Record Reviews

HORNTET ~ DIRECT MESSAGE FOR TUNE 0172 (Barcode: 5906395808892) ~ POLAND ~ Jazz Recorded: 2025 Released: 2025 This is the 2nd studio album (3rd overall) by Polish Jazz quintet HorntetFind albums by this artist, led by pianist / composer Bartlomiej LesniakFind albums by this artist, with saxophonists Robert WypasekFind albums by this artist and Szymon ZiolkowskiFind albums by this artist, bassist Mikolaj SikoraFind albums by this artist and drummer Piotr PrzewozniakFind albums by this artist. The album presents seven tracks, six of which are original compositions by the quintet members: three by Lesniak, two by Wypasek and one by Sikora, and finally one is a standard by Thelonious MonkFind albums by this artist (a bonus track). The music was recorded at the Polish Radio studio S3, offering an excellently balanced sound quality. The quintet obviously established its stylistic path, well within modern Mainstream Jazz, which sounds quite unusual on the Polish Jazz scene, leaving behind the Eastern European sentiments towards melody and lyricism and as a result sounding very much like most American Jazz bands, emphasizing energy, strength and aggression. The resulting music is fast, angry, and very loud, so loud in fact that I had to turn my amp’s volume knob a few notches counterclockwise while listening to the music. The music allows plenty of opportunity for each member of the band to express their individual abilities, and the piano is not as dominating as it was on the previous album, the sound dominance shifting this time towards the rhythm section. The tracks are long and often feature rapid tempo changes and extensive improvisations and complex arrangements, which result in most of the tracks being around ten minutes and beyond in duration. I enjoyed most the leader’s piano parts this time, which show an obvious affinity to Monk’s style, both as a pianist and a composer, and which might explain the fact that a Monk’s piece is added (again) as the only composition originating outside the band. But the entire ambience of the music strongly resembles the revolutionary period in American Jazz in the early 1960s, of which Monk was of course a key figure, when Jazz musicians discovered it’s ok to play around with time and chord changes, which would eventually lead to the development of Free Jazz and Improvised Music. I am not sure that this is the future path of Horntet, but they surely show some symptoms of that trend. Overall, this is a much stronger album than its predecessor, showing interesting development and new directions, hopefully to be continued. They simply need more time to get their stuff together, calm down and refine their intensions. It is definitely a step in the right direction, which in time might lead to even greater aesthetic and artistic success, which of course would be most welcome.

Updated: 11/11/2025Posted: 11/11/2025

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