Grit Ensemble is a young Polish Jazz band. It features Patryk Pilasiewicz as the bassist, Kacper Grzanka as the trumpeter, Maciej Sokolowski as the saxophonist, and Krzysztof Nys (Jakub Krolikowski’s track on one track), Piotr Rakowski playing vibraphony, Piotr Scholz as guitarist, and Andrzej Konieczny as well. The album’s title implies that the music was entirely composed by Krzysztof Komeda, pianist/composer of Polish Jazz. It also includes compositions that were originally created as film scores. This is Komeda’s most important contribution to Polish Culture beyond the Jazz context. Seven tracks are Komeda’s original compositions, while the other two tracks are ensemble interpretations. The attempt to deal Komeda’s music is a priori dangerous for many reasons. One obvious reason is that it has been done before on hundreds of albums by thousands, Polish and foreign, even the best. It is nearly impossible to be original or say something new about Komeda’s music today. This only works in exceptional cases. The album’s title is pretentious, as in this instance. I was skeptical before even listening to one note of the music. Unfortunately, my reservations were justified at least in part by the music. Although I’m familiar with the term “deconstruction” musically, there isn’t a trace of it in the music on this album. The original melody is presented in most cases without any improvisation. The following free-form passages don’t seem to be related to the themes and are definitely not deconstructions. The music on this album is not only good, but it is also worth listening to. The musicians who are part of this project are excellent performers and do a great job. Dys is a rising star on the local stage and the crew follows his example. Maybe it was just a “bridge too far” to take on Komeda’s music. To handle such high-level tasks, it takes maturity, experience, and perspective. Polish-jazz.blogspot
