The debut album of the Gdańsk-based quartet Maciej Sadowski Kwadrat „Jazz dla zwierząt/Animal Jazz” contains 47 minutes of non-jazz. The original compositions of Maciej Sadowski, which a careless or inattentive ear may consider to be located in free jazz, in fact hide many musical surprises.
The project originally was a double basist’s solo material. At the end of the day it became the team work of four young Tricity jazzmen. It was created in the atmosphere of friendly meetings, explorations and improvisations. You can hear it in almost every piece of the presented album. Maciej Sadowski (double bass), Dawid Lipka (trumpet), Michał Jan Ciesielski (saxophone) and Tomasz Koper (drums), on a daily basis create many interesting projects, such as Quantum Trio, Gdańsk Necropolitan Orchestra, Zgniłość, cooperate with Marcin Świetlicki and Tymon Tymański. In the presented version, the musicians are a little bit tired of playing classically, but at the same time far from giving up music for a set of stirring sounds - they wrap melodic themes with exuberant, youthful arrangements, full of surprising formal procedures and electronic sounds.
Inspiration for this project was built for a long time and came from many sources. The most influencial was the place where we live. The Tri-City, with its urban tissue and proximity to the sea, introduces the ambience made of technique, electronics, raw sounds, but also meditative peace. You can also feel the atmosphere of freedom here, which is not understood as giving up effort. It is a task, requires commitment, continuous work and conscious pursuit in the chosen direction. The lack of a harmonic instrument is also a symbol here. Both phenomena: the combination of the city and nature, and the music presented - lack obvious harmony. There is a sort of fight going on next to eternal consonance. The unchanging force of nature attacks the city, man makes his mark on nature. There is a lack of balance in those activities, numerous victims appear on both sides. But inspite of it all, these areas coexist for centuries and attract many people. Echoes of fascination with this phenomenon can be heard in the pieces presented on the album, where, despite the lack of harmonic instrument, deconstructing classical jazz principles of composition, you can find consistency, melodies, space.
credits
released November 15, 2019
Maciej Sadowski Kwadrat:
Dawid Lipka - trumpet
Michał Jan Ciesielski - saxophone
Maciej Sadowski - double bass
Tomasz Koper - drums
Recorded at Custom 34 Studio, Poland
Recorded by Michał Jan Ciesielski
Mixed by Michał Jan Ciesielski
Mastered by Dave Darlington / Bass Hit Studio, New York
Maciej Sadowski's unique style, in the shape of his original compositions collides fervently with emotional improvisations, drawned from many musical genres. The result of the impact is a unique and stunning sound: you can call it NoN-jAzz
supported by 6 fans who also own “Jazz dla zwierząt (animal jazz)”
As critics say this is determined as a fusion approach of "Canterbury-style" of jazz-rock with contemporary elements. Let's believe them.
Every track has a gift for listeners: an unexpected appearance of well-done culmination, a change of mood or music style, a beautiful harmony, the great guitar solo (in P.Metheny style or rock oriented), the gorgeous sound of sax or electronics, suddenly appeared out of nowhere and disappears into nowhere.
They are nominated for JUNO 2016. I wish them to win)) Olga Kivius