Wojtek Groborz – piano | Tomasz Kupiec – bass | Łukasz Żyta – drums (1, 2, 4, 6-11) | Wiesław Jamioł – drums (3, 5, 12)
Recorded at Polish Radio Krakow April 19 & 21, 1999. Recording and mastering engineer: Aleksander Wilk. Producer: Wojtek Groborz. Assistant producer: Anton Debski. Executive producer: Leszek Cicirko. Cover art: Andrzej Wojnowski. Cover photo: Leszek Cicirko. Liner notes: Henryk Cholinski
Tracklist: 1. Yet Another Bebop Day (Groborz) [04:48] 2. Tour De Force (Gillespie) [05:29] 3. Manteca (Pozo, Gillespie, Fuller) [06:39] 4. Anthropology (Gillespie, Parker) [04:59] 5. Tin Tin Deo (Pozo, Gillespie, Fuller) [08:23] 6. Decoy’s Line (Groborz) [04:32] 7. Salt Peanuts (Clarke, Gillespie) [03:29] 8. 52nd Street Theme (Monk) [06:04] 9. Old Folks (Hill, Robinson) [07:14] 10. Perdido (Tizol) [04:36] 11. Bebop (Gillespie) [04:16] 12. Contigo En La Distancia (Cesar Portillo de la Luz) [06:36]
Bebop is still very much alive
as you will find after listening to this CD. But you will find the opposite view written by many jazz historians who write, that bebop has never been understood in full and has been forgotten since the late 1940s. Parker and Gillespie’s music is still very much alive and inspiring many jazz musicians. I would like to state clearly that so called “modern jazz” began with bebop and that bebop is not the beginning of jazz.
Wojtek Groborz’s jazz career started with bebop, he was born into a musical family and from an early age has lived with music. Wojtek first discovered Parker and Gillespie’s music when he was 14 years old and that decided him to become a jazz musician playing bebop.
Has he realized his plans? When I first met Wojtek during a music workshop in Chodziez in the early 80s he had already graduated from the Krakow Music Academy (trombone class). He was introducing other workshop participants to Monk and Powell’s musical world, he also encouraged his partners to study completely unknown piano masters like Al Haig, Joe Albany, Clyde Hart and Dodo Marmarosa. Many years have passed since that time, Wojtek plays in various settings – small or large, but as a serious pianist he feels best playing in trio form as on this CD.
Wojtek is surrounded here by professionals, bass player Tomasz Kupiec (graduate from the Katowice Music Academy), drummer tukasz Zyta (same academy) and Wiestaw Jamiot (Krakow Music Academy). I do not know how Wojtek led them to play in the bebop manner, but I think there is something very special in this music.
One could not choose better tunes for this CD, most of them are classic bebop evergreens, beginning with the oldest “Be-bop” through “Salt Peanuts”, “Anthropology” and “52nd Street Theme” to “Manteca”, “Tin Tin Deo” and “Tour De Force” they form a musical biography of Dizzy Gillespie, and bebop as well. This CD begins with Wojtek’s stylistic composition “Yet Another Bebop Day” (great Kupiec solo!) and ends with “Contigo En La Distancia”. And as the great Jelly Roll Morton said: “good jazz should have Latin American inspirations. And now let us enjoy the music. — Henryk Cholinski (translated by Carlos Sanchez)
CD version (incl. shipment cost world-wide)
MP3 version (92.96MB zip download)