Jacek Kochan - Another Blowfish

Jacek Kochan
Another Blowfish

Label: NotTwo, 2002
Catalogue No: MW 745
Format: CD

Tracks:

1. Another Blowfish [03:52]
2. Yellow Car For The First Time [08:15]
3. Kowloon [08:34]
4. Five Dots [10:17]
5. Do You Really Need All This Money? [07:39]
6. For The Reason [06:29]
7. Once Again [06:20]
8. Fugu [06:45]
9. Fridat Night Wizards [02:56]

Line-up:

Jacek Kochan - drums
Eric Vloeimans - trumpet, flugelhorn (right channel)
Michel Donato - bass
Piotr Wojtasik - trumpet (left channel)

About:

JACEK KOCHAN - composer, arranger, producer and percussionist. Graduate of Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow (Master degree). He has studied percussion and vibraphone in Grant Mac Evan College in Edmonton. In early 80-ties he moved to New York. There he has studied among the others with Jaco Pastorius, Mike Clark, Robbie Gonzales. By the mid 80's, Jacek moved to Montreal, where he further expanded his musical lexicon to include writing for choirs and orchestra (ENSEMBLE VOCAL TUDOR, REPERCUSSION) as well as playing and recording ethnic music (Latin, African, Balkan). There he worked with Michel Donato, Karen Young, Andrew Leroux, Yannick Rieu, Oliver Jones, Jean-Pierrre Zanella, Michel Cusson, Helmut Lipsky, Lazaro Saucedo, Geoff Lapp, Johnny Scott and many others, performing at the clubs and jazz festivals.

In 1990, after moving to Toronto, he started to work as a leader and sideman in countless live and recording projects with artists like John Abercrombie, Jerry Bergonzi, Pat Labarbera, Kenny Wheeler, Don Thompson, Mike Murley, Neil Swainson, Reggie Schwager, Lorne Lofsky, Bernie Senensky, John MacLeod, Dave Restivo and Brian Dickinson.
In 1995 he returned to Europe where he continues to compose, play, tour and record music. He is playing with different music formations such as JACEK KOCHAN & CO., AJEE, WAGON 8, BERGONZI, KOCHAN LEMANCZYK TRIO, PAANSORI PROJECT, SHARING SPACES, ALSAMPLES and PAPERSONUS.

He played number of festivals and concerts of improvised music, jazz and contemporary music (i.e. Internationales Musikinstitut (IMD)-Darmstadt, International Festival of Contemporary Music Warsaw Autumn, Music Electronica Nova, International Drum Festival Drumblys, Festival of Jazz Pianists in Kalisz, Avant Art in Wroclaw, Sibiu Jazz Festival, New New Yorkers Festival, Cracow Audio Art, Warsaw Audio Art, Miedzynarodowy Festiwal Perkusyjny - Zrodla i Inspiracje,Montreal Jazz Festival, Toronto Jazz Festival, Ottawa Jazz Festival, Edmonton Jazz Festival, Kaunus Jazz Festival, Krakowski Festiwal Kultury Alternatywnej, Warsaw Summer Jazz Days). He played with artists such as Dave Liebman, Gary Thomas, Greg Osby, Uri Caine, Joey Calderazzo, George Garzone, Palle Mikkelborg, JonBalke, Eddie Henderson, Mark Copland, Uwe Oberg, Nguyen Le, Seamus Blake, Seamus Blake, Dave Tronzo, Eivind Aarset, Dave Fuczynski, Briggan Krauss, Cuong Vu, Franz Hautzinger, François Corneloup, Eric Vloeimans, Bo Stief, Lars Danielsson, Christian Spering, Furio DiCastri, Michel Benita, Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Jakob Dinesen, Adam Simmons, Tellef Ogrim, Mats Eilertsen, Klaus Dickbauer, Axel Dorner, Skerik, Tomasz Stanko, Zbigniew Namyslowski, Leszek Mozdzer, Michael Markus, Joe Fonda and Eddie Schuller.

In 2006, during International Festival of Contemporary Music Warsaw Autumn, Jacek has presented 30 min composition for small wind ensemble, quartertone trumpet, electronics, live electronics, percussion, trash percussion and small choir. Later that year, he performed his new composition for solo percussion, trash percussion and electronics, to be followed by composition for trumpet , drums and live electronics. By the end of 2006, he composed music for spectacle of the movement theater AKT called “Garden of pleasures” and the music score for Italian silent movie “Railways”, later in 2008 music for contemporary dance production “Niewidzialna”. During the third edition of Musica Electronica Nova he presented his new project Papersonus, featured unique instrument: papersonix plus electronics and two pianos . He is also quite active, participating as performer in other projects like contemporary opera, by Cezary Duchnowski, “Marta’s garden”(world premiere, September 2010, Warsaw Autum Festival) and “Monada 5”. He was featured as a soloist, performing with Radio Symphonic Orchestra in Warsaw and with MOM Jazz Philharmonic Orchestra in New York, in “Course J” by Boguslaw SCHAEFFER and “Lipps” by Krzysztof Knittel. The newst project, where he contributes 6 variations of F.Chopin’s preludes is Chopin Around Ensamble (world premiere , April 2010 in Vienna).

Jacek has recorded 17 CDs as a leader: "Visitor" feat. Pat Labarbera, "Corporate highlanders", "Gray angel", "Standard transmission" feat. John Abercrombie, "Tomorrow's dreams", "Alberta" feat. Kenny Wheeler, "Our standards" feat. Joey Calderazzo, "Plastinated black sheep" feat. Adam Pieronczyk, Eddie Schuller, "Monorain" feat. Andre Leroux, Jean Pierre Zanella, "Double life of a chair" feat. Palle Mikkekborg, Dave Tronzo, "Another blowfish" feat. Michel Donato, Piotr Wojtasik, Eric Vloeimans), "New expensive head" feat. Cuong Vu, Eivind Aarset, Skerik), “One eyed horse” feat. Greg Osby, Franz Hautzinger, "Yearning" feat. Uschihashi Kazuhisa, Franz Hautzinger, Francois Corneloup, Adam Simmons, Slawek Jaskulke, “Man of no words” feat. Gary Thomas, “Filing the profile” feat. George Garzone, “Ruth, send an sms” with Franz Hautzinger and Uschihashi Kazuhisa . “Three point shot” feat. Jerry Bergonzi
He recorded many more CD’s as a sideman (Eddie Henderson, Tellef Ogrim, Tomasz Stanko, Eddie Schuller, Zbigniew Namyslowski, Helmut Lipsky, Michel Donato, Karen Young).

Review:

Kochan is a busy guy, leading a variety of groups, writing, arranging and producing albums as well as performing. 2002's Another Blowfish features his quartet with the unusual lineup of two trumpets, bass and drums. It's a gimmick, sure, but a good gimmick. Since the natural question is "why did he choose that instrumentation", it makes you listen more closely to the music. For an hour of loose freebop, the ever-explorative Kochan rides herd on the brassmen, aided and abetted by Canadian bassist Michel Donato. All the tunes on this disc are by Kochan, and they sound specially tailored to the all-brass setup, designed to contrast their sounds. Both trumpeters are powerful soloists. Eric Vloeimans has the excitable and brassier sound in the left channel, with the calmer and unhurried Piotr Wojtasik coming through on the right. The dexterous Wojtasik is a relaxed and thoughtful improviser who seems more comfortable in the midrange of his horn. The equally articulate Vloeimans has a more piercing sound, and he's more into using mutes as part of his bag of tricks. By mixing tempos and rhythmic feels while exploiting the contrasting sounds of Vloeimans and Wojtasik, the set maintains interest throughout. Donato, with a huge and round sound, is like a rock, the solid core of the performances. Kochan is more laid-back then usual, urgent as ever but leaving most of the solo space to the horns. The yaunty "Do You Really Need All This Money" is one of the highlights, as Vloeimans and Wojtasik go at it head to head. Truth is that there's barely a dull moment on this disc. Come for the novelty of the lineup, but stay for the fine music.  (review courtesy of Stuart Kremsky, Cadence)