Wroblewski/Blues Key/Blue Skies (Nothin' But...)

Wednesday night I attended a terrific concert at Birdland, by Jan "Ptaszyn" Wroblewski--not exactly a household name in this country, but a legend in his native Poland, the "Godfather of Polish Jazz" in fact--and his quartet was outstanding, the tenor giant blowing forcefully over one of the best rhythm sections ever...their book was rooted in mainstream hard-bop and blues, the bassist particularly impressive...

"Birdman" Wroblewski was a member along with ECM recording artist Tomasz Stanko in several of the great Polish composer Kyrzystof Komeda's seminal ensembles (Komeda's astonishing 1965 album "Astigmatic", a milestone in Polish jazz history, or shall we just say, music history, period, also featured fusion jazz violinist Michal Urbaniak in the lineup alongside Stanko and Wroblewski)...anyway it was an exceptional night of music, with world-class jazz in full force and on display...

and the moaning slow blues of the second to last number grabbed everyone hard, from the black jazz singer Judy Brady who sat beside me to my pal Tomasz's mother across from me...and one wonders whether it is just reflexive jazz-jingoism/national chauvinism on the part of many New York based diehard jazz fans to miss out on a chance to hear such a great international ensemble blow (or just willful solipsism/blissful ignorance)...dunno, the great jazz debate rages on-- not just dividing along colour lines, but also along national boundaries, most recent flash point of this contumely was Ken Burns' startling sin of omission/outright dismissal of much European and Asian-based jazz (avant or otherwise) from his vaunted PBS series...possible blowback from the likes of such yankee-centric aesthetic/critical prejudices manifesting itself now in the form of the venerable Dutch North Sea Jazz Festival's All-European Jazz programmation this summer...

I remember catching Michael Urbaniak with the amazing avant-vocalist Ursula Dudziak in the early 70's at a club down here in the Village and it was one of the best concerts I can recall from that period--certainly there is no limit to creative expression emanating from the Polish musical sector under the elastic rubric of "Jazz" (jazzman Komeda is probably best known for his Roman Polanski film soundtracks--check my interpretation of his "Lullaby from 'Rosemary's Baby' " with the lovely Polish vocalist and actress Anna Podolak here--recorded live at Brooklyn Sugar last fall, to introduce my "Monsters from the Id" film music project...you can see clips from the Polanski film projected behind us...a haunted studio version of this song is on both the French version of my latest album "Coming Clean" from Productions Speciales, and the new Dutch version--in a deluxe digipack!--released through Dawa Records in the Benelux this week)...

Apres Birdland there was a glittering festive party in the penthouse apartment of my pal, vivacious and gracious Monika Fabijanska, director of the Polish Cultural Institute, her new digs replete with terrace where a delicious repast lay waiting (excellent potato pancakes!) and where I was introduced to Krzystof Kasprzyk, the Polish Consul General, a warm and charming intellectual/raconteur--and a keen jazz fan...also the radiant actress Elzbieta Czyzewska who was so great and sexy as Donna Frasquetta Salero in Wojciech Has' 1965 film "The Saragossa Manuscript" (one of Jerry Garcia's favorite films, actually--based on the classic picaresque, near-surrealist novel "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa" by Count Jan Potocki, which I devoured over the course of several lengthy European tours in the late '90's--Has' film, a marvel in black and white, is very faithful to the book: hallucinatory, delirious, hilarious, with an unbelievable Dali-esque mise en scene-- an obvious influence on Terry Gilliam's oeuvre)...Elzbieta, an icon of Polish cinema--and in the swinging 60's, considered her country's own Brigitte Bardot--was married once to the recently deceased dean of activist journalism David Halberstam ("The Best and the Brightest")--and to this day is still an active performer in the cinema (indeed...turns out that Caroline had not too long ago cast her in a film)...and she proved an excellent and provocative conversationalist...also Marek Serafin, the general manager of Lot Airlines, a very congenial guy and a big jazz buff...and many others, including my friends Tomasz Smolarski from the Polish Cultural Institute, with his lovely girl friend and my occasional collaborator Anna Podolak...and of course, the guest of honor Jan "Birdman" Wroblewski and his band, who were flush with their Birdland triumph (We Love Birdland! Now if only Pee Wee Marquette was still around to kibbitz and introduce the musicians)...This was one of the most enjoyable and memorable nights out in ages... I am always intellectually stimulated and engaged by encounters with the best and the brightest artists and writers hailiing from the crossroads of Central Europe...

Also quite entertaining was a reading at the JCC uptown the next evening of a new screenplay-in-progress by two very sharp and funny writers from "Sex and the City", Emmy award-nominees Elisa Zuritsky and Julie Rottenberg, childhood friends and writing partners since the age of 9...Caroline assembled a sterling cast of Broadway professionals to bring to life their delightful "Shelf Life", a very Pirandello-ish comic riff on the Development Process, and an incisive fantasy on characters come to life, literally trapped between the covers of a screenplay, and in danger of being disappeared by a single stroke of a computer's cursor...ran into Elisa's husband Jordan Barowitz there, whom I hadn't seen since 1993 when he was the tour manager on the Knitting Factory JAM Tour, with whom I traveled hither and yon cross Europe and shared many excellent adventures (and lived to tell the tale!)...Caroline and I caught a ride back downtown from our friendly neighbor and friend of Elisa and Julie, Bradley Jacobs, a senior editor at Us magazine...

well, Out of the Inkwell, and into real life now, the sun is shining in the bluest of blue skies...

xxLove

Gary