Record Reviews

ED CHERRY / AREK SKOLIK PROJECT+ ~ LIVE AT METRUM JAZZ CLUB BLUES&JAZZ 004 (Barcode: 5902205589197) ~ POLAND ~ Jazz Recorded: 2023 Released: 2024 This is a live album by a Jazz quartet co-led by American guitarist Ed CherryFind albums by this artist and Polish drummer Arek SkolikFind albums by this artist, with Polish trumpeter Pawel PalcowskiFind albums by this artist and bassist Maciej KitajewskiFind albums by this artist. The album presents five tracks, all standards. One of the oldest tricks in the Jazz book is for veteran Jazz players to play with young and gifted upcoming players, which is exactly what happens with Skolik, who has a gift to surround himself by some of the best young Polish Jazz players, which is the case here. Palcowski appears on a dozen or so albums recorded in the last decade, including a couple of ones as a leader. I have been following his career starting with his school days in the Katowice Music Academy, and he certainly is one of the top Polish mainstream / Bebop Jazz trumpeters today. Kitajewski, who is even more in demand, since there are never enough great bassists around, also took part in more than a dozen album recordings, including one as a leader. He is a versatile player stylistically, and his projects go often beyond mainstream Jazz, and he is certainly one of the young Polish Jazz musicians worth following. Cherry (born 1954) and Skolik (born 1970) are both veterans with an impressive record behind them, and they always deliver what their followers want to hear – a swinging mainstream Jazz, which never loses its charm to those who love it. Overall, this is a nice, well played and well behaved mainstream Jazz album, which delivers to Bebop fans all over the world their portion of exactly what the doctor prescribed. And yes, this is every bit as good as anything played beyond the pond!

Updated: 12/04/2024Posted: 12/04/2024

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ED CHERRY SPECIAL TRIO ~ SZOSTA PO POLUDNIU FOR TUNE 0064 (Barcode: 5902768701661) ~ USA ~ Jazz Recorded: 2014 Released: 2015 This is a live recording at Warsaw´s club Szosta Po Poludniu (hence the album´s title) of a trio led by veteran American guitarist Ed CherryFind albums by this artist with a Polish rhythm section: bassist Adam KowalewskiFind albums by this artist and drummer Arek SkolikFind albums by this artist. The trio performs six tunes, five of which are standards and one is a Pop song. The music is a standard mainstream, completely unimaginative, uninspiring and honestly boring to tears. Although Cherry has an impressive musical history, his contributions in the last decades are not very impressive or noteworthy and his playing here unfortunately sounds like a third rate imitation of Wes MontgomeryFind albums by this artist and is sadly embarrassing. The rhythm section, although quite professional, is not able to save this gig from disaster. This kind of music is still played in clubs all over the US, but on the European scene it is utterly out of place in view of the creativity and excellence displayed by musicians in any European country today. One can only wonder why this gig was recorded and released in the first place and speculate about the inferiority complex some Europeans still suffer from, based on the assumption that anything in Jazz done by Afro-Americans is superior to European Jazz, which is simply not true for at least half a Century. The usually excellent Polish For TuneFind albums on this label label, which released dozens of superb albums in the last few years, made a real blunder with this album. Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come.

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