All About Jazz

Komeda Project: Crazy Girl

By MICHAEL P. GLADSTONE
July 1, 2007
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This album is a rather unusual one, dedicated to 1960s Polish film scorer Krzysztof Komeda, who wrote music for films of the young Roman Polanski and Andraej Wajda. Some of the music on Crazy Girl was used for Polanski's, Rosemary's Baby (1968). Polanski used Komeda's music in almost all of his own films dating back to 1957's Two Men and a Wardrobe, and for the next decade, and credits Komeda with having composed the only major European soundtrack hit of that era other than Ennio Moriconne's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966).

Komeda's music for Polanski's A Knife in the Water (1962, a tense and economically made film, used the vibraphone to create tension. Repulsion (1965), with original music by Chico Hamilton, was a rare occasion where Komeda was not part of a Polanski project.

The various themes composed by Komeda are used on Crazy Girl, illustrating his use of fragmented bebop lines to emphasize the jarring storyline of the movies. While trumpeter Russ Johnson has the most prominent role in transferring the lyricism from the screen to the disc, saxophonist Krzysztof Medyna offers a staccato delivery, sounding like a post-Coltrane interpreter. The two do get a few opportunities to play some attractive ballads that are filled out nicely by pianist Andrzej Winnicki.

Track Listing

Crazy Girl; Kattorna; Ballada; Is That Your Final Answer?; Svantetic Prelude; Svantetic; Tail Peace; Stop Time; Sleep Safe and Warm.

Personnel

Russ Johnson: trumpet and flugelhorn; Krzysztof Medyna: tenor and soprano saxophones; Andrzej Winnicki: piano; Michael Bates: bass; David Anthony: drums.