Mundinova - W Drodze (2020)

Mundinova

Dorota Kołodziej - vocals
Michał Wilczyński - guitar
Marzena Cybulka - bass

Mateusz Szemraj - oud, rubab, baglama

Dariusz Kaliszuk - percussion

W Drodze

PRIVATE EDITION 2020

By Adam Baruch

This is the debut album by Polish ensemble Mundinova comprising of vocalist Dorota Kołodziej, bassist Marzena Cybulka and guitarist Michał Wilczyński. Percussionist Dariusz Kaliszuk and oud player Mateusz Szemraj guest on selected tracks. The album presents ten original pieces, eight composed by Cybulka and two by Wilczyński. Cybulka also wrote three of the lyrics (two in English) and co-wrote one with Kołodziej, and four lyrics were contributed by Justyna Paluch. Two pieces are instrumentals. The music was recorded at the fabulous Monochrom Studio and engineered by Ignacy Gruszecki with the usual spectacular sound quality.

The music is a wonderful Jazz-World Fusion project, with splendid themes beautifully weaved and excellently executed by the trio and guests. Although song oriented, the music offers unusual accompaniment performed basically just by bass and guitar, which again portrays the tendency towards minimalism so characteristic of Polish Jazz in 2019.

The World Music influences, although quite obvious both melodically and rhythmically, are not very specific, which is very effective. Attentive listeners will be able to hear some Flamenco (well guitar), Middle East, Slavic and other layers, mysteriously popping up when least expected.

Kołodziej offers splendid vocal performances, both while singing the lyrics with sensitivity and heartfelt honesty and even more so when singing marvelous vocalese. Wilczyński plays superbly tasteful guitar accompaniment and solos exuberantly but without unnecessary pathos. But it is Cybulka, who easily steals the show with her bass virtuosity, which should make many bassists truly envious. She is simply sensational and beautifully exemplifies that female intuition and feel are much more important than technical proficiency and showmanship trickery, albeit she lacks neither. She really has the Groove! Szemraj, as expected, adds some hair-raising moments of his own, which are the proverbial cherry on top.

Overall the album offers plenty of wonderful music, a rich variety of moods and melodic worlds, brilliant instrumental performances, all this in a pleasant, highly focused atmosphere, which makes listening a truly joyful ride. There is no pretentious slickness, no trying to sound somebody else, just some wonderful, straight-to-the-heart musical message. Brilliant stuff!

Milo Ensemble - Live (2019)

Milo Ensemble

Milo Kurtis - clarinet, trembita, djembe, percussion, voice
Bartłomiej Smorągiewicz - saxophones, flutes
Misza Kinsner - saxophone, sajat
Bartłomiej Pałyga - sarangi, tarhu, morin-huur, shah kaman
Adeb Chamoun - darabouka, djembe, voice
Mateusz Szemraj - oud, cymbals

Live

MILO 305

By Adam Baruch

This is a live recording by the ensemble led by Polish (of Greek origin) multi-instrumentalist/composer/band leader Milo Kurtis, which includes some of the top World Music musicians active in Poland, all of whom are multi-instrumentalists playing authentic acoustic instruments originating from many different corners of the world. They are: saxophonists Misza Kinsner and Bartłomiej Smorągiewicz, percussionist Adeb Chamoun, multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Bartłomiej Pałyga and oud player Mateusz Szemraj. The album presents eleven original compositions, eight of which were composed by Kurtis, one was co-composed by him and Smorągiewicz and one each were composed by Smorągiewicz and Pałyga. I had the pleasure not only to be present at the Polish Radio Agnieszka Osiecka Studio, where this album was recorded, but even introduced the ensemble to the public before the concert started.

The album faithfully captures the music that was played during that evening, which was mostly improvised on the basis of the pre-composed themes, completely acoustic and deeply spiritual, with Kurtis directing the ensemble but allowing the individual players to venture into extensive improvisations, and eventually bringing them back into the structured framework. Amazingly everything worked out beautifully together and the superb sound quality and separation allows the listener to hear every tiny detail within the complex wall of sound created by the six musicians.

In comparison to the earlier recordings by Kurtis, the music on this album is less Jazz oriented per se and is much more atmospheric, venturing into Improvised Music idiom, but more form the World music direction rather than from the Jazz direction. As a result this album emerges as one of the most successful achievements in his substantial recording legacy. Of course this is not only due to the compositions and direction setting done by the leader but also thanks to the amazing talents of the participation musicians, who offer a vast kaleidoscope of sounds, instruments and influences, more extensive than what Kurtis ever managed to collect within one ensemble.

Overall this is probably the most impressive Jazz-World Fusion album released in Poland in 2019 and a most significant addition to the important recorded legacy of Milo Kurtis, who remains, after many years of activity, to be at the vortex of creativity and activity of the Polish musical scene, hopefully for many years to come. Se efcharistó file mou!

Milo Ensemble – Live At Prom Kultury (2018)

Milo Ensemble

Milo 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!