Ken Vandermark – reeds | Håvard Skarpnes Wiik – piano | Chad Taylor – drums. Recorded in concert at Jazz Festival Ljubljana by Luis Delgado on July 3 & 4, 2013. Mixed by Bob Weston and Ken Vandermark at Chicago Mastering Service. Photo by Petra Cvelbar. Album design by George Staicu. Continue reading
Talk with just about any improviser and he or she will tell you that their music happens in the moment, it’s best when they are fully in the present. Garrison Fewell always recruits members of the Variable Density Sound Orchestra (VDSO) that he knows can perform fully in the moment. It gives the music it’s vividness and urgency and it’s spiritual core as well. “In Buddhism there are three existences of life—past, present, and future—and they are all one,” explains Garrison, a practicing Buddhist for nearly 40 years. “Everything is determined in the present moment—a series of present moments.” Which is as good a description of the music on this disc as any. — Ed Hazell Continue reading
For the jazz-listening public even the cognoscenti, when European improvisers and European labels come up in conversation, there are a central few countries that appear as the only beacons in European jazz — England, France, Holland (via ICP) and Germany (and possibly Italy to some small, Gaslini-an degree). Portugal, Sweden, and Denmark get very little mention, and one can almost forget about the former Eastern Bloc countries. To be sure, Russia, Poland and the Czech Republic all have a small but vigorous scene of improvisers and a number of labels to record them — the storied Czech label Supraphon and Muza and Poljazz in Poland released a number of significant titles in the ’70s and ’80s by artists like Slide Hampton, Jiri Stivin, Jemeel Moondoc, Tomasz Stanko (a trumpeter who records for ECM and was on Manfred Schoof’s seminal European Echoes) and Krzysztof Komeda. Currently, one of the most rapidly growing and exceedingly refined Polish labels is Marek Winiarski’s Not Two Records. Continue reading
I am a Polish singer and I love music. I have been singing for some time, at the age of 18 I recorded my debut cd which you can listen to here, with the top Polish musicians such as Joachim Mencel, Andrzej Cudzich, Lukasz Zyta, Piotr Wojtasik, Leszek Szczerba, Ryszard Styła. With this band I had a lovely time performing at different places, among which the most important Era Jazzu Festival in Poznan 2000 as a support to Archie Shepp. Then I spent 3,5 years at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, Austria, where I studied under Jay Clayton, Mark Murphy, Stjepko Gut, Fritz Pauer, Renato Chicco, Laurie Antonioli and others. Since then a few years have passed and I’m again in Krakow, still singing, hoping to do more in music. Continue reading
Piotr Lemańczyk – leader, bass guitars, voices | Dariusz Herbasz – tenor saxophone | Sławomir Jaskułke – keyboards | Tomasz Łosowski – drums | Maciej Sikała – tenor and soprano saxophones (8, 2/solo) | Mieczysław Szcześniak – vocal (2) | Leszek Dranicki – guitar (7) | Cezary Paciorek – accordion (1, 3) Continue reading
The artist who recorded this album is a pianist who uses tasteful aesthetics created by Hancock and Jarret. Intelectual conception of improvisations, eagerly avoiding tonality, is likeable especially to those acquainted with modern mainstream. Kułakowski is not looking for easy fame. He avoids formal simplifications. He is searching, experimenting. — Piotr Iwicki and Olaf Szefczyk, Gazeta Wyborcza Continue reading
Adam Pierończyk – tenor & soprano sax | Marcin Oleś – acoustic bass | Bartłomiej Brat Oleś – drums. Produced by Bartłomiej Brat Oleś and Marcin Oleś. Executive producer: Marek Winiarski. Recorded March 1-2, 2001 at Studio Radio TAK, Kielce. Engineer: Jacek Hajnrych. Cover photo: Mateusz Gross. Liner photos: M&M Gross. Design:Mariusz Kulan.
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At the 4th Komeda Jazz Festival in 1998 Leszek Kulakowski presented his project and symphonic score called EUROFONIA. This is not his first attempt to combine symphony music with jazz. The compositions “Chopin And Other Songs” are examples of such combinations. EUROFONIA is the pure invention of Leszek. This is a very colourful composition in which a refined symphonic orchestra is the background for a swinging jazz band accompanied by a soprano singer. This is a victory for the universal values of music and most of all a great victory for Leszek Kulakowski. — Anna & Carlos Sanchez Continue reading
It wasn’t long before Wasilewski formed Simple Acoustic Trio, a group that, with the exception of one personnel change early on when Michal Miskiewicz joined, remains unchanged to this day. “We started the group when we were in school,” Wasilewski explains, “and created the name in the playground. People have asked us if the name means anything, but it doesn’t really — we just wanted to have an English name because, for us, jazz was an American music. — John Kelman Continue reading
First solo album of Simple Acoustic Trio. This is a tribute to music of Krzysztof Komeda – an extraordinary talented self-taught composer and pianist whose after his tragic, untimely death, became a legend and a cult hero of Polish jazz. All tracks on this CD were composed by Komeda. Continue reading