PIOTR FIGIEL-Organy Hammonda
("Piotr").
Vinyl NEW SEALED LP
Jazz, Latin, Rock, Fusion, Groove, Easy Listening ¿ never without a heavy Hammond sound and big fat break beats.
This masterpiece of Polish JazzRockFunk from 1971 was Piotr Figiels first solo album.
On vinyl only! PIOTR FIGIEL ¿ ORGANY HAMMONDA (¿PIOTR¿) Vinyl only! Label: Bureau B ¿ Cat-No. BB22 ¿ EAN 4047179262118 ¿ Release date: Feb 20th 2009
Killer Hammond from Polish player Piotr Figiel – a player with a really wonderful sort of groove! The album's got a vibe that's halfway between the Hammond antics of Alan Hawkshaw and the freer lines of American jazzmen like Jimmy Smith or Charles Earland – augmented by other cool production touches at points, which gives the record a very groovy late 60s sort of Euro feel! The vocal group Bemibek sing these cool wordless vocals on the tune "Bit Of Spring Bit Of Summer" – and guitarist Dariusz Kozakiewicz adds a nice degree of fuzz to a few other tunes too – tripping out nicely with Piotr's very fluid lines on the Hammond! There's a bit of strings on a few numbers, bringing in a nice cinematic feel – and titles include "Prelude In E Minor", based on the same Chopin changes as Serge Gainsbourg's "Jane B" – plus "Never On Tuesday", "Breakfast At Midnight", "Away I'll Go", "Absence", and "Piece Of Space".
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, which suits us fine as a reissues label and can only be good news for connaisseurs of distinguished music. Our first excursion into Polish jazz saw us return with a fresh vinyl pressing of Henryk Debich¿s String Beat (BB 11) in mid-2008. Now for our second trick: Piotr Figiel¿s Organy Hammonda (also filed under Piotr), recorded in 1971, a vinyl only release, naturally, mastered from the original tapes of the Polish record company by the name of Pronit (catalogue number SXL 0801). Highly talented pianist, (film) composer and arranger Piotr Figiel is one of Poland¿s most celebrated musicians.
He boasts a vast armoury 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, arranged by himself, of course.
Other soloists who can be heard on the record include Tomasz Sta¿ko (trumpet), Janusz Muniak (flute, tenor sax) and Janusz Stefa¿ski (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. Home again, he wasted no time in working his new favourite 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 on Organy Hammonda ¿ 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 amour as a greater source of inspiration than Chopin.
Not a bad reference, in any case... 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. Only on vinyl, don¿t forget!
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