30/01/2022
Album „Delta Scuti” w zestawie My Favourite Albums by Adam Baruch. Dziękujemy.
THE POLISH JAZZ RECORDINGS 2021 – MY PERSONAL CHOICES
It’s finally time to mention the Polish Jazz albums that made an impression on me in 2021, but before I do so, again some explanations are in order.
The albums listed below are NOT a poll, top, best of or any other form of horse-racing attempt to put works of Art on a scale. I have always detested that kind of treatment and practices, which are just one of many failures that characterize Jazz (or music in general) media. I admit that I have taken part in similar behavior in the past, but I have finally decided that enough is enough…
The albums listed below are selected ONLY from the physical releases that reached me until January 31, 2022. I don’t write about albums I have not listened to in person, which does happen in the music field. Therefore, I hereby apologize to all the musicians, who are not mentioned below, because their albums did not arrive on my desk. If my time and my writing is not worth the effort of sending me a copy of your album, so be it. Obviously releasing albums in late December is not very useful, in case you expect to be mentioned in a year’s end summary.
The albums listened below are divided into groups by sub-genres / styles / idioms. The reason for this is very simple: comparing albums, which present completely different musical environment, is utterly silly, absurd and unfair, especially if those albums exist within such diverse musical environment like Mainstream, Fusion or Free Jazz. The proverbial “apples and oranges” rule applies here as well, and I could never understand how all those Top listings, which do just this, exist for so many years.
The albums listed below within each group are in alphabetical order by artist, in order to avoid any kind of statement as to which is “better” than others. I have decided not to emphasize the fact that an album is a debut recording, since it really is quite pointless. Some artists manage to produce a brilliant debut and fail to follow it on the same level, others slowly develop their recording legacy improving with time. A debut might be an important personal event, but has little influence on the significance of a specific album.
And finally, the albums listed below reflect ONLY my very personal taste and subjective appreciation of the music. I certainly don’t know anything better than others and in my defense I can only hide behind my decades-long experience and accumulated knowledge, and perhaps the courage to state my opinions openly and unequivocally.
Every album is followed by a link to my web site, where a full review of the album can be found.
BLUES / BLUES ROCK
Why Blues? Oh well, Blues is one of Jazz foundations and some Jazz albums are often soaked with Blues influences.
Blues enjoyed much better days in Poland than it does recently, to be honest. It always was most popular in the southern region of Upper Silesia, where many Polish Blues musicians / groups originated from. To be honest the ultimate Polish Blues album was recorded in 1971 (yes fifty years ago) – BREAKOUT ~ “BLUES” – and nothing recorded since comes even close to it, but a fair amount of good Blues albums was released over the years.
Only one album released in 2021 deserves an honorable mention here, mainly due to its originality, honesty and power of expression.
MAREK MCCARRON MOTYKA ~ “BURNS”
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106749
JAZZ-ROCK FUSION
Jazz-Rock Fusion, or Fusion as it is often incorrectly shortened to, since all cross-genre amalgamations are also Fusions, exploded like Super Nova in the late 1960s, but like all exploding things, it lasted for a brief moment and the genre offered almost nothing new since the mid-1970s, i.e. in the last fifty years. Yes, the genre is active and produces some excellent albums, but even those are very rarely innovative.
Jazz-Rock Fusion ensembles in most cases are led by guitar players or include dominant guitar players, which of course is hardly surprising. I have been often criticized by Polish guitarists that every album, which features a guitar, is always labeled by me as Jazz-Rock Fusion. Well, firstly this is of course not true and secondly Polish guitarists often tend to play one form or another of Jazz-Rock Fusion, so I am not to be blamed for calling it what it is, and if you do not wish to be classified as such, please stop playing Jazz-Rock Fusion! But of course some fine Polish Jazz-Rock Fusion were released in 2021 and here they are:
APOSTOLIS ANTHIMOS ~ 50 – LIVE IN NOSPR
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106878
KRZYSZTOF LENCZOWSKI ~ LOST JOURNEY
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106622
SCRATCHING FORK ~ SCRATCHING FORK
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106593
AVANT-GARDE JAZZ-ROCK FUSION
Some Polish Jazz-Rock Fusion musicians / ensembles take a bold step forward and add an element of surprise, out-of-the-box approach and Avant-Garde seasoning to their music, creating some remarkable results. Here they are:
ALEKSANDRA KUTRZEPA ~ NO ONE KNOWS WHERE…
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106761
PAWEL MANKA SEMIOTIC QUINTET ~ KUBIZM
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106854
SLINA ~ 42’00”
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106663
JAZZ-CLASSICAL FUSION
Jazz-Classical Fusion has always been a very popular field in Polish Jazz, for several reasons. In the past, when Jazz was not always considered legitimate by the State, hiding one’s Jazz vices under a Classical Music disguise was a useful way to fool the censorship. Today, when Jazz musicians are mostly alumni of Music Academies, having a proper education, often also in the Classical field, they try to combine the two. Then there are Classical musicians, who have some Jazz desires, as well as Jazz musicians, who think that they will not be taken seriously unless they play Classical Music alongside their Jazz activities.
I have always regarded this Fusion to be extremely difficult to put together successfully and most of such recordings over time proved to be truly atrocious. Only in very rare cases the musicians have the talent, aesthetics and knowledge to make it work properly, and this did not change much in time, although today’s young generation shows signs of hope in this respect.
After torturing Chopin for generations, Jazz musicians extended their interest to other Polish Classical Composers in recent decades, like Moniuszko or moderns like Penderecki, and others created original music, which incorporates Orchestral arrangements and Classical approach, with various degree of success. Below are some of the Polish Jazz albums released under this genre:
ATOM STRING QUARTET / SZCZECIN PHILHARMONIC WIND QUARTET ~ KARLOWICZ RECOMPOSED
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106705
DOMINIK KISIEL ~ STOP
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106781
KUBA PLUZEK ~ BOOK OF RESONANCE
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106613
AVANT-GARDE JAZZ-CLASSICAL FUSION
The Polish Classical Avant-Garde is of course world famous, but there is little effort in the Jazz idiom co combine or create Avant-Garde Fusion with Classical Music. The most notable example of such effort is the album below:
MACIEJ SADOWSKI ~ I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SAY, SO LISTEN
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106904
JAZZ-WORLD FUSION
Jazz-World Fusion has also always been a very popular field in Polish Jazz, in the past using Folklore music as a cover, but today mainly due to the fact that many Jazz musicians discovered the wonderful richness of Polish Folklore, which is often absolutely fascinating and stylistically very diverse. Here are some of the albums in that genre that I liked in 2021:
BASTARDA & CHOR UNIWERSYTETU SWPS ~ KOLOWROT
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106882
PIOTR DAMASIEWICZ / INTO THE ROOTS ~ WATRA
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106874
ZAWARTKO / PIASECKI ~ WAGABUNDA
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106753
AVANT-GARDE JAZZ-WORLD FUSION
Of course Avant-Garde Jazz is always often reaching to Folklore for inspiration, so here one example if this happening in Polish Jazz:
MINIM ~ MANIFESTO
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106833
MAINSTREAM / MODERN JAZZ
Not surprisingly, and as already explained in the introductory chapters, mainstream and modern Jazz are still the most popular fields explored by Polish Jazz musicians, both the veterans and the youngsters. The majority of Polish Jazz albums released in 2021 belong to these genres, ranging in quality from completely banal to quite excellent, with an emphasis on the former. There are plenty of great musicians on the Polish Jazz scene of course, but only some of them manage to record outstanding music, which of course follows, quality wise, the Gaussian distribution, with the median significantly to the left. Here are some of the Polish mainstream / modern Jazz albums released in 2021 that I loved:
ADAM BALDYCH ~ POETRY
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106837
ARTUR DUTKIEWICZ TRIO ~ COMETS SING
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106709
MAREK KADZIELA ~ JAZZ ENSEMBLE
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106634
KLEMENSIEWICZ - KISIEL ~ CASSUBIA
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106689
MILOSZ OLENIECKI ~ SONGS FOR A
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106894
YAROSH ORGAN TRIO ~ PROGRESSIVE SYNTHESIS
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106797
VOCAL JAZZ / JAZZ & POETRY
Polish vocal Jazz is suffering a terrible crisis lately and almost nothing significant is happening in this field. Jazz & Poetry, which used to be a Polish pride and joy, is sadly mostly silent as well. Here are some albums that saved the day in 2021:
RENATA IRSA ~ CZERWONA SPODNICA
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106897
DOROTA MISKIEWICZ / HENRYK MISKIEWICZ ~ NASZA MILOSC
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106813
EMILIA PAWLOWSKA ~ NIEBO NAD JEZIOREM
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106717
AVANT-GARDE JAZZ
Polish Avant-Garde Jazz had better years than 2021, which was rather disappointing, and the genre seems to be completely lost lately. Being most appropriate for live concerts, the albums are often a pale reflection of what happens on the stage. Nevertheless, some important albums were released, and here are the ones I liked:
BIZARRE PENGUIN ~ ACIDO DOMINGO
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106903
DOMINIK BUKOWSKI / DOMINIK KISIEL ~ DELTA SCUTI
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106773
RGG ~ MYSTERIOUS MONUMENTS ON THE MOON
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106821
FREE JAZZ / IMPROVISED MUSIC
Similar to Jazz-Rock Fusion, Free Jazz and Improvised Music exploded in the late 1960s and burned itself out almost immediately. It is extremely difficult to innovate or even say anything very significant in these genres today, and the recordings prove that beyond any doubt. Of course there are many wonderful musicians, who are active in these fields, and occasionally and album with that kind of music makes sense to me, so here some Polish Free Jazz / Improvised Music albums released in 2021, that I like:
INTUITION ORCHESTRA ~ SUMMA INTUITIVA
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106877
ADAM PIERONCZYK ~ OAXACA CONSTELLATION
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106870
MATEUSZ POSPIESZALSKI ~ KONCERT W FABRYCE
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106921
REISSUES / ARCHIVAL ALBUMS
Keeping the Cultural Heritage alive is extremely important and therefore reissues are a very significant part of Jazz albums released each year. 2021 was a very good year for Polish Jazz reissues, mostly thanks to the fabulous work by the GAD Records label, but also a few others. Here are the most significant reissues / archival releases that I consider most important:
ANDRZEJ PRZYBIELSKI & OLES BROTHERS ~ SHORT FAREWELL
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106609
ZBIGNIEW SEIFERT ~ LIVE RECORDINGS 1973 & 1976
http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106627
So here we are: thirty-two Polish Jazz albums that illustrate the incredible, kaleidoscopic spectrum of what is happening on the Polish Jazz recording scene, as seen from my personal perspective. My congratulations to the artist and record labels behind these albums and I hope those that are not listed are not offended, although I suppose they will be anyway :)
HAVE FUN!
Adam Baruch, January 2022
www.adambaruch.com
