Results for "Poland"

Article: Album Review

Mateusz Palka/Szymon Mika Quartet: Popyt

by Ian Patterson
January 27, 2016

The title of the debut album from the Polish quartet co-led by Mateusz Palka and Szymon Mika translates as “demand," reflecting the group's belief that greater melodic expression is what the modern jazz fan pines for. It follows that the six originals--and a cover of Sonny Rollins' “Airegin"--are above all tuneful, with the extended soloing, that ...

Article: Album Review

Pawel Kaczmarczyk Audiofeeling Trio: Something Personal

Read "Something Personal" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
January 3, 2016

For fans of Pawel Kaczmarczyk it's been a lengthy wait for a follow-up to Complexity in Simplicity (ACT Music, 2009), his sole recording for Siggi Loch's label. Six years seems like too long a gap for such a prodigiously talented performer and composer but this extended stewing period sees the Krakow pianist return in absolutely splendid ...

Article: Album Review

Adam Pieronczyk & Miroslav Vitous: Wings

Read "Wings" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
December 27, 2015

Based in Krakow, Poland, saxophonist Adam Pieronczyk crafted, in 2010, perhaps the finest recorded tribute to his countryman, Krzysztof Komeda, with Komeda: The Innocent Sorcerer (Jazzwerkstatt). Komeda was a seminal Polish jazz man who shifted his focus to soundtrack work, most famously with film maker Roman Polanski, and most notably on the 1968 psycho-horror movie, Rosemary's ...

Article: Live Review

Jazztopad 2015: World Premieres

by Ian Patterson
December 17, 2015

Jazztopad 2015: World Premieres National Forum Of Music Wroclaw, Poland November 27-29, 2015 November in Wroclaw means jazz. Ten days no less. Jazztopad, however, is more than just another jazz festival. A core component of the programme since Piotr Turkiewicz took up the reins as Artistic Director in 2008 ...

Article: Live Review

Jazztopad 2015

by Henning Bolte
December 17, 2015

National Music Forum Jazztopad 2015 Wroclaw, Poland November 21-25, 2015 The city of Wroclaw by the Odra River in the southwest of Poland has occupied a pre-eminent position throughout its long, turbulent history, and it still does. Wroclaw's Jazztopad festival is a relatively young one. This year celebrated had ...

Article: Album Review

Irek Wojtczak & The Fonda-Stevens Group: Folk Five

Read "Folk Five" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
November 16, 2015

Il connubio con la tradizione folklorica è stata una delle costanti del jazz in Polonia. Dal loro enorme patrimonio di canti e danze popolari hanno tratto ispirazione -direttamente o indirettamente-importanti jazzmen di quel Paese: si va dall'opera pionieristica di Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski e di Zygmunt Wichary a quella di Zbigniew Namyslowski, Michal Urbaniak, Andrzej Trzaskowski e ...

Article: Album Review

Mats Gustafsson & Nu Ensemble: Hidros 6: Knockin'

Read "Hidros 6: Knockin'" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
November 8, 2015

An avant-garde jazz composition based on the songs of '50s rocker Little Richard. Really? Yep, that's the premise behind Swedish reedman Mats Gustafsson's large scale work recorded at the Krakow Jazz Autumn in 2013. Although best known for his small group output with The Thing and Fire!, Gustafsson has regularly assembled bigger groupings during his career, ...

Article: Interview

Maciej Lewenstein: Quantum Mechanics of Polish Jazz

by Cezary L. Lerski
October 11, 2015

Maciej Lewenstein was born in 1955 in Warsaw. He is a theoretical physicist and currently an ICREA professor at Institut de Ciències Fotòniques (ICFO) in Castelldefels near Barcelona, Spain. He has written more than 500 scientific papers and is the recipient of many international and national prizes. Next to theoretical physics his other passion is music ...

Article: Live Review

International Jarek Smietana Jazz Guitar Competition 2015

by Ian Patterson
July 13, 2015

International Jarek Smietana Jazz Guitar Competition Krakow, Poland July 1-4, 2015 Szymon Mika, a twenty-four year old Polish guitarist, won first prize in the inaugural International Jarek Smietana Jazz Guitar Competition, held in Krakow from 1- 4 July. An international jury comprising John Abercrombie, Karol Ferfecki, Mike Stern, Wojciech Karolak, Ed ...

News: Recording

Stanislaw Soyka & The Roger Berg Big Band Release "Swing Revisited"

April 16, 2015

American swing played with bravado by leading Polish jazzman Stanislaw Soyka and the Roger Berg Big Band. In their rendition, recorded at sessions in Malmö and Warsaw, the artists refreshed jazz standards by Duke Ellington and Ray Charles among others. Swing Revisited is an album by Stanislaw Soyka, a noted Polish jazz singer, and the Roger ...