MICHAL URBANIAK — Michal Urbaniak's Fusion Feat. Urszula Dudziak : Heritage (review)

MICHAL URBANIAK — Michal Urbaniak's Fusion Feat. Urszula Dudziak : Heritage album cover

Album · 1978 · Fusion

4/5 · 2024-12-13
FunkFreak75

Recorded in Stuttgart at Tonstudio Zuckerfabrik in July and August of 1977 while the band was touring Europe, Michał and Ulla have an absolutely killer band with them.

1. "Heritage" (7:02) a slow introduction takes a minute to come together. When it does it is in the form of a traditional folk reel with a Celtic-sounding melody. But then things shift at the two-minute mark, with Michał using his plaintive violin to bridge us into a motif that uses two chords played with percussion on Tony Bunn's bass, which then sets up a long passage for some of Ulla's wordless vocalese: these some of the more slowed-down and wordlike riffs I've ever heard from her. The music slows in the fifth minute, giving Michał plenty of space to play his solo while slowly building his melodies and riffs. (13.375/15)

2. "Prayer" (3:20) feels like a Chopin étude with some vocal and percussive frivolity and tempo-shifting fun. The violin is Ponty-like, but the sound play is more Zappa like. I really like it--though it probably should have been a minute or half-minute shorter! (8.875/10)

3. "Vio-lines" (2:33) Michał playing his electric violin solo in a big echo chamber. He does a really outstanding job of "playing with" (or "off of") his echoed doppleganger. It's really nice to hear Michał with some passion back in his violin playing. (4.375/5)

4. "Stick it in" (7:58) a more up-tempo song, like the old days, with some funk and jazz and some of Michał's most dynamic violin playing in a long time. A sound palette and musical style very similar to that which Jean-Luc Ponty is developing at the same time (minus the presence of Ulla). A second high-speed motif with Ulla's fast-scatting matching Michał's violin is used three times or four times as a kind of chorus (or extended bridge). Kenny's Fender Rhodes solo in the seventh minute is a little more his own and less a Chick Corea imitation. (13.5/15)

5. "Cucu's Nest" (8:17) a very pleasant and melodic smooth jazz-funk tune in which Kenny Kirkland's Chick Corea-like Moog sounds a lot like Ulla's scat vocalizations. (17.75/20)

6. "Gaby's Mood" (3:21) this one opens up sounding just like one of Ulla's solo voce pieces that we've heard before: almost exactly like "Funk Rings" from her own 1975 solo album, Urszula--but then, about halfway through, she shifts into some more ethereal ambient vocal tactics. Nice. And smart. (8.875/10)

7. "Storks" (8:30) opening with emotive bass and drums supporting Kenny, Michał, and Ulla's gentle melody line turns into a violin solo with some pretty awesome bass and Fender Rhodes support--which shifts into double time around 1:20 and then a frenetic funk passage at 1:35 which persists in the form of a two-chord vamp shuffle for Ulla's exquisite vocal scat solo. Man! are Tony Bunn and Lurenda Featherstone in synch! And Tony's fretless bass play is makin' me wanna get up and dance! After another brief frenzy bridge Michał takes a turn up front--this time over the most recent up-tempo Latin motif. Ulla joins in during the sixth minute, playing off of Michał, but then Tony steps up and starts to play off of Ulla's funk staccato scats! So cool. Next up is Kenny Kirkland with a wonderful prolonged solo on the Rhodes. This is as powerful a Jazz-Rock Fusion as anything Chick Corea did in the 1970s. (18.5/20)

I have to say that this album shows Michał Urbaniak at his most showy, dynamic, and skillful in a long time. While there is a little Smooth Jazz being expressed here, it's far more filled with sophisticated, dynamic, top-tiered Second Wave Jazz-Rock Fusion than the smooth stuff--sounding like Jean-Luc Ponty circa 1979 and 1980 with far more sophistication and complexity in both the construction and performances of the songs (especially the long songs).

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of super high quality Jazz-Rock Fusion. I guess Michał's not quite ready to submit to the pressure of conforming to the Smooth Jazz rage; he's still very committed to making high-quality power J-R Fusion!