Jerzy Milian Trio
Bazar
Polish Jazz vol. 17

Label: Polskie Nagrania - Muza , 1969/2005
Catalogue No: PNCD 1017 (SXL 0555)
Format: CD (24-bit re-mastered from original master tapes)

Tracks:

1. Memory Of Bach [ K. Komeda, J. Milian]
2. My Favourite Band [J. Milian]
3. Rewelacyjny Luciano (Sensational Luciano) [J. Milian]
4. Szkice ludowe (Folk Sketches) [J. Milian]
5. Tempus Jazz 67 [J. Milian]
6. Bazar w Aszchabadzie (Ashkabad Bazaar) [J. Milian]
7. Serial Rag [J. Milian]
8. Valse Ex Cathedra [J. Milian]

Recorded:

June 1969, at Polskie Nagrania - Studio 12, Warsaw, Poland

Performed by:

Jerzy Milian - vibraphone, marimba
Jacek Bednarek - bass, gidjak
Grzegorz Gierlowski - drums
Ewa Wanat - vocal
Janusz Mych - flute

About this album:

Jerzy Milian's "BAZAAR" will reach music lovers on the 15th anniversary of his jazz activity.

He was born on April 10, 1935 and his life and work are connected with his home city, Poznan. Here in 1955 he founded his first jazz quintet. And here Krzysztof Trzcinski-Komeda proposed that he cooperate with him in a cool sextet and leave the piano. This is how the career began of life best master of the vibraphone after Louis Hjulmand.

The personality and artistic ideas of the leader had a great influence on the shaping of Milian's musical individuality, and his work in ,,Komeda's Sextet" brought him popularity and his first laurels abroad, in Moscow. "Memory of Bach", a joint composition by Milian and Komeda, which opens the record, is a tribute to the great musician and friend who died before his time. Its theme is carried by the trio in a version almost identical to that played at the first Festival in Sopot (1956), but then after a few measures, the listener is involved in a fascinating adventure with contemporaneousness.

Contemporaneousness is a special quality of Milian's whole road of artistic quest and achievements.

While making use of the tradition formed by Hampton and Milt Jackson, he tried to exceed the boundries mapped out by it. He looked at the instrument in a somewhat different way than his predecessors, as a soloist. His quest above all led him to take greater advantage of the colouristic possibilities of the vibraphone; the tone seems to be the element which fascinates him most. In this respect his higher education in the plastic arts is an internal inspiration and a great help but also the sonorous ideas ever present in contemporary music as well as his cooperation with one of the leading representatives of the non-jazz musical avant-garde in Poland, Professor Boguslaw Schaffer, whose compositions he performs, have an influence on this predilection of his.

As a vibraphone virtuoso he uses a wide range of tones and moods, as an improviser he demonstrates great invention and originality. He has performed at all the "Jazz Jamboree" international festivals in Warsaw since 1958, at the festivals in Prague (1965) and Ljubljana (1967), at the "Jazz Panorama" in Ghent (1965), in the jazz clubs of Brno and Brussels as well as in Grenoble, Cologne and Copenhagen, everywhere he was enthusiastically applauded. John Hammond described him as "one of the best vibrophonists who have appeared since the times of Red Norvo".

The fact that he is fascinated by contemporaneousness is also expressed in his work as composer — beginning from the cool work based on Bach's invention and ending in the concerto for three freemen and a symphonic orchestra "In Memoriam Martin Luther King" (1969) which was written for the Poznan Filharmonic. These works, both the strictly jazz compositions as well as those that exceed the jazz convention, form an original and impressive world of sounds in which tradition is mixed with contemporary methods and the musical language of jazz with composing techniques and means of expression that are characteristic of the avant- garde of serious music. They have brought Milian great success both at home and abroad. This success began with "Instrumental Dialogues" which were performed by the Big Band of the Polish Radio at "Jazz Jamboree 64" and were then recorded in Belgium. Since 1965 Milian has cooperated with Gustav Brom*s orchestra (concerts and cutting of the Supraphon records SUA 15733, stereo 55733 and 150204) and with the Brussels radio and television. The following concertos written for various jazz and symphonic instruments are a result of this latter cooperation: "Circulations", "Four Engravings for Big Band and Soloists" recorded with the participation of the composer, "Realities", "Nihil obstat" as well as "Pieces for a Friend" and "Polish Folk Suite". These excellent compositions found distinguished performers in Belgium. In 1967 his "Points, Lines and Figures" were awarded a prize in the composers' competition at the jazz festiwal in Prague. Milian's ballet "Tempus Jazz 67" staged by the Poznan Opera and with Conrad Drzewiecki as the choreographer was an artistic event in this country, it was also performed in Genoa, Trieste and Strassbourg where it was favourably veceived by the international audiences' and critics.

This LP presents the road covered by Milian during the 15 years of his work as well as his fascinations and capabilities, both as a virtuoso player and a composer. The title of the record suits its contents. The listeners will find unusually varied music on it, rare instruments, various forms, tones and rhythms, expression and lyricism — in short a host of aural and aesthetic experiences. The excellent members of Milian's trio, which has existed since 1966» also play on this record — the double bass player Jacek Bednarek and drummer Grzegorz Gierlowski as well as members of the "Novi" group — the vocalist Ewa Wanat and flute-player Janusz Mych.

(original line notes from the album's back cover)