Graham Reid | | <1 min read
Upright
Two years ago Elsewhere drew attention to this Polish trumpeter and his innovative ensemble.
In part a tribute to the late Tomasz Stanko (an Elsewhere favourite), the album was impressive for the confident diversity of the material and playing which ran from cool blue Miles Davis stylings to the outer reaches of free jazz.
But is was the more restrained and contained material which left the greatest impression.
This new album confirms our assessment (“well worth exploring”) on an album of similar reach but again pulling the listener in with the more measured material and through Dabrowski's pure and unwavering tone.
With touches of electronics, two saxophonists, piano, bass and two percussion players on acoustic and electronic drums, the group has a lot of armoury to explore material like the ambitious layers of Bataty.
Unicorns is a beautiful, almost a solo lament, by Dabrowski; Upright has a mysterious and unsettling quality from the keyboards, electronics and urgent drums; Bonzer has a futuristic film noir quality; Skinny Griffin is a lot of clever jigsaw melodic fun atop a disturbing soundwave of electronics . . .
As before, we recommend Tomasz Dabrowski and his band if you are looking for intense, enjoyable European art music-cum-jazz.
They really deliver.
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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here
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