Leszek Kułakowski – composer, arranger, piano | Leszek Żądło – soprano & tenor sax | Robert Majewski – trumpet | Andrzej Cudzich – bass | Marcin Jahr – drums | Olga Szwajger – voice | The Słupsk Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Bohdan Jarmolowicz
Eurofonia – for voice, jazz quintet and symphony orchestra
Recorded on 8-10 November 1998 in Słupsk during the 4th Komeda Jazz Festival. Recording engineer: Piotr Madziar – MaDes Poznan. Mastering: Michal Czerw – Polski Radio PiK. Producer: Leszek Kulakowski. Photographs: Waldemar Michorzewski (front cover), Jan Bebel. Cover design: Andrzej Wojnowski. Executive producer: Marek Winiarski
Tracklist: 1. Prolog – Andante [07:59] 2. Prolog – Finale [05:55] 3. Wokaliza – Lento [08:52] 4. Mazurka – Presto [26:07]
Słupsk is an ambitious and beautiful city in Poland, it can be proud of its annual festivals of high artistic ranking. The first is the well known Polish Piano Festival which has been running since 1967. The second festival, previously known as the Jazz Rondo Festival, and from 1998 known as the Komeda Jazz Festival has become well known as an international event.
Leszek Kulakowski was born and educated in Słupsk and he has dedicated his career to this city. He is a music professor at the Pedagogical School of Słupsk as well as the artistic director of the Komeda Jazz Festival.
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
MP3 version (68.26MB zip download)