Description

Wojciech Staroniewicz: tenor and soprano saxophones,
Erik Johannessen: trombone,
Dominik Bukowski: vibraphone / marimba
Paweł Urowski: double bass,
Przemysław Jarosz: drums / udu

STRANGE VACATION (cały whole song)

2. LOST SPRING (whole song)

3. FAKE NEWS
4. EPISODE – lines
5. GLOBAL RESET
6. THE DAY OF IDEAS
7. THE EPISODE
8. EPISODE – shapes
9. BRIEF LIVES
10. IT’S A SPELL

All music composed by Wojciech Staroniewicz except Brief Lives by Erik Johannessen

Strange Vacation, Wojciech Staroniewicz’s 12^th original record and his second as the North Park quintet, shows that the band has found its collective voice in bringing the leader’s vision to life.

This new original music was entirely composed in 2020, the start of a time of uncertainty, disbelief, isolation, mixed messages, fear, rebelliousness and despair which eventually turned into hope that things would turn for the better.

The title track “Strange Vacation” was composed 6 days after the first Covid lockdown in Poland was announced and together with other compositions reflects Wojciech’s emotions during that time.

The project was co-financed by the City of Sopot.

Review:
As many of you know, I do not listen to contemporary jazz so often, I focus in avantgarde, free jazz and free improvisation, But, of course, I do come back to listening of the Giants, like Miles Davis, “modal” John Coltrane, or Charlie Mingus. Also, musicians sent me sometimes their albums, and then I feel obliged to listen tio them and even review them.

This was the case of the two albums of the quintet of Wojtek Staroniewicz, “North Park” and Strange Vacation”. The first one is attributed still to Wojtek’s quartet with Erik Johannessen, and was recorded in September 2018. The music is a melange of contemporary ECM sound, Krzysztof Komeda’s tradition, with plenty of John Coltrane’s influence, especially from the earlñu period. Indeed. Wotek’s tenor/soprano combined with Erik’s trombine sound like John Coltrane/Curtis Fuller duos. Everything is stabled together by the wornderful sounds of Dominik Bukowski’s vibraphone. The section of Pawel Urowski on double bass and Przemek Jarosz ion drums does a very good job. On “North Park” they play eigth tracks: my favorites are the wonderful post-bop “Max Power”, and the majestic ballad “Floating”, played on soprano. But, one has to say: the level of all compositions is exquisite!

The following CD “Strange Vacation” was recorded in January 2022 in Gadansk, and is even better. Dominik adds to his instruments marimba, while Przemyslaw — udu. Again, the quality of compositions and themes, as well as solos is amazing. My favorites are the fast post-bop track in therColtrane/Fuller style, “LOst Spring”, nearly 9 minutes long “Fake News” with woinderful marimba lines, and the closing “It’s a Spell” for soprano and trombone, again very much in the “Blue Train” tradition. The highlight of the albums is also a kind of suite “Episode”, fragmented into three parts: “Episopde – Lines”, “The Episode”, and “Episode – Shapes”. Highly recommended!
Maciej Lewenstein

Review: Dionizy Piątkowski ERA JAZZU

“STRANGE VACATION”

Description

A discount for the day?