players is an impossible task and the result fails to create any relevant results. Soyka is completely lost in the Improvising Music idiom and Przybielski is just playing along.

Przybielski plays some brilliant trumpet passages, but they are completely detached from the piano and violin parts created by Syjka and sound completely out of place. Although the album's title promises the listener to discover the art of wandering, in fact he is sadly exposed to the failure of senseless wandering. Although every piece of recorded music by Przybielski is a treasure chest, this album is probably the weakest effort he was ever involved with and as a result it is only marginally interesting.

Stanislaw Sojka – W Holdzie Mistrzowi - Live (2012)

Stanislaw Sojka - vocals, piano

Przemyslaw Greger - guitar

Marcin Lamch - bass

Kuba Sojka - percussion

Zbyszek Brysuak - percission
Antoni Gralak - trumpet
Aleksander Korecki - saxophone
Antoni Sojka - keyboards
Tamasz Jaskiewicz - guitar

UNIVERSAL 602537329854
By Adam Baruch

This is a live recording of a concert by veteran Polish Blues / Jazz / Rock vocalist Stanislaw Sojka (a.k.a. Soyka) and his band, performing songs by Poland's greatest ever singer / composer Czeslaw Niemen. Niemen composed all the nine songs performed here, three of which also have his lyrics and others are by other lyricists or poems written by Polish poets. Sojka also plays piano and the band comprises of seven players, including a brass section, and a guest guitarist Tomasz Jaskiewicz, original member of the band Akwarele, Niemen's first group, which recorded many of these songs originally.

Considering Niemen's legendary status on the Polish scene, any attempt to tackle his material is a priori a potentially perilous affair. No other Polish vocalist managed, in the decades that followed, to come even close to Niemen's power of expression and vocal virtuosity. Therefore this album, although a tribute, faces enormous challenges, which unfortunately prove insurmountable even to such an experienced and talented artist as Sojka. Niemen's songs needed to be rearranged quite radically in order to fit within Sojka's vocal range. In addition the instrumental accompanied was updated, which distances the songs from their original Rock setting and places them into a comfortable middle-of–the-road relaxed Pop setting with slight Jazzy overtones. Overall the album sounds incredibly nice, which of course is its key problem; Niemen's music might mean many different things to different people, but "nice" was never among them.

The music is played perfectly and beautifully recorded, with a warm, clear sound quality, especially so for a live recording. The audio CD is accompanied by a DVD capturing the same concert, so the listener has a choice of just listen to or also watch the proceedings.

Personally, I find little affinity for this project, which simplifies and even to some extent trivializes the original songs in my opinion, but I'm sure many others will find this a most pleasurable listening experience. Luckily I still have the original Niemen recordings to keep the memory alive and the fire burning.

Antoni Gralak - Graal (Polonia Records, 1996); Graal 2 (Polonia Records, 1997)

Antoni Gralak - trumpet, trombone

Włodzimierz Kiniorski - tenor sax

Locko Richter - bass guitar, organ
Arkadiusz Skolik - drums
Stanisław Sojka - violin

Graal (Polonia Records, 1996)

Tracklisting: 1. Karuzela; 2. Chromatyczna; 3. Gruba Berta; 4. Wszyscy tańczą; 5. Pe pe sha; 6. Bajka; 7. Chudy patrzy; 8. Larwatus proteo 

Antoni Gralak - trumpet, trombone

Włodzimierz Kiniorski - tenor sax

Locko Richter - bass guitar, organ
Arkadiusz Skolik - drums
Stanisław Sojka - violin

Graal 2 (Polonia Records, 1997)

Tracklisting: 1. Miasto tańczy; 2. Marsz a masz; 3. Sarterras Ubi Bangoia; 4. Ornetto; 5. Korridor; 6. Mute Fanki; 7. Jak Kopciuszek; 8. Więc Dixi 

Small community of musicians centered around city of Częstochowa (located in the south of Poland close to bigger Upper Silesia region) produced fair amount of interesting if somewhat little known (even in Poland) music. Along with Janusz Yanina Iwański whose newest record 'Free Wave' (2011) was recently described on this blog, trumpeter Antoni Ziut Gralak (Ziut and Yanina cooperated in highly successful rock Tie Break band) shall be mentioned with this two albums being good example of what kind of music he likes the most. And this music is rooted in Polish yass movement. That means that though clearly inspired by free jazz it is also relying heavily on Polish folk, punk rock and drum'n'bass aesthetics. It sounds open, spontaneous and much more accessible than typical Ornettian free. Melody is strong here and improvisation is not that much in structure as in ludic character of this music which may change entirely its style from one song to another. Apart from this interesting idiom in which this music is placed one must be under great impression how well played it is. Apart from the leader on trumpet it features first rate musicians that is Włodek Kiniorski on tenor sax, charismatic German bassist Loco Richter, excellent drummer Arek Stolik and Stanisław Sojka on violin. Even more important then their skills however is the spirit of teamwork and obvious great joy coming from working together that pervades both these albums. This leaves me with no other options than to recommend these albums to any listener whose ears and heart are open to good music. 

Autor: Maciej Nowotny
http://kochamjazz.blox.pl