Record Reviews

ILONA DAMIECKA ~ HOPE SOLITON 1032 (Barcode: 5903684230327) ~ POLAND ~ Jazz Recorded: 2020 Released: 2020 This is the second album as a leader by Polish Jazz pianist / vocalist / composer Ilona DamieckaFind albums by this artist, this time recorded in a trio setting with bassist Pawel UrowskiFind albums by this artist and drummer Krzysztof SzmandaFind albums by this artist. The album presents eight original pieces, all composed by Damiecka. One of the tracks is a song featuring lyrics in English. The music is a mixture of pretty straightforward melody based mainstream Jazz and some more open compositions, which offer irregular time signatures and shifting melody fragments. Somehow I found it rather difficult to make a coherent whole of this music despite the obvious effort and it all sounds to some extent ragged and disconnected to me. Damiecka plays a lot of notes and strong chords, which create quite a bombastic effect of singular sounds with missing dots combining it all into a sensible statement. The presence of the excellent veteran rhythm section helps tremendously to create somewhat more orderly effect of the whole, but not enough to make the music soar. The closing vocal track is not able to save the album, to say the least. Overall, sadly this album does not work for me, which of course means nothing more than my very personal opinion. Other listeners might be able to enjoy this music of course and are welcome to ignore my opinion entirely.

Updated: 27/10/2020Posted: 27/10/2020

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ILONA DAMIECKA / FRANCESCA BERTAZZO HART ~ MONK`S MIDNIGHT HEVHETIA 0128 (Barcode: 8588005257831) ~ POLAND ~ Jazz Recorded: 2015 Released: 2016 This is the third album by Polish pianist / vocalist Ilona DamieckaFind albums by this artist and her second recording with the Italian guitarist / vocalist Francesca Bertazzo HartFind albums by this artist. The international quartet is completed by Polish bassist Pawel UrowskiFind albums by this artist and American drummer Eric AllenFind albums by this artist. The album, as the title suggests, presents ten Thelonious MonkFind albums by this artist compositions, nine of which feature lyrics mostly written by Jon HendricksFind albums by this artist. Monk´s music is for me a temple of Jazz spirituality and incredible intellectual depth and albums like this one, which turn his music into "entertainment for the masses" really make me very angry. They might popularize the great composer´s music, but they also trivialize it, by leaving the thin melodic layer on the surface, rather than trying to explore it in depth. After all there are already so many albums similar to this one, why would anyone attempt to make another one. As if the ad meritum problems of this album were not enough, it also suffers from the usual predicaments involving nonnative English speaking vocalist singing in English, which here are painfully obvious, although not equally shared by the two vocalist Ladies. The instrumental parts are fine, nothing spectacular of course just straightforward Bebop played by European (well almost) musicians, which sounds exactly as expected. There is no iota of innovation, ambition or effort to create something meaningful here. The vocalese parts sadly are a pale shadow of what Jazz vocalist have been doing for many decades already. Oh yes! The CD is gold plated!

Updated: 12/09/2016Posted: 12/09/2016

CD 1 Digipak Gold Recommend To A Friend

ILONA DAMIECKA / TOMASZ LICAK QUINTET ~ PIESNI POLSKIE VOL.1 NOT ON LABEL ~ POLAND ~ Jazz-Classical Fusion Recorded: 2019 Released: 2020 This is the debut album by the Polish Jazz quintet co-led by vocalist / pianist Ilona DamieckaFind albums by this artist and saxophonist Tomasz LicakFind albums by this artist, which also includes saxophonist Michal Jan CiesielskiFind albums by this artist, bassist Pawel GrzesiukFind albums by this artist and drummer Adam GolickiFind albums by this artist. The album presents six songs by Polish Classical composers: Stanislaw MoniuszkoFind albums by this artist, Feliks NowowiejskiFind albums by this artist and Mieczyslaw KarlowiczFind albums by this artist, arranged for the quintet by Licak. The music was recorded live at the Radio Gdansk studio and offers a remarkable sound quality. The music is an interesting Jazz-Classical Fusion, and although personally I am not a great fun of the original music, composed mostly in the 19th Century, these Jazz arrangements manage to transform it into the Jazz idiom rather successfully. The swinging treatment transforms the original melodies, many of which are based on Polish Folklore, into a much more vigorous environment and the resulting modern mainstream zest serves them well. The ballads emphasize the typical Polish melancholy, again deeply rooted into Polish Folk music, and those also work out very well in the up-to-date dressing. The closing song on the album gets a much more adventurous treatment, and perhaps points to a direction of the follow up album? The entire transformation process is done with taste and sophistication, which deserves to be praised. The members of the quintet are all seasoned musicians, which is clearly obvious by the splendid level of the performances herein. The idea of the double saxophone front line is excellent, but sadly although the two saxophonists perform beautifully on their own they do not play together enough, which might have intensified the result. Damiecka plays some wonderful piano soli and her treatment of the original lyrics, which are replaced by her vocalese, is also excellent, albeit somewhat minimalist. The rhythm section swings passionately and carries the tunes forward, as expected from professionals. Overall this is a superb debut effort and a most enjoyable listening experience, which as the title pledges, is just a first glance of the future plans by the quintet. Passionate performances, great soloing and swinging fluidity – what else can one expect form a mainstream modern Jazz album. Wholeheartedly recommended!

Updated: 16/07/2020Posted: 16/07/2020

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KAZANA / TWISTER / ALBAN JUAREZ ~ MAM DWOCH WNUKOW W BIRMINGHAM BIG FLOW 01 (Barcode: 5904730520003) ~ POLAND ~ Electronic & Ambient Recorded: 2014 Released: 2014 This is an album, which documents a cross-genre project by Polish trio, which consists of Avant-Garde Jazz saxophonist Marek KazanaFind albums by this artist, Grzegorz CzerkasowFind albums by this artist (a.k.a. DJ TwisterFind albums by this artist) who spins the turntable and adds additional sound effects and instrumental parts and drummer Jose Manuel Alban JuarezFind albums by this artist. The trio co-composed seven original tracks, two of which feature Rap vocals by Adam Bogumil ZielinskiFind albums by this artist (a.k.a. LonaFind albums by this artist). The music demonstrates the multifaceted Polish music scene, which lacks any inhibitions as far as mixing diverse genres into a new amalgam. This album is not the first album of this sort and quite a few similar projects were released on the local scene in the last three decades, since the Polish Yass revolution completely buried conventions and "proper behavior" limitations. Contrary to the expectation the music on this album is mostly "well behaved" and easily accessible by a wide variety of listeners. Kazana plays quite melodically and shows great restrain in comparison to his Avant-Garde Jazz output, Czerkasow keeps his effects well in check and Alban Juarez drives the music steadily forward with his solid drumming, which is full of textures and polyrhythmic tension. Overall this is an interesting insight into the Polish scene, which might surprise listeners, who are not familiar with its diversity. There is not much innovation here perhaps, but the album reflects a successful cooperation of musicians coming from different backgrounds, which works well.

Updated: 12/04/2019Posted: 24/04/2016

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