For their 2017 album
Unloved
, the
Maciej Obara Quartet
took home Poland's Fryderyk award in the Album of the Year category and Jazz Artist of the Year. Earlier in 2019, this half-Polish, half-Norwegian group also took home first prize at the BMW Jazz Awards in Munich.
Three Crowns
is titled after the Trzy Korony summit of the Pieniny mountain range in southern Poland. Recorded in March, this set includes six new pieces by saxophonist
Obara
and two readings of works by Polish composer
Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki
. There have been jazz interpretations of his work before, including hybrid readings of his
Symphony No. 3: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
by
Colin Stetson
, and a faux classical one by
Portishead
's
Beth Gibbons
with the
National Symphony of Polish Radio
, conducted by
Krzysztof Penderecki
. But this album marks the first occasion where
Gorecki
's family -- whom
came to know in Katowice -- encouraged interpretations of his music by actual improvisers.
The set opener is a reading of the first part of
's "Three Pieces in the Old Style" from 1963. Introduced by
Dominik Wania
's piano whispers, it's deliberately minimal before
enters tenderly with the melody, accompanied by malleted tom-toms and cymbals from
Gard Nilssen
and a skeletal bassline by
Ole Morten Vagan
. The lyric line remains mostly faithful;
's saxophone embellishments are restrained and tasteful. The other
number, "Little Requiem for a Polish Girl" from 1993, is more elliptical. The interplay between piano and arco bassline is ethereal, grounded only by intermittent cymbal play from
Nilssen
.
's approach to the melody works from the inside-out, articulating it briefly before his bandmates improvise. The original "Blue Skies for Andy" commences with a lyrical double-bass introduction from
Vagan
before
Wania
languidly joins him.
's brushed-snare veneer becomes a pulse for
to enter on, allowing the deep blue melody to assert itself in fits and starts before becoming more strident as the saxist quotes from
John Coltrane
's "A Love Supreme" in his solo. "Vang Church" begins with
as an unaccompanied soloist. When the band joins him, they elevate the tension and pace to post-bop swing. Closer "Mr. S" is a ten-minute tribute to late Polish trumpeter
Tomasz Stanko
. While it begins with improvised -- and slightly dissonant -- arco bass and accented snares and cymbals, the head, introduced by
and given flesh by
, is almost rhapsodic in its lush articulation. The exploration at its center keeps the trace of the romantic melody ever present.
is subtle, elegiac, and atmospheric. It is fully engaged. The musicians effortlessly express whole ideas from harmony's fragmented ghost traces, resulting in a beautifully articulated statement from a massively talented young band. ~ Thom Jurek