Contemporary Quartet

Editor's info:
The international project "Penderecki... jazz" (2002) combines contemporary music and jazz. This unique project was created under the honorary patronage of Krzysztof Penderecki. Outstanding musicians like Romanian pianist Mircea Tiberian, German clarinet player Rudi Mahall, bass player and percussionists Marcin and Bartlomiej Oles fused Penderecki's compositions with jazz.
"Penderecki...jazz" project is a continuation of 1971 "Action" release by "New Eternal Rhythm Orchestra" (especially assembled for this project to perform under the direction of Krzystof Penderecki and Don Cherry). The Orchestra were a veritable who's who of the then emerging European Free Jazz scene, Peter Brotzmann, Willem Breuker, Paul Rutherford and Han Bennink, plus Terje Rypdal, Kenny Wheeler and Tomasz Stanko are all in evidence.

These must have been very heady days indeed when 'serious composers' like Stockhausen and Penderecki could find a common ground with jazz players like those above. For whatever reasons the Classical composers were finding that their interests and working methods (structured improvisation, graphic scores, conduction and gesture as composition) were overlapping with like-minded musicians from an altogether different area, that of free jazz. "Actions" often sounds more overtly 'jazz' than that group, there are episodes that showcase the explosive playing of guitarist Terje Rypdal and saxophonist Brotzmann that will make your hair stand on end.

Sadly Cherry has passed on, and Penderecki's promised further pieces for the group didn't materialize until this relese. The combustible influences that shaped "Actions" are still relevant today and find echoes in the work of Butch Morris and myriad others.

This CD also includes interpretations of compositions by other contemporary Polish composers such as Grazyna Bacewicz, Witold Lutoslawski, Stefan Kisielewski and Marzena Komsta.