Lukasz Pawlik - Long Distance Connections

Styles: Jazz Fusion
Year: 2019
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 64:09
Size: 147,4 MB
Art: Front

(8:36) 1. Indian Garden
(8:04) 2. A Master Of Urgency
(8:00) 3. Jellyfish
(9:23) 4. Accidential Oddity
(6:34) 5. Planet X
(8:41) 6. Reflection
(8:47) 7. Greg's Walk
(6:00) 8. Suspensions

This is fusion of the highest order, the type of project that is easy to get excited about. The complexities of Polish composer, pianist, cellist and arranger Lukasz Pawlik's compositions soar to new heights on his second album as a leader. Enlisting gold-star talent from both home and abroad, this amounts to about a fifty-fifty configuration of prominent musicians from the United States and Poland. Fusion legends trumpeter Randy Brecker and electric guitarist Mike Stern unite with Polish heavyweights tenor saxophonist Szymom Kamykowski and alto and soprano saxophonist Dawid Glowczewski, along with Pawlik, to create vivid exchanges through unforeseen passages.

Pawlik strived for freshness in sound and communication in his rhythm sections as well. The first two songs were astutely captained by electric bassist Tom Kennedy and drummer Dave Weckl. Kennedy's low end mastery and Weckl's distinctly reactionary and inventive narrative are as erudite as the famed duo's thick pocket. After that, an array of combinations, featuring Polish electric bassist Michal Kapczuk, Polish drummer Cezary Konrad , and American drummer Gary Novak as well as Kennedy and Weckl, bring their own unique skill sets and energy to the mix. The entire ensemble was able to communicate and express themselves clearly and freely, as they are all quite fluent in the same language jazz.

Eight original compositions by Pawlik (the son of Grammy winning jazz pianist Wlodek Pawlik) are the heart and soul of this record. Each song is its own separate masterpiece which ascends into another world, where fusion is explored and examined with new perspectives. It is certainly not uncommon for a composer to write to the strengths of the musicians involved in a project. Here, if it were an Olympic event, Pawlik would take home the gold medal Vintage Stern, with guitar riffs flying and stretching unbridled into a multitude of directions. The seminal Brecker, nurturing and caressing each note the complete illustration of the importance of every note. Beautifully, there are moments for every player to go inside themselves.

Long Distance Connections begins with the never withering momentum inside the "Indian Garden." Layers, big horns, Pawlik adding flute-like sounds from synth and samples, Stern frying up a one-minute egg, a true jazz piano trio section of Pawlik, Kennedy, and Weckl, a fueled bass solo, and Glowczewski's alto bliss all stirred into eight and a half minutes of constant and heavenly motion. The energy continues with the aptly named "A Matter of Urgency." Glowczewski powers through space creating a sumptuous void for Pawlik to frolic. With Pawlik on his acoustic piano, the trio kept the energy level high without ever sounding rushed. Pawlik's playing is of equal wit to his composition. Weckl's powerful and improvisational soloing kept the space open and creatively led Glowczewski to pepper through the closing frame.

Not just any change of direction leads to the "Jellyfish." Immediately we are under the sea. An entirely different universe is engagingly and melodically manipulated by the sophisticated guitar of Stern. It is then bookended by the strength of Kamykowski's soothing lines. Pawlik and Novak submerge and bring a wealth of sound aesthetically from the ocean's floor. "For Odd's Sake" puts a bounce into the fusion step of Brecker and Kamykowski. While Pawlik delicately creates and maintains the groove, he also solos with grace, riding the undertones of Konrad and Kapczuk's infectious and spirited rhythm section gait. It is though the sparkling Brecker and Kamykowski conversation that boldly ignites the piece. Brecker intelligently counters the bounce with a pulse of warmth and integrity.

Pawlik then takes a tandem adventure with Novak to "Planet X." The duo travel to and through a new environment steeped with sharp angles and diverse changes. Pawlik packed his overnight gear, utilizing his acoustic piano, keyboards, synthesizers, samples, and bass programming to navigate Novak's pocket of invention with space age improvisation. The piece flows instinctively into a time for "Reflection." Pawlik and Novak are joined by bassist Kapczuk in this stunningly beautiful and heartfelt ballad. The "Reflection" is felt knowingly by the pure elegance of Pawlik's cello. With symphonic edges Pawlik demonstrates his enormous skillset merging jazz with a touch of classical. Clearly in his element, Pawlik's emotional cellist renderings are showcased honestly, if not reverently.

Pawlik creates a full landscape of movement for all to move freely and with intensity on "Greg's Walk." With the rhythm section now Kennedy and Novak, Brecker stretches out with vigor on his flugelhorn, and is joined in conversation by Glowczewski's simmering alto. Kennedy's pulsating low end combined with Novak's thunderous movement around his kit, brings this Pawlik gem to a peak of sensation. An arrangement of perfection now has Stern enter stage left with fiery lines spawned from his own peerless set up. As he is wont to do, Stern gets a volcano of air under his strings, as the piece explodes into musical euphoria.

The epic outing concludes with a luscious piece, that if it were a piece of candy, would melt in your mouth. Yet another richly honed composition from Pawlik organically opened into a structure gleefully filled by a sonic soprano sax outing from Glowczewski. So empowered with joy, his sax, at times, mimicked the sound of laughter. Kennedy, now with his third rhythm section partner, asserted the foundational glue that lifted the piece into the air, and also allowed Konrad the freedom to add bursts of soulful flavor without straying from his meticulous pocket. Pawlik's own keyboards brought the flourish to "Suspensions."

Compositionally and musically, this is a project of epic proportions. Boasting melodicism within structural complexities, Long Distance Connections is an exceptional work of art. By Jim Worsley https://www.allaboutjazz.com/long-distance-connections-lukasz-pawlik-summit-records

Personnel: Lukasz Pawlik: keyboards; Mike Stern: guitar; Randy Brecker: trumpet; Dave Weckl: drums; Tom Kennedy: bass, electric; Gary Novak: drums.

Additional Instrumentation: Dawid Glowczewski: alto saxophone; Szymon Kamykowski: tenor saxophone; Cezary Konrad: drums; Michal Kapczuk: electric bass; Phil South: percussion;

Long Distance Connections

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Bob Berg - Another Standard

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:14
Size: 128.8 MB
Styles: Saxophone jazz
Year: 1997
Art: Front

[6:07] 1. You And The Night And The Music
[4:36] 2. Summer Wind
[6:35] 3. Michelle
[6:57] 4. Just In Time
[7:29] 5. My Man's Gone Now
[5:34] 6. All The Way
[6:24] 7. No Trouble
[6:29] 8. It Was A Very Good Year
[6:01] 9. I Could Write A Book

"In order for a tune to become a standard," says Karen Bennett in her liner notes, "it has to have enough appeal and substance to keep both musician and listener engaged on many levels for many years." Late Miles alumnus Bob Berg's Another Standard asserts that status for a lineup of familiar but not front-line tunes: "You and the Night and the Music," "Summer Wind," the Beatles' almost unrecognizable "Michelle," "Just in Time," "My Man's Gone Now" from Porgy and Bess, "All the Way," "It Was a Very Good Year," "I Could Write a Book," and his own "No Trouble."

Most of this is a "standard" quartet date, featuring Berg on tenor and soprano, David Kikoski on piano, Ed Howard on bass, and Gary Novak on drums. Randy Brecker chimes in with trumpet and flugelhorn on the Gershwin tune and "I Could Write a Book," and Berg enlists Mike Stern's guitar on his own track.

Berg is a devout and thoroughgoing Coltraneian. He attacks "You and the Night and the Music" as if it's "Giant Steps," adding a few Impulse!-era phrase resolutions involving tinges of keening and honking; on "Summer Wind" he appends little commenting tags to his completed phrases, just like the man who recorded all those dates for Prestige. "Michelle" and "Just in Time" are more individual for the most part, but both eventually arrive in Sheets-of-Soundville before it's through. The liner notes explicitly compare his soprano interplay with Kikoski on "It Was a Very Good Year" to Coltrane and Tyner on "My Favorite Things," but the xerox machine was evidently set to copy light. A good bit of this — try "All the Way"— sounds like the lost seventeenth disc from Trane's mammoth Prestige box set. As far as I know, that box is still in print. "My Man's Gone Now" sounds like the lost movement of A Love Supreme, which is certainly an original take on Porgy and Bess. Brecker sounds here a good bit like Wynton Marsalis playing the Coltrane masterpiece, although the Gershwin strains come through strongly in his impassioned solo. The original, "No Trouble," betrays a more Ornetteish flavor than Berg shows otherwise; it could be an outtake from Coltrane's venture into Ornette Land with Don Cherry on The Avant-Garde.

Bob Berg is clearly a virtuoso instrumentalist. When Miles Davis hired him, he knew what he was doing (maybe all the way down to the Coltrane inflections.) Berg's command is total and flawless. His mates, Kikoski in particular, are fine, although the rhythm section sounds a little dulled, what with thirty years of rock and disco between us and Coltrane's quartet with Elvin Jones. One may hope that in his next outing he leaves aside his homage to Coltrane and lets listeners hear a little more of his own voice. After all, in an improviser's art, that's what it's all about. ~Robert Spencer

Another Standard

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Kikoski Carpenter Novak Sheppard - From The Hip

Bitrate: 320K/s

Time: 69:44

Size: 159.6 MB

Styles: Straight ahead jazz

Year: 2013

Art: Front

[7:44] 1. Star Eyes

[7:26] 2. From Ton To Tom

[9:19] 3. Bolivia

[8:37] 4. My One And Only Love

[7:58] 5. How Deep Is The Ocean

[7:41] 6. If You Could See Me Now

[6:36] 7. Autumn Leaves

[6:16] 8. Tones For Joan's Bones

[8:05] 9. Mr. PC

In 2006, pianist David Kikoski was invited to perform and record in front of a live audience at the private Beverly Hills studio of George Klabin, President of the Rising Jazz Stars Foundation. Kikoski brought in some of his first-call friends for the occasion and, with nary a rehearsal to be had, put on a stunner of a standards-based show; the nine tracks that make up From The Hip were recorded at that gathering.

Kikoski, saxophonist Bob Sheppard, drummer Gary Novak, and bassist Dave Carpenter, who passed away shortly after this recording took place, form a compelling unit that injects new life into these old gems. The eyebrow-raising bass riff that ushers in the album-opening "Star Eyes" makes it clear that this isn't a case of a group of pros simply phoning it in. This quartet invests its creative energy into this music and that investment pays off in artistically satisfying dividends.

The aforementioned "Star Eyes" proves to be a winner right out of the gate, but that's only the beginning. The band follows that up with a visit to Brazil, via Toninho Horta's "From Ton To Tom," and a trip to Cedar Walton's "Bolivia," which takes flight on the wings of Novak's full throttle drumming. Sheppard shines all by his lonesome at the outset of "My One And Only Love" while Kikoski captures the most attention on the pair of tunes that follow; his introduction and solo on "How Deep Is The Ocean" are the clear highlights there, and he's the focal point on a sans-Sheppard trio take of "If You Could See Me Now." That number opens with sparkling pianisms and ends with a piano cadenza of note, but the joyous music that takes place in between is a testament to the communicative force(s) at play between Kikoski, Novak and Carpenter.

From The Hip is terrific, but it isn't perfect. Carpenter's intonation, for example, could be called into question in a few spots, but that's beside the point. Little issues like that do little to diminish the overall experience of hearing music like this performed by musicians who are this well-studied in the art of marrying the structured with the spontaneous.

David Kikoski: piano; Dave Carpenter: bass; Gary Novak: drums; Bob Sheppard: saxophones.

From the Hip

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