Larry Coryell & Michal Urbaniak – A Quiet Day In Spring (1985)

Although originally associated with fusion and then acoustic explorations, Larry Coryell has often shown that he can play practically any style. This little-known set finds him jamming with violinist Michal Urbaniak and bassist Jesper Lundgaard in a trio.

Although the music is generally straight-ahead, all seven of the selections were composed by either Coryell or Urbaniak, and the music is never all that predictable. Worth exploring.(Scott Yanow)

This is Larry in full acoustic flow in 1983 with Jesper Lundgaard on bass and Michael Urbaniak on Violin. Lots of fine 12 string playing here ,which sounds like nothing else in his repertoire, both behind the violin and in the soloing. Urbaniak is clearly influenced by violonist, Stuff Smith, who gets a name check on Stuff’s Stuff.

It’s a difficult style of violin playing to jump into but take your time and it all hangs together to create a fabulous album. (A. Garside)

Personnel:
Larry Coryell (guitar)
Jesper Lundgaard (bass)
Michal Urbaniak (violin)

Tracklist:
01. Rue Gregoire Du Tour (Coryell) 7.34
02. Waltz No. 6 (Coryell) 4.55
03. Polish Reggae (Urbaniak) 6.34
04. A Quiet Day In Spring (Coryell) 6.43
05. Waltz No. 12 (Coryell) 9.28
06. Stuff’s Stuff (Urbaniak) 5.36
07. Miss Julie (Coryell) 10.19

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Michal Urbaniak – Constellation In Concert (Polish Jazz Vol.36) (1973)

This is the second album on the legendary Polish Jazz series by the Polish saxophonist / violinist / composer / bandleader Michal Urbaniak. A veteran Polish Jazz musician, Urbaniak was a member of the legendary ensembles led by Krzysztof Komeda, where he played the saxophone, but by the early 1970 he switched to the violin and plunged into Jazz-Rock Fusion, rapidly becoming one of the most inventive and creative pioneers of the genre. This album and the albums recorded in Germany and later in the USA are absolute Fusion milestones, but also stand out as completely unique in their approach to the genre. Urbaniak combined the marvelous abilities of his wife Urszula Dudziak and her extraordinary and experimental vocalese technique with his common usage of Polish Folklore motifs, creating a superb and completely unparalleled Fusion music. This live recording captures his baseless / double keyboard ensemble, which also includes organist Wojciech Karolak, pianist Adam Makowicz and drummer Czeslaw Bartkowski.

The music, all composed by Urbaniak, is simply out of this world, brilliant and fresh, absolutely resistant to the tides of time and fashion. In retrospect one can only regret that Fusion followed mostly the direction of flashy virtuosic display of neck-breaking guitar races rather than the direction proposed by Urbaniak’s Fusion, but it’s unfortunately too late now. At least we can savor this music, 40 years after it was recorded, well aged and beautifully eternal. A must! (by Adam Baruch)

Personnel:
Czesław Bartkowski (drums)
Urszula Dudziak (vocals, percussion)
Wojciech Karolak (organ)
Adam Makowicz (piano, bass)
Michał Urbaniak (violin)

Tracklist:
01. Bengal 17.40
02. Spokój 3.32
03. Lato 7.59
04. Seresta 9.40
05. Theme 3.05

Music composed by Michał Urbaniak

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Various Artists (Andrzej Trzaskowski) – Jazz Workshop Ost-West Bochum (1965)

This is a very rare and fantastic example of European Jazz in the 60´s of the last century. What a line-up: Michal Urbaniak, Ronnie Ross, Rolf Kühn and the legendary polish jazz musician Andrzej Trzaskowski as the leader of this All – Star – emsemble.
Andrzej Trzaskowski (23 March 1933—16 September 1998) was a Polish jazz composer and musicologist. Between 1959 and 1990, he composed the music and/or conducted the score for some thirty films.

A native of Kraków, Trzaskowski learned to play the piano as a child and, in 1951, at the age of eighteen, helped to form Melomani, one of the first Polish swing and bop groups. Between 1952 and 1957 he studied musicology at the city’s Jagiellonian University, took private lessons in composition and contemporary music theory and was active at the experimental studio of Polish radio.[citation needed]

In 1958 he played and recorded with the Jazz Believers, a quintet which included Wojciech Karolak and Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski, and worked with another quintet, led by Jerzy Matuszkiewicz. The following year he formed his own hard bop group, the Wreckers, with which he toured the United States in 1962. As the leader of small groups, he performed and recorded with American musicians visiting Poland, such as Stan Getz in 1960 and Ted Curson in 1965-66. Many leading Polish musicians, including Zbigniew Namysłowski, Tomasz Stanko and Michał Urbaniak, played with his groups early in their careers.

Starting in 1964, Trzaskowski began to incorporate avant-garde techniques in his work. In the late 1960s he worked regularly in West Germany for the Hamburg-based public radio and television broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk, writing more than 20 compositions and participating in workshops. From 1975 onward, he led an orchestra for Polish radio and television.

Although an acclaimed pianist, he decided, from the early 1970s, to concentrate more on composition. One of his early third-stream works, Nihil novi, was performed by Don Ellis at the 1962 International Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw. He subsequently wrote music for two jazz ballets and for numerous theater pieces and films, including Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s Pociąg (The Train a/k/a Night Train) (1959), Mieczysław Waśkowski’s Jeszcze słychać śpiew i rżenie koni… (Singing Still Heard, and the Neighing of Horses…) (1971), Andrzej Kotkowski’s 1978 made-for-TV movie Gra o wszystko (A Gamble for Everything), Wojciech Marczewski’s Dreszcze (Shivers) (1981), Janusz Kidawa’s Bardzo spokojna wieś (A Very Peaceful Village) (1983) and Krzysztof Magowski’s controversial 1990 TV miniseries Świnka (Piggy), which was not broadcast until 1994. He was also one of many musical celebrities making a cameo appearance in Andrzej Wajda’s 1960 film Niewinni Czarodzieje (Innocent Sorcerers). (by wikipedia)

Listen and enjoy ! What a great concert ! (thanks to onxidlib for this fantastic album !)

Recorded live at the Ruhrlandhalle, Bochum, Germany, January 30 1965

Personnel:
Rune Carlsson (drums)
Roman Dylag (bass)
Jaromir Hnilicka (trumpet)
Richard Kubernat (trumpet)
Rolf Kühn (clarinet)
Ronnie Ross (saxophone)
Idrees Sulieman (trumpet)
Andrez Trzaskowski (piano)
Michal Urbaniak (saxophone, flute)
Leo Wright (saxophone, flute)

Tracklist:
01. Five Degrees EAST – Five Degrees WEST (Kühn) 5.30
02. Bluebeard (Trzaskowski) 5.42
03. Subbasement Blues (Ross) 6.41
04. Majo Taj (Urbaniak) 6.19
05. Beneath The Surface (Hnilicka) 6.54
06. Midnight In Berlin (Wright) 5.12
07. The Hip Blues (Kühn) 8.26

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