Browse by Artist: FIGIEL, PIOTR

Artist:	FIGIEL, PIOTR
Title:	Organy Hammonda
Label:	BUREAU B (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	BB 022LP

LP-only release. Bureau B presents a vinyl-only slice of Polish jazz, Piotr Figiel's Organy Hammonda, originally recorded in 1971, and newly remastered from the original tapes from the Polish record company, Pronit. Word has got around that Poland is home to an excellent jazz scene, and has been for some time. There are still many treasures to be unearthed, and this release is an excellent follow-up to the label's first excursion into Polish jazz, the vinyl re-pressing of Henryk Debich's String Beat in mid-2008. Highly talented pianist, (film) composer and arranger Piotr Figiel is one of Poland's most celebrated musicians. He boasts a vast arsenal of hits, albeit in the smoother terrain of popular music, and was one of the country's most sought-after jazz-pianists, featuring on many albums before he settled into a more mainstream mode. Organy Hammonda was his first solo album and entirely arranged by himself. Other soloists who can be heard on the record include Tomasz Hanko (trumpet), Janusz Muniak (flute, tenor sax) and Janusz Stafanski (drums). You don't need a degree in Polish to work out which instrument dominates Organy Hammonda. Piotr Figiel had just got back from a three-year stint in Scandinavia (whose press dubbed him "the Polish Bacharach") where he discovered the joys of the Hammond organ. When he returned home, he wasted no time in working his new favorite instrument into recordable arrangements. The results were fantastic: without hiding his jazz roots, Piotr Figiel navigates a course through Latin, funk, rock, fusion and easy-listening, all with a chugging breakbeat and heavy Hammond sound. Sporadic scats add extra spice here and there, although the LP is predominantly instrumental. Towards the end of side two, Piotr even ventures into classical territory, or so one might think, yet anyone who remembers the song "Jane B." on the first Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg album will recognize the Anglo-French sex symbol and her lover as a greater source of inspiration than Chopin. In a nutshell, Organy Hammonda represents some of the finest material to emerge from the heyday of Polish jazz, complete with hefty breaks and big Hammond sounds.

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