Record Reviews

BROWN / LEVIN / MAZURKIEWICZ ~ DAY IN THE LIFE OF A CITY MULTIKULTI MPI 029 (Barcode: 5907796319543) ~ USA ~ Jazz Recorded: 2012 Released: 2014 This is the debut album by the US / Polish Improvising Music trio, which consists of saxophonist Rob BrownFind albums by this artist, cellist Daniel LevinFind albums by this artist and Polish bassist Jacek MazurkiewiczFind albums by this artist. The album was recorded live at three different locations during a Polish tour of the trio and presents eight improvised pieces co-credited to all the trio members. Improvised Music is by its very nature a spur of the moment occurrence and when frozen for posterity by the recording process it very rarely sustains its original meaning and only in exceptional cases turns into a meaningful piece of music, which is worthy of repeated hearing. Sadly the music herein is not one of such rare cases and although it might have been interesting when heard during a live performance, it sounds distant and introvert on record. Although all three participating musicians have a fine list of achievements, and the two Americans have recorded together before, the trio fails to impress. Improvised Music is all about cooperation, without which it sounds like a series of individual statements, which do not merge together and have only one thing in common: the fact that they happened at the same place at the same time, which this album unfortunately tends to sound like most of the time. Of course it is entirely possible that I just don´t get this music and am not able to enjoy it, in which case my opinion is completely worthless and selfish. On the other hand perhaps that kind of music making is a completely self-centered activity, which excludes listeners as superfluous? In any case it is up to the listener to decide.

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