Customer Reviews

Easy!

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wojciech (Wojtek) Karolak (born on 28 May 1939 in Warsaw, Poland, where he still lives today) is a notable Hammond B-3 organ player who refers to himself as "an American jazz and rhythm and blues musician, born by mistake in Middle Europe". He has also played saxophone and piano professionally. In 1958, he started working with the band the "Jazz Believers" playing alto saxophone. The Jazz Believers consisted of the future top Polish jazz players, among them Andrzej Trzaskowski, Krzysztof Komeda, and Jan Ptaszyn Wroblewski. Next, Wojciech Karolak played tenor saxophone in Andrzej Trzaskowski s "The Wreckers". In 1961, Karolak switched from saxophone back to piano. In 1962, formed his own trio and started recording his own music. This trio become the premier jazz band in Poland and backed most Western/American artist visiting Poland, among them Annie Ross, Ray Charles, and Don Ellis. In 1966, Karolak left Poland for Sweden where he played rock and blues in music clubs in order to, in his own words, "make enough money to buy an apartment and a Hammond B-3" which he eventually bought in 1973. From then on, Karolak spent more time composing and arranging though he did continue to collaborate and perform with others. He cooperated with violinist Michal Urbaniak in Europe and in the U.S., and recorded few albums with Urbaniak's groups, including important landmark - "Constellation in Concert" (1973) which presented the mature possibilities of the Polish brand of fusion. After his return to Poland, he collaborated with Zbigniew Namyslowski (including legendary album "Kujaviak Goes Funky"), and then co-led the group Mainstream and worked as a composer-arranger for the Polish Radio Studio Jazz Orchestra. In 1974 he recorded album "Easy", possibly the best Polish funk album ever, which he described: "I intended to cut a record with pop music played by jazz musicians. It was done easy, and it should be listened to easy as well; it may come through one ear and flow away through another. And if, incidentally, it brings the listener some pleasure - we may say that is mission is filled." In the 1980s Karolak established, a "super formation" - 'The Killers' with Tomasz Szukalski (saxes) and Czeslaw Bartkowski (drums). The group recorded only one self-titled album but it marked the history of Polish jazz forever, being the best example of exciting adaptation of Weather Report's language into Polish Jazz idiom. Jazz Forum's critics survey in 1990s found 'Time Killers' album to be the Best Polish Jazz Record of 1980's. Since the 1990s Karolak has played with the guitarist Jaroslaw Smietana, and collaborated with variety of rock bands. With Piotr Baron and Zbigniew Lewandowski, Karolak has started "The High Bred Jazz Trio". He continues to write, arrange, and perform in Poland and abroad.

Performed by:
Wojciech Karolak - Hammond & Farfisa "Vip" Organs, Fender Piano
Orchestra directed by Jan "Ptaszyn" Wroblewski:
Janusz Muniak, T.W. Kurpinski - reeds; A. Pila, S.Cieslak, J. Jarczyk - trombones; B. Debek, T.Szostek - trumpets; P.Dabropwski - Fender bass; Cz. Bartkowski - drums; W.Kowalewski - percussion
Novi Singers: Ewa Wanat, Waldemar Parzynski, Janusz Mych
String Section
soloists:
Tomasz Szukalski - soprano saxophone (2)
Tomasz Stanko - trumpet (1)
Zbigniew Namyslowski - alto saxophone (5)

All music composed (except as indicated), arranged and played by Wojciech Karolak


Recorded:
January 1974, Warsaw, Poland