HERA is barely a musical newborn. Its life is measured in months only, and it has already risen in revolt on stage like a teenager. Reminiscent of a rebel it defies fossilized jazz music patterns and leaves no trace of them through very efficient formal deconstruction. Fascinating orchestration ideas, impressive musical craftsmanship, the power of youth and a fresh approach to musical matter-all this makes them one of the most characteristic and most talented young jazz bands in Poland.
Zimpel / Posteremczak / Wojcinski/ Szpura
Hera
Label: Multikulti Project, 2010
Catalogue No: MPI 012
Format: CD
Tracks:
1. Monreale 12:03
2. Cefalu 9:07
3. Napoli-Palermo 11:19
4. Segesta 5:44
5. Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child 13:26
Line-up:
Waclaw Zimpiel - clarinet, bass clarinet
Pawel Posteremczak - soprano and tenor saxophones
Ksawery Wójcinski - double bass
Pawel Szpura - drums
Recorded:
live at Alchemia, Krakow, Poland on April 1, 2009.
Liner notes:
HERA was initiated by a clarinet player Waclaw Zimpel, known for his collaboration with leading modern jazz improvisers: Ken Vandermark, Joe McPhee, Michael Zerang, Steve Swell, Bobby Few, Perry Robinson or Mikolaj Trzaska, to name but a few. HERA is conceived as a subjective comment on reality proposed by the clarinet player and composer Waclaw ZImpel and other musicians invited to take part in his project: sax player Pawel Postaremczak, double bass player Ksawery Wójcinski and percussionist Pawel Szpura. Waclaw Zimpel, one o f the most remarkable Polish jazz musicians, has consistently remained faithful to improvised music, and his successive projects have been received with growing interest both in Poland and abroad.
"Emotional polyphony' is a rudimentary principle that shapes the form of all pieces performed by HERA. It presupposes independent and egalitarian rendition of emotions in often clashing instrumental structures. In his compositions Zimpel derives inspiration from traditional sacral and folk music of different cultures and gives them contemporary context.
HERA is barely a musical newborn. Its life is measured in months only, and it has already risen in revolt on stage like a teenager. Reminiscent of a rebel it defies fossilized jazz music patterns and leaves no trace of them through very efficient formal deconstruction. Fascinating orchestration ideas, impressive musical craftsmanship, the power of youth and a fresh approach to musical matter-all this makes them one of the most characteristic and most talented young jazz bands in Poland. Doubtlessly, number one on Polish modern jazz scene!
by Wawrzyniec Makinia
Review:
Whether with "The Light", with "Afekty", or earlier this year with "The Passion", Polish clarinetist Waclaw Zimpel has been refining his musical vision, one that is built around composed /mprovised and structured music, full of drama and story-telling, yet always looking at new ways to increase the expressivity of the sound and the interplay, as means to go deeper and deeper into the heart of music.
On "Hera", we find Zimpel back in the company of Pawel Posteremczak on soprano and tenor saxophones, Ksawery Wójciñski on double bass, and Pawel Szpura on drums.
On "The Passion", the life of Jesus was the inspiration for the music, now the band goes somewhat earlier in mythology with the Greek goddess Hera, sister and wife of Zeus, goddess of marriage and birth, virgin and mother, jealous and cruelly vindictive, she was worshipped in the whole of the ancient mediterranean, including Sicily, where her cult flourished. The tracks on the album refer to the cities in Sicily where temples or famous mosaics depict her : "Monreale", "Palermo", "Cefalu", "Segesta".
The last track is the traditional "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child" - the title is of course not a coincidence in relation to Hera the goddess, nor as a reference and tribute to Joe McPhee, yet the piece fits also musically as the great finale.
The music shifts between postboppish lyricism and expansiveness - even without a piano, Jarrett comes to mind once in a while - on the one hand, an the freedom and expressive power of free jazz on the other. The clarinet and sax wail, howl, scream, sing, jubilate, weep, cry, lament, full of anguish and anger and horror and misery : this band delves into emotional delivery without restraint, while keeping an incredibly controlled notion on how the music as a whole evolves in the ears and heart of the listener. And I mention the horns, but obviously the bass - arco and plucked - and the drums - thundering or subtle as Paul Motian - participate actively in moving the music from dark gloomy moments to pure exaltation and back to utter despair. The sonic explorations led by the arco bass on "Segesta" are a good example.
Like the other albums, "Hera" unrolls like a suite, with the five tracks perfectly integrated for a long and majestic journey which will leave very few listeners indifferent or unmoved. And while touching you for its sensitivity, you will also be swept away by the mythical grandeur of the totality.
freejazz-stef.blogspot.com; 2010-12, * * * * * ALBUMS OF THE MONTH 12/2010
Waclaw Zimpel - clarinetist, composer
He has graduated with mention I.J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan - Poland in Prof. Zdzislaw Nowak's classical clarinet class. Zimpel studied also at Hochschule Für Musik und Theater in Hannover with Prof. Johannes Peitz. His musical ideas are focused on different forms of improvisation and classical music. He has collaborated extensively with major contemporary improvisers and composers, including Ken Vandermark, Bobby Few, Joe McPhee, Steve Cohn, Christian Ramond, Mikolaj Trzaska, Tim Daisy, Steve Swell, Dave Rempis, Klaus Kugel, Marcin Masecki, Raphael Roginski. His and Tim Daisy's project "Four Walls" was announced "CD of the year 2008" by polish internet jazz magazine "Diapazon".
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