Marco Eneidi Streamin` 4 – Panta Rei (2014)

Marco Eneidi Streamin` 4

Marco Eneidi - alto saxophone
Marek Pospieszalski - tenor saxophone
Ksawery Wójciński - double bass
Michał Trela - drums

Panta Rei

FOR TUNE 0047


By Adam Baruch

This is the debut album by American (resident in Austria) saxophonist Marco Eneidi and his Streamin` 4 quartet, which also includes three Polish Free Jazz/Improvised Music musicians: saxophonist Marek Pospieszalski, bassist Ksawery Wójciński and drummer Michał Trela. The album, which was recorded live, presents four extended pieces, co-credited to all four participants.

As appropriate for an Improvised Music/Avant-garde Jazz encounter, the music is highly energetic and expressive, with the participants trying to stay coherent and communicative towards each other. The double saxophone lineup allows for separate saxophone solos and a side-by-side dialog, which varies in intensity and intension from one moment to the next. The rhythm section is also allowed space to express its notions, but as usual remains in the background for most of the duration. It becomes pretty obvious that at least some of the themes used as the basis for the improvisation were annotated or rehearsed in advance, but of course, as usual in such circumstances, they are really a marginal issue in these proceedings.

As I always emphasize, this kind of music is essentially meant to be a part of a live experience and is received in a completely different way by a live listener sitting in the audience than when listening to the recorded music. With the intimacy and immediacy gone, the listener is left with just one more Improvised Music album, which fails to leave a lasting impression. Of course these are very skilled and talented musicians and the music has its intrinsic value, but considering the vast amount of great new music becoming available on a daily basis, this gets pushed back into the low priority stack.

Second Exit - Spoon (ForTune, 2014)

Second Exit (band)

Piotr Łyszkiewicz - tenor & soprano saxophones, percussion
Ove Volquartz - contrabass clarinet, soprano saxophone
Piotr Zabrodzki - bass guitar, synthesizer, piano
Michał Trela - drums, percussion

Spoon (ForTune, 2014)


By Dirk Blasejezak

This album took me a bit, but it was more than worth it! I can only advise anybody to take the time and let this album sink in, then it will reveal it's depth.

I am particularly pleased that it is finally once again a Polish-German production, which has led to such a great result. Ove Volquartz as the German representative (from Göttingen) and Piotr Łyszkiewicz, of course, stood out on first listening - especially in the first piece: the duel of two soprano saxophones is very demanding for the listener with its intensity and the relentlessness of both musicians. On the other tracks too the two reeds mostly come as a pair and enclose each other in an extremely exciting way. I have to admit though that I'm always positively biased when someone unboxes a contrabass clarinet. 

Only on the second listening of "Well Ride" I noticed the work of Piotr Zabrodzki in the background. Of the four musicians, he is probably best known to the Polish audience. His work includes highs (Trylobit, Baaba Kulka) as well as lows (LXMP), but with this album it has definitely reached a new peak. Here his incredible versatility is visible or better audible in each track. In "Well Ride" he adds, through his synthesizer sounds, to the above mentioned depth; in "Mysterious Colours" he plays the bass guitar - starting around minute 18:00 you can very well get a picture of his skills on this instrument. And in the last piece ("Some message from Olivier (ECPM)"), he sits on one of the solo instruments: the piano. And in all three roles you have the feeling as if he had never done anything else. Wonderful!

However, I also have to say a few words to Michał Trela - that he is the last to write about is not to be understood as a rating. Quite the contrary: His hard, rocking, and extremely precise play (his solo in "Ride Well", I think, makes clear what I mean) gives the music in many parts an entirely new note, it’s changing the direction. I like this style very much; especially in collective improvisations I always feel comfortable when one of the musicians builds some kind of a handrail for me to stroll along. To my regret, I did not know him yet, but he has recently (again on ForTune) released an album with the "Erase" quartet, that I just have not yet had the chance to listen to. I am particularly curious about his future projects.

On the whole, this is a record of exceptional quality, an absolute recommendation. Among the authors of the Polish Jazz blog there even was a discussion about making this album the Album of the Month - I voted against it. Maybe I even regret it a little, after listening to it a few times. The main reason for my decision was not that this record would not have deserved it (I’m certain that in 10 out of 12 months of any year I would have agreed without hesitation!), but that there are simply several outstanding albums this month. How happy the jazz scene can be about that - especially if, as in this case, those are the scenes of two countries.

Erase – New And Old Dreams (2013) ***1/2

Gerard Lebik - tenor saxophone
Max Mucha - bass
Jakub Mielcarek - bass
Michal Trela - drums

FOR TUNE 0014







By Adam Baruch

This is the debut album by Polish Jazz quartet Erase, which consists of saxophonist Gerard Lebik, bassists Max Mucha and Jakub Mielcarek and drummer Michal Trela. The album presents a live recording at Warsaw's Pardon To Tu club, which in the last few years managed to establish an honorary position as the home of the avant-garde scene in the country's Capital. The quartet performs five completely improvised pieces attributed to all the four musicians.

The quartet presents music, which is naturally associated with the mid 1960s, when Free Jazz was at its artistic peak and musicians like Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy and others bravely broke the ties with Jazz conventions and stepped into uncharted territory to expand the Art Form beyond the known boundaries. However, keeping in mind that all this happened fifty years ago, playing Free Jazz today lost much of its originality, especially in view of the fact that its true pioneers are all dead by now.

On the other hand, bands like Erase are needed today to shake up the somewhat stagnant Jazz scene, which often gravitates towards the dreaded retrograde mainstream. Therefore this total and uncompromising music is a welcome wake up call in that respect. Of course Erase has a lot to say on its own account, with the drenched saxophone wall-of-sound effect and the double bass lines and intensive drumming. It is a brutal encounter, which can leave no listener indifferent.

Free Jazz is mostly an essence of a live performance and Free Jazz recordings suffer from the same problem that food suffers from, i.e. eating it is quite different than seeing pictures of it. Hearing this concert was probably a momentous experience for those lucky to be there at the time. The recording is only a secondary experience. That does not mean of course that the music is not worth being recorded, on the contrary For Tune made exactly the right decision to include it in their catalogue, simply for what it is: unadulterated explosion of musical energy, which pays tribute to the glorious past. And since nobody else is doing anything remotely similar, even more so!

I don't know if the album's title is a tribute to the fabulous Old And New Dreams ensemble, which by itself was a tribute to Ornette Coleman; regardless if this is intentional or not, it is certainly most appropriate.