Julia Sawicka Project - Fields Of Soul (2012)

Julia Sawicka - vocals
Hans Peter Salentin - trumpet
Tomasz Pruchnicki - saxophone
David Doruzka - guitar
Klaudius  Kovac - keyboards
Krzysztof Dys - keyboards
Roman Chraniuk - bass
Marcin Jahr - drums

PRIVATE EDITION


By Adam Baruch

This is the second album by Polish Jazz vocalist Julia Sawicka and her international band, which includes German trumpeter Hans Peter Salentin, Czech guitarists David Doruzka, Slovak keyboardists Klaudius Kovac and Polish players: saxophonist Tomasz Pruchnicki, keyboardist Krzysztof Dys, bassist Roman Chraniuk and drummer Marcin Jahr. A string trio is also used. The album is beautifully packaged in a hardcover digipak, which is exquisitely designed and features some breathtaking aerial photography, obviously a high-class labor of love.

The album is subtitled: "Unconventional versions of popular songs by Sting", which says it all; the ten songs included have been all written (or co-written in one case) by Sting, appear here arranged in a Jazzy manner and are beautifully performed by the ensemble, which comprises of first-class musicians and does not disappoint. So far so good.

However, tackling Sting's material can be a perilous undertaking, for many reasons; Firstly his songs are quite Jazzy in their original versions, as anybody familiar with Sting's songbook and career should be aware of, and therefore Jazzing them up might prove to be superfluous. Secondly Sting's songs are extremely complex, tricky and above all personal, which makes any attempt to perform them by others almost completely impossible. The gravest mistake was leaving the original English lyrics, which presents an insurmountable challenge for a non-native English speaker performing the vocals. Such ambitious project should have taken the additional step of translating the lyrics into Polish, which probably would have made it so much better.

As a result the album certainly presents nothing, which is "unconventional", as stated in its marketing subtitle, being simply one more tribute album of Jazzed up Pop or Rock material, which is certainly nothing new, even on the Polish Jazz scene. Secondly the vocals suffer badly from the English pronunciation, phrasing and articulation, which unfortunately are below par and plainly stand in the way of the vocalist in order to express her best abilities.

All things considered this is still a nice album, mostly due to the great instrumental parts and solos, providing one can somehow isolate the vocals and not be bothered too much by them. Sawicka is probably quite a talented vocalist, but this album is not working in her favor. I'd certainly love to hear more of her work under different circumstances. In the meantime I'll keep listening to Sting au naturel.

Hans Peter Salentin - Blue Window (2012)

Hans Peter Salentin - trumpet

Kuba Stankiewicz - piano
Roman Chraniuk - bass
Marcin Jahr - drums
Julia Sawicka - vocal

Guests:
Cheryl Pyle Flute/ Vocal / Lyrics on Track 6)
Dirk Rumig Bassclarinett ( Track 1/3/5)

Blue Window (2012)

Hans Peter Salentin is a trumpeter from Germany who visited Poland for the first time approx. 20 years ago. He particpated then as a teacher in Pulawy Jazz Workshops where he met with such giants of Polish scene as Jan Ptaszyn Wroblewski or Henryk Majewski. Acquaintances he made there resulted in the tours with such prominent Polish players like Jarosław Śmietana, Piotr Baron, Zbigniew Namyslowski or Jacek Niedziela. He collaborated also with Zbigniew Wegehaupt and Cezary Konrad playing concerts and performing during festivals or workshops.

Few years ago while teaching at Leszno workshop Salentin refreshed again some of connections with his long time friends in Poland, among them pianist Kuba Stankiewicz, and met vocalist Julia Sawicka who was one of the organizers of this workshop. Subsequently Sawicka invited him to play on her debut album "Breathing Space" (2011). This experience was so fruitful that they decided to meet all again this time on Salentin's own project "Blue Window". Apart from Sawicka and Stankiewicz he invited to this session bassist Roman Chraniuk and drummer Marcin Jahr. This line-up was completed by American flutist / vocalists Cheryl Pyle  and German clarinetist Dirk Rumig, musicians with whom Salentin's collaborated on his previous projects. 

The music on this album is gentle, tender and relaxing in mood. It was composed after Fukushima and is dedicated by Salentin (who composed all tunes but one) to his Japanese and Polish friends. The innocent emotionality which pervades this music redeems the predictability of its form. Well-placed in the mainstream of jazz it is reminiscent of some of Chet Baker best works which though not perfect from musical point of view were nonetheless deeply moving because of its straighforwardness and authencity. 

By Maciej Nowotny

http://kochamjazz.blox.pl 

Tracklisting: 1 Blue Window 2 Mongolian Song 3 Greenwall 4 Mr. B Was Here 5 Lake of Unspoken Words 6 Wishes and Dreams 7 Trip Down Memory Lane 8 Over the Years ( Tokyo) 9 All the Things You Are

Julia Sawicka Project - Breathing Space (2011)

Julia Sawicka (vocal, piano)

David Doruzka (guitar)

Grzegorz Grocholski (trumpet)

Roman Chraniuk (doublebass)

Marcin Jahr (drums)

Jazz Forum, 2011

As you probably know I am in love with jazz with inclination towards free and improvised music. Such a attitude is biasing my appraisals of music strongly. So once I got this maxi singiel by Julia Sawicka (attached to a copy of Jazz Forum magazine) and listened to it once, I decided that this is worthless. However I did not write review at once being distracted by other things like making money, dough, bucks etc.

And so happened that surprisingly this music instead of travelling straight to wastepaper basket has become a very frequent guest in my CD player! All thanks to my wife (not great jazz fan) who decided that this is (at last!) kind of jazz she can digest and she simply got enamored in this album. Wow! So the thing that neither Miles Davis, John Coltrane or Tomasz Stańko could achieve, Julia Sawicka accomplished with her low and sultry voice!

But not alone but accompanied by set of excellent musicians among whom a star of Czech guitarist David Doruzka shines with brightest light. Apart from him Grzegorz Grocholski on trumpet, Roman Chraniuk on double bass and Marcin Jahr on drums provide support any girl singing jazz could only dream of. Finally let me ask Julia (on behalf of my wife) that once she records new album, could she be so nice to send her a copy for which she is already impatiently waiting.

Please, check this link to Julia Sawicka site in order to listen to samples of music from this album. But I would recommend you to check this link as well where you can find a bit more predatory version of Julia which suits my tastes a bit more ;-)))

Author of text: Maciej Nowotny
http://www.kochamjazz.blox.pl/