Piotr Schmidt Quartet - Saxesful vol. II (2021)

It is an open secret that when recording an album, a producer often "thinks about the future" and uses the studio session to record much more material than what is strictly necessary for one album. This was also the case with the recording of "Saxesful", the 2018 album of the Polish trumpeter, composer, leader, publisher and record producer Piotr Schmidt.
After a break related to the coronavirus pandemic, and after the recent death of his father, Polish jazz icon, Professor Andrzej Schmidt, whom I had the honor of meeting more than once, Piotr returned to the unreleased recordings of the "Saxesful" session and released a continuation of this album, partly in tribute to memory his father.

The idea behind “Saxesful” was to present a series of Polish jazz saxophonists, each of whom played after the piece. The second movement repeats this pattern, presenting six standards, each played by a quartet plus a host saxophonist. And the guest list is a constellation of Polish jazz stars and a tribute to the Polish jazz tradition itself. We have four generations of jazz celebrities - from Jan "Ptaszyn" Wróblewski (born in 1936), Zbigniew Namysłowski (1939), Henryk Miśkiewicz (born 1951), Maciej Sikała (born 1961). ), Adam Wendt (born 1962), to Grzegorz "Grzech" Piotrowski (born 1974) - representing the power and stylistic diversity of the Polish jazz scene. The quartet itself is no less worthy of attention, starting with Schmidt on the trumpet, through the outstanding pianist Wojciech Niedziela, and the best Polish rhythm section (Maciej Garbowski on bass and Krzysztof Gradziuk on drums); and all of them deserved for the cause of jazz.

My grandmother often repeated the folk adage, "Whoever eats leftovers is beautiful and smooth." The value of these “leftovers” from the original “Saxesful” records is clear here: they are as good as the first release, and it would really be a pity not to release it.

Once again, we have a feast of great, classical jazz and first-class performances: a real tribute to the history and tradition of Polish jazz and a great musical experience. Happy listening!.

Tracklist:

1. Caravan
2. On The Sunny Side Of The Street
3. Cherokee
4. When I Fall In Love
5. Footprints
6. Ach, Spij Kochanie