Raphael Roginski and Polish New Jewish Music part 1 - Cukunft [Lado ABC]

Raphael Roginski has appeared quite a few times on the blog already and the reason for this is quite simple, I believe he's one of the most original artists around, his guitar playing sound is completely unique and he's quite a multi-tasker leading a handful a different project. Named, with a reason, the animator of the revival of jewish music in Poland in recent years. A trend which treads its beginnings to the release of "Shofar" cd in 2007 - a trio with Mikolaj Trzaska and Macio Moretti playing together music that Roginski found in the archives of ethnomusicologist Moshe Beregovsky. It so happens that, after quite a long hiatus, two of Roginski's bands released new music in 2013 so I decided to gather them together.

(for previous references on Roginski you might check the posts about Hera XL, Cukunft's concert with Maria Raducanu, his new band Wovoka as well as the special Yemenite music project). 

Cukunft - Wilde Blumen
Raphael Roginski - guitar
Pawel Szamburski - clarinet, bass clarinet
Michal Gorczynski - clarinet, tenor sax
Pawel Szpura - drums

Lado ABC 2013

Cukunft (yiddish for "Future") is quite a band of madmen on stage (you most definitely need to see, whilte it's still on the web, their concert with Maria Raducanu that took place on Krakow Jewish Festival 2013) - it's punk-rock energy and crazy circus madness applied by two raving clarinets, guitar and drums.

Wovoka - Trees Against The Sky [Lado ABC]

Wovoka:
Mewa Chabiera - vocal
Raphael Roginski - guitar, bass guitar, oud
Ola Rzepka - keyboards, piano
Pawel Szpura - drums

guests:
Ola Bilinska - backing vocal; Michal Gorczynski - bass clarinet, saxophone; Piotr Zabrodzki - moog, synth, frozen finger organ; Hubert Zemler - percussions

Lado ABC 2013

Even to the ones familiar with Raphael Roginski's musical output Wovoka's debut cd must come as a surprise. Roginski is a center figure of modern jewish music in Poland, reinventing the tradition and its expression with bands like Shofar, Cukunft, Alte Zachen, Yemen.

The band is named after the religious leader of Norther Paiute tribe, founder of Ghost Dance movement, also known as Jack Wilson. "Trees Against the Sky" is a tribute to the musical traditions of North America, lost in the river of time.

Profesjonalizm - Chopin Chopin Chopin [Lado ABC]

Marcin Masecki - pianino, compositions

Kamil Szuszkiewicz - trumpet

Michał Górczyński - clarinet, tenor saxophone

Tomasz Duda - baritone saxophone

Piotr Domagalski - double bass

Jerzy Rogiewicz - drums

Lado ABC 2011

Marcin Masecki's name resonates well in ears of any polish jazz/music fan but he's yet to gain international recognition and he most certainly deserves it. Masecki's talent, refined through years of classical education (graduated from Berklee College of Music) is undeniable. He's sound conception and style of playing is easily recognizable (he prefers, whenever it's possible, to play his own pianino instead of a grand concert piano, all in order to be able to create a personal rapport with his own instrument - something that comes more easily to musicians playing virtually any other instrument). The vast ground he covers with his activity is impressive - equally adept in mainstream jazz (with Zbigniew Wegehaupt Quratet), fully improvised concerts (solo, in duo with Ziv Ravitz, in power trio with Macio Moretti and Raphael Roginski), avant pop (Paristetris) or classical (fascinated with Bach's music). In any of those contexts Masecki remains unmistakenably Masecki, unique, idiosyncratic. Which brings us (well, sort of) to Profesjonalizm sextet, his latest release on Lado ABC (an alternative label he's been working with for quite a while now).