Michal Gondko - Polonica - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Michal Dmochowski - Polish Cello & Piano Sonatas [COMPACT DISCS] date 01/30/2007

Can lively rural violin melodies be played on a 'fat' contrabass clarinet? Sure, they can. You only have to be Michal Górczynski, who has performed on four continents playing Warsaw-Autumnal avant-garde (Kwartludium), experimental improvisations, but also Polish early music (Bastarda) and Jewish (Ircha), Gambian (duo with Buba Kuyateh) or Indonesian themes (the Bidadari project). He has been interested in Polish folk music for a long time. After all, as a composer he has written, among others, Rondo a la krakowiak for screaming pianist and bass clarinet (sic!). He also experimented with 'triple' rhythms in the Slavic-African Polonka. But it was only last year that he dared to take on the challenge of playing authentic folk melodies - with great success - as part of the Radical Polish Songbook project. Over time, free improvisations turned into well-thought-out multi-layered forms, and the magic of the recording studio allowed Michal to turn the bass clarinet into a folk band and even a wind orchestra.

Multi-instrumentalist Michal Urbaniak (violin, saxophone, lyricon). was born in Warsaw in1943 but grew up in Lodz, of which he is an ambassador and honorary citizen. In 1962 he traveled to the United States for the first time, performing at various jazz festivals with Andrzej Trzaskowski's quintet The Wreckers in Washington DC, Newport, New Orleans and New York. He received rave reviews, including in the New York Times. From 1969, he led the Michal Urbaniak Group, which consisted primarily of Polish jazz artists, namely Adam Makovicz (electric piano), Pawel Jarcebski (bass), Czeslaw Bartkowski (drums) and his wife Urszula Dudziak (vocals). The present Radio Bremen concert was recorded with this line-up as well. - After that, he and his wife moved back to the United States, where he performed in numerous clubs and concert halls (f.e. Carnegie Hall, Beacon Theatre) with jazz stars such as Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Billy Cobham. In 1985, he participated in a recording session with Miles Davis for the album InchTutu!Inch. He was a co-founder of the so-called UrbJazz fusion jazz in New York. As the first creator of fusion music, he introduced rock, rap and hip-hop into jazz by forming the band Urbanator in 1989 and the UrbSymphony Project in 1995. In the 2000s, he wrote music for 25 American movies, among others, and also appeared as an actor. - To date, the exceptional Polish artist has released over 60 albums. - Two original albums from Michal Urbaniak's early days and a unique live recording from Radio Bremen, where he presented the tracks from the two albums InchParatyphus BInch and InchInactinInch before they were released on vinyl a couple of months later.