Amazingly another Jerzy Gorka Artkiestra (masterpiece): Struktury from 2008

 

Do dreams really come true?  In this case, yes. 

My friend magically found another work from him that is almost as compelling as the earlier Drugie, posted back here as a holiday treat (amazingly, that link has still persisted after so many weeks, like a henna tattoo, despite the best efforts the AI deleter/ 'destroyer of worlds').

The first track is a 'side-long' piece of music filled with spoken passages, and it would be great to remove those to focus on the music, but no matter, it's amazing to hear something so well-composed in today's much debased / degraded / senescent Taylor Swift and The Weeknd (of whatever) world, as if we were back at the Garden of Eden selecting vegetables to pluck and cook a divine meal with. It would be nice as well to have some background regarding what this work is all about, and probably someone can enlighten us in comments below.

Tylko Spokoj, indubitably sounds like something off a late seventies progressive fusion LP:

A track translated as Thoughtlessness on Five: 

 

Gotta love that dissonant and meandering riff, full of energy and intriguing originality, played in quasi unison with bass, a drum, and synths!

As foretold more information from our dear knowledgeable contributor:

Jerzy Górka Artkiestra is a project from Poland founded by the former drummer of Golem, Jerzy Górka.

The original ten-piece formation (in 1998) returned with only 6 former members after the dissolution of Golem in 2004.

One year later, the album „Struktury“ (= Structures) was released.

"Struktury" is an album inspired by the book "Kalkwerk" by the famous Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard. The first track: "Świnie vel Kalkwerk“ (= Pigs aka Kalkwerk), which lasts 23 minutes, uses recitations from this novel.

Unfortunately, I cannot translate the content of the quoted passage.

Thomas Bernhard is generally considered to be a provocateur and a nest-soiler.

His literature is like a rollercoaster of emotions.

He dissected the Austrian soul without moralizing. He elevated the tirade of hatred to an art form, Bernhard could rant passionately, he saw idiots, liars and Nazis everywhere. It was upsetting, it hit the mark, it caused scandals and international attention.

It can be assumed that the text used in Struktury is "typical Bernhard".

Some more Masabumi Kikuchi: Hairpin Circus (posted before), With Gil Evans, End for the Beginning, But not for me, One Way Traveller

Nice Magritte reference in the above album cover.

Of course as few would recall, I posted the brilliant OST album Hairpin Circus, from 1972, back here long ago.  I really loved that one and the thought that the composer put into the more emotionally resonant fusion, the variety of sounds which of course is typical of good soundtracks (but not the typical recent Hollywood orchestral ones, yikes).

The remainder was not so impressive unfortunately, a little bit more ordinary, earlier, in the modal jazz tradition, later, in the funky fusion with boring improvs tradition. I think surely Susto is the highlight of the later Kikuchi.

Madjap Express from the One Way Traveller album:

Masabumi Kikuchi in Susto, 1981 with flac

A beautiful cover painting indeed...

In discogs here, this is from 1981 and later in his career but he was quite prolific. The style is advanced fusion with some funky elements and quite similar to the preceding post of Kohsuke Mine.

Consider Snow Line:

Kohsuke Mine in Out of Chaos (1974), Solid (1975), Sunshower (1976)

 

From discogs:

Japanese jazz and jazz-fusion saxophonist. Born on February 6, 1944 in Tokyo. Released his debut leader album in 1970 on japan jazz label Three Blind Mice (also TBM first release).

He left the clarinet program at his high school to turn pro in 1962 with the Blue Seven. In 1969 he earned accolades as a member of Masabumi Kikuchi 's quintet; a year later he released his first record, Morning Tide. He studied in the US for a time in the seventies, and returned to Japan in 1975 with an interest in fusion, recording Sunshower and other records as a founding member of Native Son. He worked with many jazz musicians, including Masabumi Kikuchi, Mal Waldron, Gil Evans, and Sadao Watanabe. He has more recently recorded with a standard quintet and with Masahiko TogashI's J.J. Spirits

Alias and bands: Kosuke Mine Quartet, Mine Kosuke Quintet, Kohske Mine, Native Son, Four Sounds

Recordings: Mine (1970); First (1970 with masabumi kikuchi,larry ridley,lenny mcbrowne ), Second Album (TBM 1972), Daguri (1973), Yellow Carcass in the Blue feat. Kimiko Kasai (TBM 8), Out of Chaos (1974), Solid (1975), Sunshower (East Wind 1976), Major to Minor (1993), Duo (Verve 1994), In a Maze (Verve1995), Balancez (1997), Rendez Vous (2004), Killing Floor (2004), Plays Standards (2008), With Your Soul (2011) + LPs from band Native Son (1978 onwards) and Four Sounds (90')

In his discography he appears in multiple forms or groups making it hard to discern what albums were released in the magical fusion period of roughly mid seventies, nonetheless these 3 that I found are quite impressive. As one might expect from the paucity of tracks on each album (typically 3-4) there is a lot of that improvisation typical of true boredom oops sorry I meant to say, true jazz. 

There is quite a bit of fusionary exploration but also some laid back meditative stuff with those long melodic sax lines that recall old movies like Taxi Driver.

I was a little worried about the track called Sunshower which so often is a cloying ballad type of representation but his shows some really dissonant funky riffs and intense energy with the synths shimmering a la Herbie Hancock adding that lovely summer sound (which we are so missing at this time in the Northern section of this spheroidal planet):

Note from this particular release page that the track was written by Kohsuke.

Heavy Metal Sextet, 1984

 

From discogs:

Polish jazz fusion group formed in 1982 by Mariusz Bogdanowicz. The band suspended its activities in late 1984 but reformed in 2011.

On the dial from jazz to fusion, acoustic to electric, these guys are dallying a little too much on the former side than I'd like, esp. on side 1, despite the name, which turns out to be entirely misleading really. Was it a joke or ignorance?

Here's the terminal track, and in my not so humble opinion the best one, Chwytna Pieta, by Bodganowicz