Krzysztof Sadowski – Three Thousands Points (2015)

Krzysztof Sadowski

Krzysztof Sadowski - keyboards
Liliana Urbańska - flute, vocals
Wojciech Bruslik - bass guitar
Tomasz Szukalski - saxophone
Winicjusz Chróst - guitar
and others

Three Thousands Points (Polish Jazz Vol.47)


GAD 031

By Adam Baruch

This is a reissue (first time on CD) of the third album by Polish Jazz keyboardist/composer Krzysztof Sadowski recorded with an ensemble called Organ Group, which also included flautist/vocalist Liliana Urbańska, saxophonists Vesselin Nikolov and Tomasz Szukalski, guitarist Winicjusz Chróst, bass guitarist Wojciech Bruslik, drummers Zbigniew Kitliński and Wojciech Morawski and finally percussionists Andrzej Zieliński and Bożena Bruszewska. The reason for the long lineup is the fact that the album was recorded during two separate sessions with two different lineups.

This album was released at the time as part of the legendary "Polish Jazz" series (as Vol.47) and included originally only four tracks, the first of which gave the album its title and was a twenty one minutes long suite originally found on side A of the LP. The three tracks on side B were shorter and spanned between three to nine minutes in duration. Two of the compositions were originals, both composed by Sadowski; one was a Keith Jarrett tune and one was a Classical piece. This remastered reissue adds three bonus tracks recorded at the Polish Radio.

The music on this album shows Sadowski at full swing as a Jazz-Rock Fusion musician, firmly based in the Fusion idiom, which was pretty well established by then both on the Polish scene and abroad. He expands his arsenal and uses electric piano and early synthesizer (ring modulator) gadgets. The flute parts are more daring and the vocalese more developed, clearly following the work of Urszula Dudziak. Nikolov adds a tinge of Balkan spice and Szukalski blows away like only he could, touching upon Free at times. The rhythmic support is very Rock oriented and the overall sound and feel of the music resembles to some extent the best Fusion ensembles active in the West but maintains an East European identity both harmonically and melodically.

In retrospect the album is a great document of the time at which it was recorded, proving that in spite of the relative separation from what was happing beyond the Iron Curtain, Polish Jazz was responding rapidly to the changes in the Jazz idiom, often with ferocity and ingenuity, which were impossible to hold back by the political regime. The grammar mistake in the English version of the title (preserved for historic consistency) is a nice reminder of Socialist bureaucracy (an insider's joke). As usual it is my duty to thank GAD Records for taking care of the Polish Jazz heritage, who is sadly a lonely rider on that trail. This superb music definitely needs to be fondly remembered and discovered by new generations!

Krzysztof Sadowski – Na Kosmodromie (2015)

Krzysztof Sadowski

Krzysztof Sadowski - Hammond organ
Liliana Urbańska - flute, vocals
Eddie Engels - trumpet
Włodzimierz Nahorny - alto saxophone, piano
Paweł Dąbrowski - bass guitar
Józef Gawrych - congas
Tomasz Butowtt - drums


Na Kosmodromie

GAD 030

By Adam Baruch

This is a reissue (first time on CD) of the second album by Polish Jazz keyboardist/composer Krzysztof Sadowski recorded with an ensemble called Organ Group, which also included flautist/vocalist Liliana Urbańska, Dutch trumpeter Eddie Engels, saxophonist Włodzimierz Nahorny, bass guitarist Paweł Dąbrowski, drummer Tomasz Butowtt and congas player Józef Gawrych.

This album was not released at the time as part of the legendary "Polish Jazz" series, for reasons that are way beyond the scope of this text. The original album included only six tracks, the first of which gave the album its title and was a twenty minutes long six parts suite originally found on side A of the LP. The five tracks on side B were all much shorter. All the compositions were originals, four composed by Sadowski and one each by Nahorny and Engels. This remastered reissue adds three bonus tracks recorded at the Polish Radio.

By the time this album was released the Polish Jazz scene was in a state of upheaval, torn between two extremes: Free Jazz on one side and Jazz-Rock Fusion on the other. Strangely this album presents a bit of both, since although conceptually belonging to the Jazz-Rock Fusion genre it features a few Free Form solos. Obviously Sadowski was shifting his organ playing stylistics from the traditional influences (Jimmy Smith) towards (then) contemporary keyboard approach represented by Herbie Hancock or Weather Report's Joe Zawinul. The use of vocalese, which was one of the trademarks of Polish Jazz at the time, utilized extensively by Urszula Dudziak in Michał Urbaniak's ensemble, is only one of the parallels between these two pioneering Fusion bands active at the time.

The space exploration, which seems a bit strange as a subject matter of a Jazz album, was at the time one of the main pillars of the Socialist propaganda, which excitedly participated in the space race between USSR and USA, with an obvious winning side. Picking such a subject increased of course significantly the possibility to have one's music released by the State controlled solitary record company in existence at the time in Poland (Polskie Nagrania).

In retrospect the albums is a great document of the time at which it was recorded, proving that in spite of the relative separation from what was happing beyond the Iron Curtain, Polish Jazz was responding rapidly to the changes in the Jazz idiom, often with ferocity and ingenuity, which were impossible to hold back by the political regime. As usual it is my duty to thank GAD Records for taking care of the Polish Jazz heritage, who is sadly a lonely rider on that trail. This superb music definitely needs to be fondly remembered and discovered by new generations!