Record Reviews

CHOJNACKI / MIGULA ~ CONTEMPLATIONS SOLITON 675 (Barcode: 5901571096759) ~ POLAND ~ Jazz Recorded: 2019 Released: 2020 This is the debut album by young Polish Jazz quartet co-led by trumpeter Jan ChojnackiFind albums by this artist and pianist Filip MigulaFind albums by this artist, which also includes bassist Bartlomiej ChojnackiFind albums by this artist and drummer Dawid OpalinskiFind albums by this artist. Saxophonists Jan KantnerFind albums by this artist and Adam BlawickiFind albums by this artist guest on two tracks and percussionist Bartlomiej PajakFind albums by this artist guests on one track. The album presents eight original compositions, one by Chojnacki and the rest by Migula. The music is melodic mainstream Jazz with some World Music influences on part of the tracks. All the compositions are well structured and offer solid melodies and coherent harmonic development and the arrangements, albeit a bit predictable, do justice to the music. The quartet sounds best when performing the beautiful ballads, which are about half of the material, offering typical Polish Jazz melancholy and lyricism, but the up tempo numbers are somewhat less spectacular. The performances are also perfectly executed, as everything done by the well schooled and trained young Polish Jazz generation. Jan Chojnacki offers a wonderful and perfectly clear tone, usually associated with Classical players. Migula plays with confidence and obvious skill. Bartlomiej Chojnacki adds solid bottom and is always precise and well rounded. Opalinski is creative and delicate, adding exactly what the music needs at all times. Overall this is a very impressive debut, which offers good music and elegant playing, altogether showing a promising potential. The album is a bit too conventional for my taste, but that´s just my personal taste. Mainstream Jazz fans should have great fun with this outing and hopefully future recording will be a tad more adventurous. Well done!

Updated: 23/05/2020Posted: 23/05/2020

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ROBERT SWISTELNICKI ~ PIOSENKI MULTIKULTI MPO 005 (Barcode: 5903068680137) ~ POLAND ~ Jazz & Poetry Recorded: 2020 Released: 2022 This is the debut album by young Polish Jazz guitarist / composer / lyricist Robert SwistelnickiFind albums by this artist, recorded with his sextet, which also includes trumpeter Pawel PalcowskiFind albums by this artist, saxophonist Adam BlawickiFind albums by this artist, keyboardist Kajetan BorowskiFind albums by this artist, bassist Maciej KitajewskiFind albums by this artist and drummer Piotr BudniakFind albums by this artist. Vocalists Klara CloudFind albums by this artist (a.k.a. Sylwia Klara ZasempaFind albums by this artist) and Lukasz LipskiFind albums by this artist guest on one track. The album presents nine original compositions and texts, all by Swistelnicki, recorded at the legendary Monochrom Studio and engineered by Ignacy GruszeckiFind albums by this artist, with the usual splendid sound quality. The album falls into the Jazz & Poetry idiom, although Swistelnicki recites his texts / poems / songs (the album’s title) on top of the music, rather than singing them, coming back to the early days of the Jazz & Poetry movement of the Beat Generation in America in the 1950s, when Allen GinsbergFind albums by this artist and others recited their revolutionary poetry accompanied by Jazz bands. A decade later the idiom appeared also in Europe, in London, Paris and other European cities, spilling over the Iron Curtain like molten lava and soon popped up in Poland and Czechoslovakia, despite the political regime’s censorship. Therefore, this album definitely has its nostalgic / retro aspects, although there are some important stylistic differences, both literary and musical. The texts are highly personal and reflect the alienation of contemporary human condition, as often reflected in contemporary Rap music, rather than social / political / ideological rebellion, which was the essence of the Beatniks. The music is also much more tamed and mainstream oriented, mixing elements of Jazz with Rock and even Pop, rather than Bebop or early Free Jazz. But notwithstanding nostalgia, etc. this is quite a remarkable album in many respects, with offers some excellent musical ideas and (retro) innovative approach to the Jazz & Poetry idiom, which surely proves open-mindedness and courage. The musicianship is of course beyond reproach, which is hardly surprising, and the listeners are offered a diverse collection of compositions and non-trivial texts, which elegantly kick the butt. Overall, this is an impressive debut album, which hopefully will be followed by future achievements by Swistelnicki and his colleagues. Kudos to the MultikultiFind albums on this label label, which bravely keeps releasing unusual / pioneering projects against all (mostly economic) odds. Well done everybody!

Updated: 20/12/2022Posted: 20/12/2022

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