Andrzej Kurylewicz Quintet
10 + 8 (Ten+Eight)
Polish Jazz vol.14

Label: Polskie Nagrania - Muza , 1967/2006
Catalogue No: PNCD 1014 (XL 0439)
Format: CD (24-bit re-mastered from original master tapes)
Condition: GENUINE, BRAND NEW, MINT, FACTORY SEALED

Tracks:

1. Juz ja z toba nie zostane (I Won't Stay With You)
2. Requiem dla Z.C. (Requiem For Z.C.)
3. Ten plus Eight
4. Rondo
5. Twarz widza (Spectator's Face)

Performed by:

Andrzej Kurylewicz - valve trombone, piano, rebela
Wlodzimierz Nahorny - alto sax
Jacek Ostaszewski - bass, tambourine
Janusz Kozlowski - bass
Sergiusz Perkowski - drums
Wanda Warska - vocal

Recorded:

in Warsaw, October 1967

About:

In contrary to other "Founding Fathers of Polish Jazz" such as Andrzej Trzaskowski, Andrzej Kurylewicz (born in 1932), was initially more a man of swing then an avant-garde. He was also a a man of many talents: composer, pianist, trumpet-player, and trombonist. Born in Lwow, 1932, he began his musical education in the Music School (Szkola Muzyczna) in Lwow, and in the Institute of Music (Instytut Muzyczny) in Gliwice. He went on to study in college at the Academy of Music (Wyzsza Szkola Muzyczna) in Kraków - piano under Henryk Sztompka, and composition under Stanislaw Wiechowicz.

In 1954 he was kicked out from the Music Academy for... playing jazz. With political liberalization few years later, he made his debut as the founder of the Polish Radio Jazz Band (Zespol Jazzowy Polskiego Radia) in Kraków and later on worked as a leader of Polish Radio Organ Sextet (Sekstet Organowy Polskiego Radia). Every year, since 1958 until 1971, he presented own programs at the annual Jazz Jamboree festivals with his bands: Jazz Believers, Modernisci, trios, quartets, quintets and with Jazz Orchestra of the Polish Radio (later on known as Studio Jazzowe). He collaborated with variety of artists, including Czeslaw Niemen and Tomasz Stanko. In 1969 he founded the Formation of Contemporary Music (Formacja Muzyki Wspolczesnej - strings, brass and percussion), which he led till 1979. In 1967, in Warsaw's Old Town, with his wife Wanda Warska - a singer and painter - he opened 'Piwnica Artystyczna Kurylewiczow' - a studio for the performance of musical and literary forms, distinct and combined.

He was a passionate artist, who has changed several times the field of his interests and activities, since late 1960s he began drifting from Jazz field more toward contemporary classical music. As a composer, he belonged - as he himself has put it: 'to the post-avant-garde of the late 20th century'. He composed numerous pieces for symphonic orchestra, for chamber orchestra, as well as many song-cycles, psalms for Latin texts, and a wide range of solo works, for piano, harpsichord, organ, flute, tuba, double-bass, and others. As a pianist, Andrzej Kurylewicz valued highly the music of Polish composer Karol Szymanowski, offering particularly outstanding interpretations of all twenty-two of that composer's Mazurkas. In his improvisations on the piano, he has been particularly innovative in combining classical and contemporary music with jazz. In 1959 he collaborated with 'Teatr Rapsodyczny' in Krakow, and wrote his first score for the movie ('Powrót'), starting life long successful collaboration with film and theatre. His biggest hit was a score to made for TV show 'Polskie Drogi', the songs from this movie were recorded and re-interpreted by many artists worldwide, including Pat Metheny.

Kurylewicz, who once admitted that he 'never escaped from Jazz' came back to regular playing with his own jazz trio in 1994. Kurylewicz departed on April 12, 2007.