COMPOSERS: Andrzej Trzaskowski,Krzysztof Komeda
LABELS: Jazz on Film
ALBUM TITLE: Jazz in Polish Cinema
PERFORMER: Tomasz Stan´ko, Michal Urbaniak etc
CATALOGUE NO: JOF002
All the film scores collected here were composed by Krzysztof Komeda or Andrzej Trzaskowski. As most of the movies will be familiar only to serious film buffs, the music must be taken on its own merits. Some (such as Komeda’s score for Opening Tomorrow) have little substance without the images, but other soundtracks, including those for Andrzej Wajda’s Innocent Sorcerers and Roman Polanski’s Knife in the Water (both Komeda again) stand well on their own.
Knife features Swedish saxist Bernt Rosengren, and other distinguished imports (eg trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist JF Jenny-Clark and saxist Gato Barbieri) appear on the sessions for Skolimowski’s Le Départ. Mostly, though, this is a parade of Poland’s finest players, including saxist Zbigniew Namysłowski and trumpeter Tomasz Stan´ko (now justly celebrated for impressive recordings for ECM) and Komeda himself. With its informative, well-illustrated booklet, this is a useful chronicle of that fertile period when Polish film-making
and jazz earned worldwide acclaim.
Barry Witherden