Zbigniew Namyslowski:Born in Warsaw 09.09.1939.He studied piano and cello in music schools in Krakow and Warsaw, and he played on these two instruments on his first jazz performance in Sopot International Jazz Festival in 1957. Then he played also trombone in traditional groups. But soon he switched to alto sax witch became his main instrument.
In early 60-s. he formed the group Jazz Rockers which included Michal Urbaniak on tenor sax. In 1962 they both joined The Wreckers quintet for a month-long, coast-to-coast tour in the USA that culminated in their appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival.
Namyslowski subsequently formed his own quartet, scoring a huge success in England, where he recorded an album in 1964 „LOLA", Decca SLK 4644. He went on to perform all over Europe on almost all major jazz festivals, also in Israel 1992 and 2002, India, Australia, New Zealand , the U.S.A. 1962, 1978, 1987, Cuba, Mexico 1989, 1999 and most recently Israel, Sweden Brazil, Kuwait and Austria in 2002.
Namyslowski albums, recorded in Poland, Germany, England, Sweden (with Tony Williams on drums), Italy, Greece, Hungary and the U.S.A., demonstrate his outstanding improvisational talent, his composing skills and his inventiveness, which is rooted in modern jazz but always open to new trends. The most known recording Winobranie and Kuyaviak Goes Funky became hits in Poland and won II and III price as the "Best Polish Records Of All Times", and himself as a 2-nd personality of Polish jazz at all. Perhaps the best proof of his originality is his convincing fusion of jazz, Polish and other folk music: Little Lamb Lost, Piatawka, Siodmawka, Bop-Berek, Mazurka Uborka, Der Schmalz Tango, Gogoszary, and many more.
Basically his saxophone lines are rooted in Coltrane music. He is fine interpreter of jazz standards, yet his records are made up almost exclusively of his own compositions, which-if-he had been born in America - might have become standards.
From the last moment: This year 2003 Zbigniew Namyslowski for the 1-st time produced and recorded the whole CD with Standards and this is also the title of the CD.
Zbigniew Namyslowski in his own words:
"I had the idea of recording standards for many years, but there was always something more important to record, or so it seemed to me. My last album of three CDs, called 3 Nights, contained 23 of my own compositions. After such a stiff dose of me, the time had finally come for standards. It wasn't an esay choice. There are so many beautiful melodies, and I didn't want to go the easiest way to play the most popular songs. So you'll find here songs from various times, some of them not even known as jazz songs (Poinciana, Flamingo). Some numbers are taken from traditional jazz (Royal Garden Blues, After you've Gone), some from swing times (Undecided). There is one song from Duke Ellington, one from Gershwin and one written by myself, based on the harmony schematic from All The Things You Are. While the harmony is from the standard, the melody is entirely mine. All the songs have one common "mark", they are arranged by myself. So some of them might hardly be recognizable.Most important of all, I want to tell you that I had a great deal of pleasure preparing this project, and even more fun we had during rehearsals and while recording. It struck me as marvelous that all these young Polish musicians playing with me on this album had no problem at all with boogie-woogie or dixieland, in spite of the fact that they had never played that type of music before.I hope the feeling of fun and the joy we had playing this music will be shared by you when you listen to these discs."
Personnel:
Grzegorz Grzyb (drums)
Sławomir Jaskułke (piano)
Krzysztof Pacan (bass)
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Jacek Namysłowski (trombone on 01., 06. + 08.)
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Jacek Namysłowski (trombone on 01., 06. + 08.)
Piotr Wojtasik (trumpet on 04.)
Tracklist:
01. After You've Gone (Layton) 6.32
02. I Remember April (de Paul) 8.32
03. Poinciana (Bernier/Simon) 5.18
04. All the Stinks UR (Namyslowski) 7.58
05. I Got It Bad (Ellington) 5.00
06. Royal Garden Blues (Williams) 7.55
07. Flamingo (Grouya) 1.12
08. How Long Has This Been Going On (Gershwin) 6.04
09. Never Will I Marry (Loesser) 7.19
10. Undecided (Shavers) 5.22
11. The Night Has A 1000 Eyes (Brainin/Bernier) 2.19
