The fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of communism and the rise of Solidarity
ushered in a wave of social and political changes. At the beginning of the
1990s this social upheaval sparked a new musical movement called the "Yass
Scene"
A group of people from Gdańsk and Bydgoszcz, who, as befits twentysomething-
year-olds, broke the rules. Breaking boundaries and establishing a
new musical vocabulary.
They listened to punk rock, The Beatles, Mozart, but also
Coltrane, Davis, Eric
Dolphy, Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa, the late Krzysztof Komeda , and
Bogusław Schaeffer . They've heard about John Cage and the Art Ensemble of
Chicago.
They wanted to create their own art and their own music that would contain
the expression and truthfulness of the artists they learned from, but would be
their own, the energy of punk combined with the sensibility of jazz, unique.
One of the bands that emerged at that time was Miłość, which in 1994
recorded a live album with Lester Bowie. Another album, which they have
recorded (the last Lester's album) was “Talkin' About Life & Death”.
At the same time, the band Mazzoll & Arthythmic Perfection was already
active, playing almost every day in the newly established club Mózg, operating
in Bydgoszcz to this day.
The band consisted of: clarinet player Jerzy Mazzoll, trumpeter Janusz Zdunek,
double bass player Sławek Janicki, percussionist Jacek Majewski and drummer
Tomasz Gwinciński. In 1994, the band recorded the album "Out Out to Lunch".
This album was sent to the members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago: Lester
Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman with a proposal of cooperation.
The answer came by fax, “ let's record an album together”.
However, it was not easy logistically, some 10 years later the project was
withering on the vine, ”spread over the bones” as the Polish saying goes.
One day Slawek Janicki met Roscoe Mitchell in Poznań, Roscoe greeted him
with the words , “ when are we recording this album?”
Some more time had to pass for the plans to be implemented. Arhythmic
Perfection lost one musician; the AEOC team lost a few.
In 2015, the founders of both bands: Roscoe Mitchell and Jerzy Mazzoll, bassist
of Arhythmic Perfection Sławek Janicki and his son Qba, who from birth
listened to music created by the entire milieu of artists performing at the Mózg
club, met on stage twice.
The concerts took place as part of the 11th Mózg festival in Warsaw and
Bydgoszcz and the latter is documented on the album FOUR SURE.
Includes unlimited streaming of FOUR SURE - ROSCOE MITCHELL/JERZY MAZZOLL/SŁAWEK JANICKI/QBA JANICKI
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
... more