Jerzy Milian Unrealesed Tapes Indiegogo Project

Jerzy Milian is a legendary figure in the history of Polish jazz. A lavish and versatile composer, Milian was one of the members of Krzysztof Komeda's renowned Sextet, praised by Down Beat both as a jazz vibraphonist (LP „Bazaar”, 1969) and an able arranger. His music was regularly featured by the BBC. GAD Records, an independent Polish label, has launched a crowd-funding campaign aimed at the release of the artist's hitherto unpublished recordings. You could also help in making this happen!

A recently unearthed set of unique recordings by Jerzy Milian turned out to be a vast repository of captivating jazzy tunes. Out of the innumerable number of high-quality vintage tracks the GAD Records team have picked fifteen. Fine tunes, upbeat rhythms, and swinging grooves have become the essence of the "When, Where, Why" album, hopefully to be released later this year. Instead of putting out a finished product, the label decided to let the fans get involved in the process of its production. Hence the crowd-funding campaign at Indiegogo.com aimed at raising the $2500 necessary to cover production and licensing costs. The variety of goodies GAD Records offers to its donors ranges from a vintage thank-you postcard and a digital single with an unreleased track unavailable elsewhere to the actual CD album, a limited set of postcards and absolutely unique mixtapes. You even get the chance to become the project's executive producer!

Indiegogo.com, the world's second-largest crowd-funding platform, allows to support independent projects without any risk whatsoever. If the campaign fails to raise the necessary funds, nobody pays a dime. But the GAD Records team and Jerzy Milian believe it's going to work out fine. They have 45 days to reach their goal (until June 21).

http://www.indiegogo.com/milian

source: Michał Wilczyński

Pater / Wojtczak / Urowski / Gorzycki – A-Kineton (Owoc Music, 2012)

Pater / Wojtczak / Urowski / Gorzycki

Rafał Gorzycki - drums

Irek Wojtczak - saxophones
Kamil Pater - guitar
Paweł Urowski - double bass,

Guest: Maurycy Wojcinski - trumpet

A-kineton (Owoc Music, 2012)

This wonderful album, recorded by the Polish quartet comprising of guitarist Kamil Pater, saxophonist Irek Wojtczak, bassist Pawel Urowski and drummer Rafal Gorzycki, with guest trumpeter Maurycy Wojcinski, is an excellent example of contemporary Jazz, played by young musicians who slowly establish a new school of Polish Jazz, continuing the splendid tradition of the country's achievements in that area. For people following the scene these names won't be completely new, as they have been active in many different ensembles during the last decade, like Sing Sing Penelope, Ecstasy Project, Contemporary Noise Sextet and others. Pater, Urowski and Gorzycki, with saxophonist Alexander Kaminski, recorded the splendid "Dziki Jazz" (Wild Jazz) album earlier on.

Pater wrote five of the eight compositions on this album, with Urowski and Gorzycki contributing one composition each and one being a group composition. The music is excellent modern Jazz, with some basic melodic content, but mostly improvised with a lot of both individual and collective freedom extended towards the participants. The performances are all inspired and highly professional, and overall the album is a great piece of music, which flows elegantly from one composition to another, constantly keeping the listener on the edge. By and large the atmosphere is somewhat similar to the music played by the groundbreaking Polish ensemble Sing Sing Penelope, which of course is not entirely surprising and should be seen as a compliment. Hopefully this quartet has a lot more to offer in the future, and I'm looking forward to hear their next album. Wholeheartedly recommended!

Track listing: 1 A-kineton; 2 Bleak sun; 3 Solaris; 4 Dancing Queen; 5 Half Life; 6 Indian Driver; 7 Time For Sheeps And Dogs; 8 The Tree

By Adam Baruch

www.adambaruch.com

Sobura - Organic Lo-Fi (U Know Me Records, 2012)

Wojtek Sobura - drums, percussions, electronics

Organic Lo-Fi (U Know Me Records, 2012)

As many young generation Polish musicians Sobura pays hommage to jazz when saying about roots of his music but he is nonetheless far from limiting himself to this one genre. In fact his up-to-date achievements in jazz are clearly in non-mainstream territory. I know him mostly from inspiring collaboration with Kamil Szuszkiewicz on "Kapcitron" (2009) and with Maciej Trifonidis on numerous albums of which I like the most last one "Roots" (2011) which can be classified, respectively, as avant jazz and etno jazz. But he is also involved in pop (Muzykoterapia), hip hop, rock and who knows what else. 

Well, this one missing link may be modern dance music since on "Organic Lo-Fi" I find such elements in plentiful. This is what makes this debut album by young Warsaw-based drummer so atractive. Though solo it avoids starkness of so many other typical avant jazz drum solo albums. Although it retains typical for jazz creative element it yet remains attractive to ear unaided by long exposure to jazz avantgarde. Speaking shortly, this is light, joyfull and straigforward music clearly rooted in jazz but facing future. Nothing groundbreaking for sure but very decent debut by artist about whom at least one thing can be said for sure: he goes his own way. And in jazz that's very much...

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

Krzysztof Komeda – Sophia`s Tune (Power Bros, 1998)

Krzysztof Komeda - piano

Simon Kopel - drum
Tomasz Stańko - trumpet, stief-bass
Michał Urbaniak - tenor sax

Sophia`s Tune (Power Bros, 1998)

This album presents a live recording by a quintet led by Polish pianist / composer Krzysztof Komeda, the legendary Godfather of Polish Jazz, recorded live at the Copenhagen Montmartre Jazz club. At that time Montmartre was one of the most important European Jazz venues and had the privilege of hosting the crème de la crème of worldwide Jazz performers, which testifies as to Komeda's reputation in Scandinavia. The quintet also includes trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, saxophonist Michal Urbaniak, Danish bassist Bo Stief and drummer Simon Kopel. They perform three original Komeda compositions, one of which ("Svantetic") gets an expanded treatment of over 20 minutes. The same composition was recorded later the same year as part of the legendary "Astigmatic" album. The remaining two compositions are: "Repetition", which was recorded a couple of years later on the also legendary "Meine Susse Europaische Heimat" album of Jazz and Polish poetry (produced by Joachim Berendt) and "Sophia's Tune" dedicated to Komeda's wife Zofia. The performances are absolutely stunning as this is European Jazz at its absolute peak, eons ahead of its time and light-years ahead of anything else played at the time. Stanko's trumpet, already at that time, prophesizes the fact that he will have no competitors, as we can witness now, almost 50 years later. Komeda's music is so completely enthralling and engulfing that is remains completely untouched by time, resistant to fads and fashions and intrinsically timeless. This time capsule, which we are lucky to be able to listen to, is a Godsend. Absolutely essential!

Komeda's Tune: A Krzystof Komeda Tribute by Másàjazz on Mixcloud

Track listing: 1. Repetition (K. Komeda) [10:27]; 2. Svantetic (K. Komeda) [22:15]; 3. Sophia's Tune (K. Komeda) [10:12]

By Adam Baruch
www.adambaruch.com

Ecstasy Project - They Were P (MW, 2011)

Ecstasy Project (band)

Rafał Gorzycki – perkusja
Tomasz Pawlicki – flet
Łukasz Górewicz - skrzypce, altówka
Paweł Nowicki – wibrafon
Paweł Urowski – kontrabas

They Were P (MW, 2011)

This is the 5th album by the Polish ensemble Ecstasy Project, founded and led by drummer / percussionist / composer Rafal Gorzycki. Gorzycki, who is also active in other musical projects, like the excellent Sing Sing Penelope ensemble, formed Ecstasy Project as a vehicle for his compositions, which lay in the fuzzy area between Jazz and contemporary Classical music. The ensemble includes also flautist Tomasz Pawlicki, vibraphonist Pawel Nowicki, violinist Lukasz Gorewicz and bassist Pawel Urowski, and is capable of performing the complex music and creating an atmosphere that bridges between chamber contemporary Classical music and modern Jazz, moving between the two smoothly and seamlessly. The music, almost entirely composed by Gorzycki, is quite intricate at times, but does not cross the point of total alienation to the less experienced listener, keeping enough melody and rhythm to hold on through the more difficult passages. Of course listeners with more experience in Classical music will find this music familiar and quite enchanting from the very first listen. This is very European music, encapsulating the musical traditions the 19th and 20th Centuries, from neo-romanticism, via atonal experimentation and minimalism, right into the avant-garde. And yet the music is not over-intellectual and leaves a lot to feeling and atmosphere, keeping the overall emotional level alive and aesthetically satisfying. Definitely worth investigation for more adventurous listeners!

Track listing: 1. Who Is Next?; 2. Vigo; 3. What Harmony Part I; 4. What Harmony Part II; 5. … And Beyond; 6. Jeddem; 7. Zero Plus Zero; 8. Na Jednym Rymie; 9. They Were P; 10. Too For… Swing; 11. Where Is Atonal Etude?

By Adam Baruch

www.adambaruch.com

Krzysztof Komeda – Wyrok – Soundtrack From Jerzy Passendorfer Movie (2008)

Krzysztof Komeda (composer)

Wyrok – Soundtrack From Jerzy Passendorfer Movie (2008)

Although primarily identified as the soundtrack composer of the movies directed by Roman Polanski, Polish pianist / composer Krzysztof Komeda cooperated with the entire Polish film industry during the revolutionary days of the 1960s New Wave of Polish Cinema, producing a long list of incredible cinematic scores. The post-WWII Polish cinema, struggling with the destruction of the country's intellectual fabric, the Socialist regime and the economic hardships, managed to produce some of the most outstanding works of modern cinematography, equal in their power of expression and revolutionary approach to cinema as a modern cultural media to the achievement of the great British, Scandinavian, French and Italian film makers at the same time. Komeda's soundtracks to the Polish (and Scandinavian) films in the mid-1960s and later Hollywood movies by the end of the 1960s are all absolute masterpieces of style, expression and sheer genius in creating a story-telling, often nerve-wrecking melody lines and wonderful themes, which expanded the visual content of the films and added another emotional dimension. 

The music is of course strongly influenced by the Jazz idioms, often even being pure Jazz. It is performed mostly by Komeda himself, accompanied by the members of his Jazz combos at the time, like trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, saxophonists Zbigniew Namyslowski and Michal Urbaniak and others. Sometimes larger instrumentation is also used, especially in the later scores. What is especially surprising and magical about this music is the fact that is stands alone as well as it functions as a part of the cinematic experience. All the albums with Komeda's soundtracks are simply superb pieces of music and in retrospect constitute an incredible body of work of rarely equaled magnitude and importance. Komeda's tragic and painfully premature death ended a career, which in many respects was at its early stage. This album includes the soundtrack of the movie "Wyrok (The Sentence)" by the director Jerzy Passendorfer. Brilliant stuff!

Track Listings:

1. Typish Jazz
2. Light motif
3. Intro - sax
4. Kocia muzyka (Cats' music)
5. Dancing
6. Serenada
7. Swing
8. Light motif - piano
9. Kocia muzyka (Cats' music)
10. Flute - part 1
11. Flute - part 2
12. Light motif - piano
13. Typish Jazz
14. Light motif - piano
15. Typish Jazz
16. Intro - piano
17. Flute - part 3
18. Light motif - sax
19. Light motif - piano

By Adam Baruch
www.adambaruch.com

Sing Sing Penelope – Sing Sing Penelope (2005)

Sing Sing Penelope (band)

Daniel Mackiewicz - electric piano, analog synth
Tomasz Glazik - tenor & baritone saxophones, synth
Wojciech Jachna - trumpet
Patryk Węcławek - bass, percussion, kalimba
Rafał Gorzycki - drums

Sing Sing Penelope (2005)

This is the debut album by the sensational Polish ensemble Sing Sing Penelope, founded in Bydgoszcz in 2001 by four musicians: keyboardist Daniel Mackiewicz, bassist Patryk Weclawek, drummer / percussionist Rafal Gorzycki and saxophonist Tomasz Glazik. They were joined in 2003 by trumpeter Wojciech Jachna and the quintet lineup, which recorded this album, was born. Obviously based on the Jazz-Rock and modern Jazz roots, this ensemble acts as a creative unit and treats their original music (credited to all the five members) as an experimental canvas, expanding it into new and uncharted territory. Rather that use well established patterns and musical structures they try to innovate constantly, which puts them apart from most of their contemporaries. Combining melodic themes, pulsating rhythms and a lot of freedom in the improvisations they mange to create something fresh, challenging and often unexpected, which will be their trademark in all their future recordings. In fact this little known (at the time of its release) album marks the birth of was to become the most interesting ensemble active on the Polish scene in the first decade of the 21st Century. By now this is already a classic recording, which sadly is very difficult to find today. A must!

Link to samples of music:  http://www.singsingpenelope.com/records/sing_sing_penelope.html 

Track listing: 1. Hosanna - 13:06; 2. Kabunga - 9:0; 3. Struktury pana b - 13:22; 4. Das boot - 6:47 

By Adam Baruch
www.adambaruch.com

Krzysztof Komeda – Bariera – Soundtracks From Jerzy Skolimowski / Janusz Nasfeter Movies (Power Bros, 2008)

Krzysztof Komeda (composer)

Bariera – Soundtracks From Jerzy Skolimowski / Janusz Nasfeter Movies (Power Bros, 2008)

Although primarily identified as the soundtrack composer of the movies directed by Roman Polanski, Polish pianist / composer Krzysztof Komeda cooperated with the entire Polish film industry during the revolutionary days of the 1960s New Wave of Polish Cinema, producing a long list of incredible cinematic scores. The post-WWII Polish cinema, struggling with the destruction of the country's intellectual fabric, the Socialist regime and the economic hardships, managed to produce some of the most outstanding works of modern cinematography, equal in their power of expression and revolutionary approach to cinema as a modern cultural media to the achievement of the great British, Scandinavian, French and Italian film makers at the same time. 

Komeda's soundtracks to the Polish (and Scandinavian) films in the mid-1960s and later Hollywood movies by the end of the 1960s are all absolute masterpieces of style, expression and sheer genius in creating a story-telling, often nerve-wrecking melody lines and wonderful themes, which expanded the visual content of the films and added another emotional dimension. The music is of course strongly influenced by the Jazz idioms, often even being pure Jazz. It is performed mostly by Komeda himself, accompanied by the members of his Jazz combos at the time, like trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, saxophonists Zbigniew Namyslowski and Michal Urbaniak and others. Sometimes larger instrumentation is also used, especially in the later scores. What is especially surprising and magical about this music is the fact that is stands alone as well as it functions as a part of the cinematic experience. 

All the albums with Komeda's soundtracks are simply superb pieces of music and in retrospect constitute an incredible body of work of rarely equaled magnitude and importance. Komeda's tragic and painfully premature death ended a career, which in many respects was at its early stage. This album includes the soundtrack of the movie "Bariera (Barrier)" by the director Jerzy Skolimowski and the soundtrack of the movie "Niekochana (Unloved)" by director Janusz Nasfeter. Brilliant stuff!

Track listing:

1-17. Bariera 31:03
18-21. Niekochana 8:03

By Adam Baruch
www.adambaruch.com

Leszek Mozdzer & Adam Pieronczyk - Live in Sofia (Not Two, 1998)

Leszek Mozdzer & Adam Pieronczyk

Leszek Możdżer - piano
Adam Pierończyk - soprano, alto & tenor saxophones

Live in Sofia (Not Two, 1998)

Arguably on this recording best Polish (nowadays) saxophonist and pianist play together. Long since it is out of catalogue of Not Two recording label and therefore very little known as much in Poland and even more abroad this duo is of absolute stellar quality. If jazz is about communication and dialogue "Live in Sofia" could be trated as an example how these two essential features of jazz shall be treated. One song after another listener is confronted with utmost creativity of two free souls in searching of communion in music. At moments light and amusing, always subtle, skillful and refined, if often touches what is transcendental, metaphysical and spiritual in music.

Perhaps caught in their very best form  on this recording these two musicians do not need introduction as far as Polish audience is concerned. They are super stars on our scene. For listeners from abroad however let me add that Możdżer fame and prestige in Poland is second only to Stańko. As much as great musician as pop star he manages to convince to high quality music thousands of souls which would normally never reach for anything more ambitious than Madonna, Ricky Marin or Bananarama. Adam Pierończyk was deservedly voted jazz musician of year 2010 in Poland. Outstanding saxophonist he is at the same time unsettled musical soul exploring not only mainstream but also free jazz and world music distant shores. All these moods and tastes are present on this recording as well. Meeting of two giants, of two unique personalities, of two basic elements of music, rhythm and melody, alternatively taken by one of the other of the two, this one glistens, shines and shimmers as pure piece of gold!

Track listing: 1. Biali (Możdżer) [16:22]; 2. Breakfast at Tiffany's (Komeda) [09:56]; 3. Song of the Sunken Town (Pierończyk) [08:28]; 4. Tell Me Anything About Your Life Mr. Buk! (Pierończyk) [06:42]; 5. Ludus Danielis (XIIIth Century Liturgical Melody) [12:22]; 6. Fuga (Bach-Możdżer) [11:44]

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

Sing Sing Penelope & DJ Strangefruit - Electrogride (S. A. Mozg, 2010)

Sing Sing Penelope & DJ Strangefruit (band)

Daniel Mackiewicz - fender pianoWojciech Jachna - trumpet
Patryk Węcławek - bass
Rafał Gorzycki - drums
Olek Kaminski - s. saxophone
Sebastian Gruchot - violin
DJ Strangefruit - live electronics

Electrogride (S. A. Mozg, 2010)

This is the 5th album by the sensational Polish ensemble Sing Sing Penelope, recorded in cooperation with Norwegian DJ Strangefruit (real name Pal Nyhus) and Polish (resident in Norway) violinist Sebastian Gruchot. The regular SSP lineup (trumpeter Wojciech Jachna, saxophonist Tomasz Glazik, keyboardist Daniel Mackiewicz, bassist Patryk Weclawek and drummer / percussionist Rafal Gorzycki) is slightly changed with saxophonist Aleksander Kaminski fulfilling the position of the absent Glazik. The circumstances surrounding the recording of this album are connected to the Smolensk catastrophe, in which a plane carrying Polish Government officials crushed killing everybody on board. The musicians who recorded this album were suppose to tour Polish clubs, but as a result of the mourning the concerts were cancelled and instead they recorded the album, which was distributed free of charge in the clubs, where the concerts were supposed to be played. Of course today this album is a rare collector's item.

Musically this album marks another expansion of SSP already adventurous music into new territory, with the inclusion of electronics and ambient elements. The music becomes more contemplative and spacey, in comparison to their earlier efforts, but the Jazz solos and overall atmosphere is unmistakably SSP. Another innovation is the use of World Music percussive elements by Gorzycki, which adds another dimension to the music. The album's ac hoc nature and the short (EP size) repertoire are all results of the on the spot decision to make the album at the time and the fruition of the ideas contained herein was fully realized in their next album. In retrospect this little gem appends a valuable add-on to the splendid recorded legacy of the ensemble so far and as usual is a splendid piece of contemporary music of rare quality.

Track listing: 1. electrogride part 1; 2. electrogride part 2; 3. electrogride part 3; 4. electrogride part 4; 5. electrogride part 5; 6. electrogride part 6

By Adam Baruch
www.adambaruch.com