(Avant-Garde, Free Improvisation, Third Stream) Contemporary Quartet - Plays Music of Bacewicz, Kisielewski, Komsta, Lutoslawski, Penderecki - 2002, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Not Two is a label run out of Cracow in Poland by jazz enthusiast (and manager of perhaps that country's best jazz record shop) Marek Winiarski, and if these releases are anything to go by, it's a label to watch. The Contemporary Quartet consists of Romanian pianist Mircea Tiberian, German bass clarinettist Rudi Mahall, and the Polish kickass rhythm section of bassist Marcin and drummer Bartlomiej Oles. Don't be put off by the text "plays the music of Bacewicz, Kisielewski, Komsta, Lutoslawski and Penderecki" - this is no pale collection of oh-so-tastefully arranged Polish contemporary classical music, but a dynamic and hard swinging treatment of the kind of repertoire jazz musicians have usually tended to steer clear of, at least since the heady days of Gunther Schuller's Third Stream experiments. Taking Penderecki's 1987 "Prelude" for clarinet solo as a bona fide head in its own right kick-starts the album in fine style; Mahall and Tiberian turn the theme inside out, while Oles and Oles power the music forward. Stefan Kisielewski's "Duet" (from a 1954 "Suite" for oboe and piano) segues into Marzena Komstal's "Langueur", from a piano piece of the same name written thirty-six years later, without skipping a beat. Penderecki's "Violin Sonata", written back in 1953 long before the composer burst onto the contemporary music scene with the legendary "Threnody (for the Victims of Hiroshima)", provides the source material for the three following tracks: "Sonata I" is a solo vehicle for Tiberian, followed - rather too abruptly methinks - by "Sonata II", which finds Mahall negotiating the bass clarinet's impossibly high register with frightening ease before letting rip with some awesome multiphonics while the austere counterpoint of the original continues underneath. "Sonata III" begins with an accomplished five-minute percussion solo before the band slips in with barely a minute to go to round things off with a unison flourish. Two years after Penderecki penned his violin sonata, Grazyna Bacewicz wrote the "Sonatina for oboe and piano" that provides the material for following track, "Foggy", essentially a long obbligato bass solo accompanied by some distantly menacing percussion. Drummer "Brat" Oles provides two pieces himself for the quartet, the first of which, "April" begins with a Mahall solo exploration before Tiberian inserts a rolling ten-note ostinato for (partially prepared) piano, over which Mahall and the composer trade extended technique licks. The music remains in improv (as opposed to jazz) territory for "Per Slava", based once more on Penderecki, this time a cello solo of the same name written in 1986. Marcin Oles negotiates the high lyrical cello line on bass, while Mahall twitters and flutters around him, until Brat starts riding the cymbal like Jon Christensen and sends the music back to the supple freebop of 1970s ECM. If I were Manfred Eicher I'd be reaching for my phone. "Seven Hands", which also follows on from "Per Slava" without a break (if you weren't watching the indexes change you'd never know), is Oles' second original composition, and inhabits the same slightly melancholy harmonic world as the Penderecki, until once more it starts swinging furiously - Tiberian turns in his best solo on the album, and Mahall throws in a bundle of angular lines worthy of Eric Dolphy, until little by little he unravels the beat. For once, you're expecting a segue into another piece, but instead there's another rather peremptory fade. The closing track, "Bucolique no IV" from Witold Lutoslawski's 1952 piano pieces of the same name, concludes proceedings on a somewhat reflective note. It's beautifully played, but once more its rather sudden ending makes one wonder if its inclusion was absolutely necessary. Still, it's but a minor quibble about a smashing record.

Using so-called classical themes as a basis for improvisation isn't a new idea. John Kirby's Sextet did so in the early 1940s and flautist Moe Koffman and the Modern Jazz Quartet got plenty of mileage out of re-interpreting Bach.
But using these themes as more than a jumping off point for unconnected soloing had to wait until a group of musicians exists that is as comfortable working on the improv side of the fence as the legit side. It also helped when some contemporary composers got over their snobbish distaste for so-called jazz music.
This sea change has been particularly evident in Europe, and that's one of the reasons this CD is so special. Two young Polish players, plus a slightly older German clarinetist and a Romanian pianist, take nine pieces by contemporary Polish composers and transform them using the techniques and freedom of improv. Most notably, they don't "jazz the classics", but metamorphose the existing notation into organically legitimate new pieces. Drummer Bartlomiej Brat Oles, who arranged all the tracks, also throws in a couple of his own tunes here that naturally fuse with the other sounds.
Oles and his twin brother, bassist Marcin Oles, provide the Janus-headed hope for contemporary Polish jazz establishing itself as memorable and original. Not only have the two played with local heroes like saxists Mikolaj Trzaska and Adam Pieronczyk, but also with outsiders like American reedist David Murray, German bass clarinetist Theo Jörgensmann and the two foreigners featured here. "Brat", by the way doesn't mean what it seems to for English speakers; it means "brother" in Polish.
Accustomed to similar musical fusion, reedist Rudi Mahall is an inspired addition. He plays contemporary music with European orchestras and improvises often with Japanese pianist Aki Takase and guitarist Frank Möbus. Pianist Mircea Tiberian is one of the most active Romanian jazzers, having played with Americans including guitarist Larry Coryell and bassist Ed Schuller, as well as Poland's best-known musical export, trumpeter Tomas Stanko.
Composers represented here are Paris-based Marzena Komsta; Krakow's late Stefan Kisielewski; the late Witold Lutostawski, who taught in Sweden and United States; the late composer/pianist Grazyna Bacewicz, a neoclassicist with international stature; and most notably, composer/academic/conductor Krzysztof Penderecki, five of whose representative pieces are interpreted on the CD.
Although Penderecki was open minded enough to be involved in a similar jazz-classical fusion with American trumpeter Don Cherry and Stanko in 1971, it's likely he never imagined his "Sonata III from Sonata for violin & piano 1953" as a drum showcase. But, as Bartlomiej Oles expresses it here, the sonata now includes shakes and rattles from various percussion instruments, cymbal and cowbell accents, nerve beat wooden stick sounds, tambourine shivers and straight rolls and flams from snares and toms. Other interpolations include abrasive ponticello bass lines that eventually morph into walking bass, key clipping from the pianist and exaggerated clown horn beeps that become a jaunty squealed countermelody arising from Mahall's reed.
All this follows Tiberian's oh-so-correct voicing of the theme on "Sonata I from Sonata for violin & piano 1953' that only gradually features variations on the theme. Later the pianist's low frequency linear playing turns to snaking cadenzas on "Sonata II from Sonata for violin & piano 1953". On the same piece, Mahall carefully accents slurred single notes then note clusters, ending his solo with a gravelly siren-like tone, while Maricin Oles' bass work includes extensive tremolo bowing and powerful Mingus-like pizzicato swoops.
Penderecki's "Per Slava from Per Slava for cello solo 1986" is transformed into another bass showcase, with Oles' shuffle bowing and grating arco lines evolving from scratches and bird-like squeaks to a legato melody. Mahall flutter tongues and key pops add color, eventually introducing trilling low notes following the pianist's consonant chording and Brat's boppy cymbal accents and bass drum thumps. With Marcin almost subliminally knitting the strands together from the bass clef, Tiberian sounds out a pastoral, double-timed line as Bartlomiej hits most parts of his kit without overpowering the other players. Coda is made up of unison floating bass clarinet and arco bass tones.
Bartlomiej's restraint is confirmed on his own compositions, both of which are more notable for group contributions than drum fireworks. On "Seven Hands for contemporary quartet 2002" -- which musician is missing a limb, by the way? -- the steady clattering of rim shots, cymbal shimmers and press rolls merely adds to the quasi night club ambiance. Marcin alternates between walking bass lines, slides and shuffles, as Mahall emphasizes a slinky note pattern from the darkest part of his reed until shrill, but carefully modulated glissandos are heard. Standout here is the pianist, with a tough-touch keyboard fantasia. Working in vein that joins Wynton Kelley with McCoy Tyner, he emphasizes the changes with both hands, then decelerates into comping.
"April for contemporary quartet 2001," Brat's other tune, is more of the same with Tiberian's playing ranging from 10-finger crescendos to speedy arpeggios to an ostinato of striding cadenzas. Meanwhile Mahall's slurred double tonguing gives way to metallic spetrofluctuation and trilled vibrations.
With the pianist's formalism including echoes of impressionistic jazz technicians like Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, and the reedist's extended technique on hand to bring out every nuance -- and more -- of the compositions, this experiment in genre shifting works without exposing fissures.
Exemplary improvisers and organizers, CONTEMPORARY QUARTET is another example of why Marcin and Bartlomiej Oles' names may soon lose their unfamiliarity for non-Polish jazz fans.