Andrzej Jagodzinski and Marcin Masecki - Tribute to Marek and Wacek

Label: Polonia Records, (1998)
Catalogue No: CD 154
Format: CD

Tracks:

1. Schumann: Cheerful peasant
2. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: 4th Symphony 'Italian'
3. Rossini: Uwertura do opery 'Wilhelm Tell'
4. Berlin: What I'll Do
5. Paganini: 24 Whim
6. Grieg: Concerto a-moll
7. Masecki: Blues
8. Grieg: Suite 'Peer Gynt'
9. Bach: Badineria
10. Bernstein: America
11. Brahms: Lulaby

Line-up:

Andrzej Jagodzinski - piano
Marcin Masecki - piano

Recorded:

at Studio S-2, S-3 and S-4 of Polish Radio, Warsaw, April 1998

About Andrzej Jagodzinski:

One of the best pianists in Poland, composer and arranger was born in 1953. He received his degrees from the Frederick Chopin Conservatory where he studied French Horn while already engaged by the Polish Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra. In 1979 Jagodzinski participated in the Old Jazz Meeting Zlota Tarka and received first prize for "pianist of the year".

He has played with some of the best jazz groups in Poland including The Old Timers, Swing Session, String Connection, The Zbigniew Namyslowski Quartet, The Janusz Muniak Quartet, The Big Warsaw Band, Quintessence, The Tomasz Szukalski Quartet, The Jan Ptaszyn Wroblewski Quartet and Jarek Smietana's Polish All Star.
Jagodzinski has toured in most European countries, Australia, and the United States, India, Kuwait, Cuba and the former Soviet Union and has been representing Polish jazz for the past 16 years at: Jazz Yatra-Bombay, Ost-West Nurnberg, Jazz in Europe-Paris, Skane Festivalen in Malmo, Edinburgh Art Festival, Ankara Music Festival, Leverkusener Jazz Tage, Istanbul International Festival and in all the major Polish jazz festivals. Since 1981 Jagodzinski has been performing with "Poland's first lady in jazz", Ewa Bem.

The Andrzej Jagodzinski Trio's first album, Chopin, was named Best Record of 1994 by Jazz Forum Magazine and won the Fryderyk Award (Polish Grammy) as best jazz record of the year. With Adam Cegielski on bass and Czeslaw Bartkowski on drums, the Jagodzinski Trio have continued to explore jazz interpretations of Chopin, their CD output including Chopin - Live at the National Philharmonic (1997), Once More Chopin, and Metamorphoses (both 1999). The Trio was a key influence in launching the "Chopin stream" in Polish jazz. In 2006, besides concerts in Poland, the Trio performed in the U.S., Argentina, Iceland, Sweden, and Japan.

What the critics say:

One of Poland's leading jazz pianists interprets the music of the country's greatest composer. [...] One of the best examples of classical jazz since Art Tatum tackled Massenet. (Music and Media, England)

Most attempts to jazz up [classical music] are doomed to failure but Jagodzinski manages to avoid the "switched-on Bach" approach, listening out for those aspects of Chopin's celebrated pianism which are most jazz-like [...] Very beautiful and unaffected music. (Richard Cook & Brian Morton, the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 1996)