The UK’s most original and innovative contemporary jazz band. They are difficult to classify as they move from virtuosic jazz and gritty funk with freedom of movement and movement. Sometimes, they veer into leftfleld territory but return with anthem-like tunes. They were unpredictable and thrilling and earned praise from critics both at home and abroad. Their unique style fusion foreshadowed today’s trend towards mixing styles. After several years of solo projects, they have released 8 albums. They also toured extensively in Europe, Poland, and New York in late 80’s/90’s. In 1991, they were named “Best British Band” at British International Jazz Awards. After catching the attention of, firstly the rock press (NME), they released their first album on Jan and Steve’s label – Dug-Out Records – in 1980 – “Introduce Me to the Doctor”…Recognition in the Indie Charts and a distribution deal with Rough Trade Records led them to further recordings , “The City Can’t Have it Back”, “The Dizzy dance Record” (with famous dub producer Adrian Sherwood) “Speak” and a couple of singles. Tim Bullock was the drummer, with Tim Nolan as bassist and Mick on Percussion as brother. Karl Bingham, the great jazz musician, first appeared on “The City ….” before he left to go on tour with US soul musicians. Jan organized a tour through Krakow’s relatives and friends – despite recent martial law residue in Poland (1982), the jazz scene was still alive and kicking with a mix of reggaet and punk. Polish dub-inspired agit prop. Nick Doyne Ditmas, a member of the band, took over the role. Aniruddha Das, a founder member of Asian Dub Foundation was also present. Their first gig Jazz Nad Odra resulted in the release of the album “Live In Warsaw”, which was released by Poljazz. A regular European tour followed. Jan returned to Poland for a second tour, and established a working relationship and a friendship with Wojtek Konikiewicz (Polish pianist and composer who toured the UK with Jan and PZ) in 1987. They were called Free Funk Jazz / Punk Jazz / Outfunk jazz ,etc…… Jan felt an endorsement for PZ’s style whilst supporting Ornette Coleman and Prime Time and his harmolodic form of jazz, with its scattershot harmonic-rhythm-melody . PINSKI ZOO was now a major force in the jazz fused scene.
