Record Reviews

MILOSZ SKWIRUT ~ ROAD MOVIES NOT ON LABEL ~ POLAND ~ Jazz-World Fusion Recorded: 2019 Released: 2019 This is the debut EP album (under half an hour of music) by young Polish Jazz bassist / composer Milosz SkwirutFind albums by this artist, recorded with several other young Polish Jazz musicians like pianist Katarzyna PietrzkoFind albums by this artist, keyboardist Dominik BienczyckiFind albums by this artist, guitarist Marcin HilarowiczFind albums by this artist, drummer Maksymilian OlszewskiFind albums by this artist, percussionist Lukasz KurzydloFind albums by this artist, vocalist Susanna Jara-MaleckaFind albums by this artist and veteran vocalist Jorgos SkoliasFind albums by this artist, who appears on one track. The album presents five original compositions, all by Skwirut. The cinematic term "road movie" refers to the genre which tells a story of a person leaving home and venturing on a journey of discovery, which often changes the hero´s perspective of life and shapes his character. The strong World Music influences, which are reflected in Skwirut´s music, are the analogy to a virtual journey into different cultures, with the compositions serving as mini-soundtracks of that imaginary journey´s chapters. The music is based on strong melodic motifs, which are then ornamented by World Music rhythms and an atmosphere of mysticism and exoticism, crated by the vocalese and synthesizer parts and Skwirut´s use of arco. All the participants do a truly splendid job, which suits the intended atmosphere of the music ideally. As expected the vocals by Skolias are one of the highlights of this offering. The album is obviously just a glimpse at Skwirut´s abilities as a composer and a player, rather than a full-fledged musical offering, for which we have still to wait. But this glimpse is certainly fascinating and intriguing enough to create an anticipation of things to come. Considering the fact that Jazz-World Fusion is not a very popular and strongly present idiom on the contemporary Polish Jazz scene, especially that exploring World cultures beyond the Slavic sources, this music is a breath of fresh air. In short, this is a very nice introduction to the musical world of Milosz Skwirut, which offers great compositions and excellent playing by his cohorts, rising high hopes for his future ventures!

Updated: 03/07/2019Posted: 03/07/2019

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TEMPERO ~ 6 PM NOT ON LABEL ~ POLAND ~ Jazz-World Fusion Recorded: 2012 Released: 2012 This is the debut album by young Polish Klezmer Jazz quartet TemperoFind albums by this artist, which hails from Krakow, as do many other similar ensembles, and comprises of violinist Dominik BienczyckiFind albums by this artist, accordionist Konrad LigasFind albums by this artist, bassist Krzysztof AugustynFind albums by this artist and percussionist Lukasz KurzydloFind albums by this artist. The album presents ten traditional tunes, not all of which are of Jewish origin, arranged for the acoustic quartet. Since Tempero do not have a clarinetist as a lead instrumentalist, they are not a typical Klezmer ensemble to start with. The arrangements they utilize are also not really associated with Jewish music per se, and therefore although the repertoire might point towards Jewish musical sources, the result has almost nothing to do with true Jewish music. The overall sound and attitude are simply to refined, accurate and temperate for a Klezmer band. Having said that the members of Tempero are all excellent musicians, especially Bienczycki, whose performances are nothing short of virtuosity, but all three of his cohorts play excellently as well. The arrangements are all nontrivial and at times even quite interesting and the music is performed with zest, passion and elegance, resulting in a highly entertaining musical voyage. Jazz enthusiasts will find plenty of improvisation, again mostly by the violinist, who is simply divine. It would be most interesting to hear him in a bona fide Jazz setting. Overall this is quite nice album, which Jazz-World Music Fusion enthusiasts should find most entertaining. Definitely worth investigation!

CD 1 Digipak Recommend To A Friend

MICHAL WIERBA / DOPPELGANGER PROJECT ~ ORANGE SKY CELESTIS 005 ~ POLAND ~ Jazz Recorded: 2013 Released: 2014 This is the debut album by young Polish Jazz pianist / composer Michal WierbaFind albums by this artist, known to local fans as the co-leader of a quintet with trumpeter Piotr SchmidtFind albums by this artist. This is a much more intimate project, basically a piano trio plus percussion and a female vocalist on three tracks. The participating musicians apart from Wierba are: bassist Jakub DworakFind albums by this artist, drummer Arek SkolikFind albums by this artist, percussionist Lukasz KurzydloFind albums by this artist and vocalist Patrycja ZarychtaFind albums by this artist. The album consists of ten tracks, five of which are Wierba originals, three are standards and one each is by Kurzydlo and Zarychta. Although Wierba is an excellent player by all standards, this album does him a terrible disservice. The music sounds like something played during a yuppie birthday party, always simplistic and pleasant, conformist and sugary sweet. Even the divine Jimmy RowlesFind albums by this artist´ composition "The Peacocks", played on solo piano like a Frederic ChopinFind albums by this artist nocturne, sounds completely ridiculous. The vocalist sings in English (again!) and I don´t need to repeat what I think about that. Even the album´s liner notes credit the wrong tracks to their composers, at least in the case of the a.m. Rowles composition and the tracks timings are wrong like on the last track. In short anything that could go wrong here simply did go wrong. This record should have never been recorded, nor released. I´m not adding another word…

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