JACEK KOCHAN — Man Of No Words (review)

JACEK KOCHAN — Man Of No Words album cover Album · 2008 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
snobb
Polish drummer Jacek Kochan began his career in the 70s, in the early 80s he moved to New York where he played with many local RnB, funk and jazz musicians and studied music. In the mid 80s he relocated to Canada, where played as an orchestra musician and recorded with John Abercrombie and others. After a return to Europe in 1995 he continued to collaborate with leading jazz musicians (Dave Liebman, Greg Osby, Palle Mikkelborg, Lars Danielsson, Dave Fiuczynski and others) and released solo albums as well.

'Man Of No Words' is a surprisingly strong album - surprisingly because at the time of release it passed almost unnoticed. Possibly one of the reasons is it was released on domestic Polish label without wide distribution around the world, who knows...

Music on this album is complex multi-layered avant-garde jazz, pre-composed, perfectly played and with lot of space for (controlled) improvs. All the musicians who collaborated are competent, but the main frontmen, besides of Kochan, are sax player Gary Thomas and pianist Dominik Wania. The compositions are rooted in avant-garde jazz golden age sound, but with lots of modern elements: beside drums, Jacek uses lots of electronics and gets partial help from accordion, strings and reeds. Even more - in some moments you can even hear some nu jazz arrangements! But most importantly, all of these elements sound absolutely organic!

This album sounds quite accessible from the surface but requires repeated listening and every new listen shows different nuances of the music presented. Great work of modern avant-garde jazz without avant-garde fetishism.
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