man of the light. the life and work of zbigniew seifert

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1 man of the light. the life and work of zbigniew seifert The Helikon was also a favourite of Zbyszek Seifert s. Both his quartet and (later) Stańko s quintet held their rehearsals there, and that s where he played his first jazz concerts. It was in this club that he met jazz musicians and fans. As its musicians became more and more popular, the Jazz-Club found it could not seat all the audience and so concerts began to be held in other places. Nonetheless, the first steps on the ensemble s career path were inextricably linked with that magical place. Jazz-Club Helikon. From left: barmaid, NN, Jan Jarczyk, Zbigniew Seifert, Jan Gonciarczyk, Adam Matyszkowicz. Archive of Małgorzata Seifert Jazz-Club Helikon membership card. Archive of Małgorzata Seifert 36

2 The music studies and Jazz Ensembles The Career of the Zbigniew Seifert Quartet The Quartet s official debut took place in November, 1965, during the 14th Cracow Jazz Festival, the so-called Cracow All Souls Jazz Festival at Krzysztofory, where the jam sessions were held. Andrzej Jaroszewski enthusiastically hailed their performance as foreshadowing the coming of a new generation of jazz musicians, the debut of a modern jazz band. In a brochure entitled Cracow Jazz Festival 14th Edition, Krzysztof Sadowski wrote: On Friday evening the second debutant was Zbigniew Seifert, an alto sax player influenced by John Coltrane and Zbigniew Namysłowski. From the latter, he took the pure intonation and confident presentation of frequently complicated melodic phrases. Especially in the theme of McCoy Tyner s Three Flowers the whole ensemble gave us a sample of solid modern jazz. Its members are: Jan Jarczyk (p), Jan Gonciarczyk (b), Janusz Stefański (dr), and Zbigniew Seifert (as). Zbigniew Seifert Quartet. From left: Janusz Stefański, Jan Gonciarczyk, Zbigniew Seifert, Jan Jarczyk. Photo by Jacek Maria Stokłosa After their successful debut, the Quartet was also invited to other Cracow venues. They gave concerts in student clubs ( Żaczek, Karlik ), in Klub pod Jaszczurami, Piwnica pod Baranami, Klub pod Przewiązką, and had entry to Jazz-Club Helikon. More and more frequently, they were also invited to perform in Warsaw, Wrocław, in Silesia. Sometimes they played with other musicians. For instance, in the winter of 1968 the Brazilian Irany d Olivera Passos came to Cracow to take up studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, and Grzegorz Tusiewicz organised several concerts for her. She sang bossa nova at Cracow s clubs with Zbigniew Seifert Quartet. 37

3 man of the light. the life and work of zbigniew seifert Zbigniew Seifert s sheet music. Archive of Małgorzata Seifert Most of the bands active in Cracow at that time played traditional jazz. Zbigniew Seifert Quartet was one of the flagships of the city s avant-garde jazz scene. Jan Jarczyk and Jan Gonciarczyk recall: In Cracow, we mostly Zbigniew Seifert s sheet music. Archive of Małgorzata Seifert played in Piwnica pod Baranami. In Olsztyn we played a concert with the Philharmonic Orchestra. It was said that as a quartet we changed the character of that type of jazz. Unfortunately, we never released a record, because none of us approached the Polskie Nagrania [the state monopoly record company translator s note] with such a suggestion. We knew we still had so much to learn and achieve. We gave performances quite frequently, and toured all over Poland. Our manager was Teresa Poprawa. I can remember playing a jazz quartet concert on Police Day. I do not know how the two were supposed to work together, the communist police and jazz, but the concert was very well received. We liked it and the police liked it, so everyone was satisfied. On one occasion, we also appeared on a TV programme with Andrzej Dąbrowski as solo vocalist.1 Zbyszek absorbed himself intensively in jazz music. By himself or with friends from the quartet, he analysed the available jazz material. He felt that it was possible to achieve a personal style in jazz through one s own effort. He studied the performances of great masters in order to arrive at his own conception of music-making. John Coltrane remained for him the paragon of jazz playing. 1 Historia krakowskiego jazzu [History of Jazz in Cracow], episode 14, 38

4 The music studies and Jazz Ensembles Zbigniew Seifert Quartet; from the left: Jan Jarczyk, Janusz Stefański, Jan Gonciarczyk, Zbigniew Seifert. Photo by Jacek Maria Stokłosa The summer of 1966 was a time of intensive work for the ensemble. During the day, Zbyszek and Jan Jarczyk wrote down from recordings Coltrane s, Charles Lloyd s and Herbie Hancock s solos. At night they played with the quartet at the Feniks restaurant, from 9.30 pm until 3 am. As they had no audio equipment, they had to listen to gramophone records at their friends homes. From only two or three listenings to a record, they had to learn a whole section of music by heart and write it down on paper. Records and gramophone needles were precious: no one was going to let them listen over and over again to the same piece. With friends, they also listened to Ornette Coleman s At the Golden Circle recorded during concerts in Stockholm, as well as to Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner and Roland Kirk. The stars of the Jazz Jamboree festival held in October 1967 were Charles Lloyd (ts) and Roland Kirk (ts, fl). Charles Lloyd was then at the top of the polls of the popular American jazz magazine Down Beat. His ensemble included the still little known Keith Jarrett (p) and Jack DeJohnette (dr). Zbyszek and his friends listened to the festival concerts with admiration. They stayed at the Warszawa Hotel. Nobody knew how many guests there were at the hotel at that time. Illegal visitors sneaked past the reception room. Zbyszek and Grzegorz Tusiewicz slept head to tail on the floor in the room of some engineer who also came to the Jazz Jamboree. Apart from the concerts, more emotions were stirred up by the jam session at the Stolica café, where Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette swapped instruments and Jarrett played the drums all night, while DeJohnette took over the piano and the bass. Everyone was surprised 39

5 The Tomasz Stańko Quintet the composer. The gravest omission, in my view, is the lack of any commentary on how this kind of score is to be read and interpreted by the violinist. As we know, a performer must approach a musical text in one way if he or she is intending to read from it fluently and in a quite different way if he or she is intending to learn one of these pieces by heart [ ] I must admit that Seifert s flippant attitude to a composer of such stature as Martinů s offends my sense of decorum. I will not cite individual examples; suffice it to say, there are far too many of them in this thesis. I can only hope that these statements result from lack of experience in writing about music or from stylistic awkwardness rather than from the student s lack of respect for this highly-regarded composer. 1 Here are a few excerpts from Seifert s diploma work in which he interprets Martinů s music: Thus the composer brings out the hidden significance of the extremely simple and seemingly unengaging rhythmic pattern [ ] One cannot help asking oneself whether this graphic convention is musically justified or whether it is for the reader a deliberately introduced, contrived obstacle. And, again: It must be noted that the composer consciously, for purely formal reasons, introduced a form of notation that makes score reading more difficult [ ]. Étude No. 6 bears the subheading In Jazz Rhythm. This calls for some elucidation. What is a jazz rhythm? The phrase apparently says everything, but at the same time it tells us very little [ ]. I do not believe that the very fact of his adding this subheading means the composer must have had a specific manner of performance in mind. If that were the case, it would not make much sense. Cracow State Higher School of Music, MMus diploma. Archive of Małgorzata Seifert 1 Documents from the archive of the Academy of Music in Cracow. A list of compositions performed by Zbigniew Seifert during his studies. Archive of the Academy of Music, Cracow. 65

6 man of the light. the life and work of zbigniew seifert On 10th June 1970 Zbigniew Seifert was awarded the degree of magister sztuki (equivalent of an MMus or an MA in music) from the State Higher School of Music in Cracow. Even though he attained the top marks for his diploma recitals, the weaker marks earned for his other course subjects meant that he could not be awarded a degree with honours. For several months thereafter his violin lay untouched in the cupboard while Seifert was performing in Stańko s quintet, where he played saxophone exclusively. The title page and another page from Zbigniew Seifert s diploma thesis entitled The Metro-Rhythmic Problems and Related Performance Aspects of Selected Compositions for Violin and Piano by Boguslav Martinů, from the archive of the Academy of Music in Cracow Archive of Agnieszka Seifert 66

7 man of the light. the life and work of zbigniew seifert boast that I foresaw this development in my commentary published after the Jazz on the Oder 68 ), while Bronisław Suchanek is the great hope of Polish jazz. 1 Zbigniew Seifert, Jazz Jamboree 70. Photo by Marek Karewicz The concert at the Jazz Jamboree 70 was Zbigniew Seifert Quartet s last official appearance. As the concert schedule of Stańko s quintet grew progressively busier, Zbigniew Seifert had no time for frequent trips to Cracow to attend rehearsals of his own ensemble. Seifert decided to dissolve the band and focus exclusively on working with the quintet. Seifert s Quartet unfortunately did not have time to release an album, as its leader believed that the quartet s members still had a lot to learn before they would be ready and have suitable material for a studio recording. The quartet s performances consequently survive only in a few fragmentary recordings. Their compositions were included on the LP New Faces In Polish Jazz They also appeared in a TV programme conducted by Andrzej Trzaskowski and on the soundtrack for the 1971 feature film Seksolatki (dir. Zygmunt Hubner, music by Stanisław Radwan). The quartet, in fact, had ceased to exist in 1971 but its members accepted the invitation to record. Radwan was looking for a band playing modern jazz. The quartet (Jan Jarczyk, Zbigniew Seifert, Bronisław Suchanek, Janusz Stefański) took part in a recording Tomasz Stańko Quintet, Jazz Jamboree 70 Photo by Marek Karewicz 1 Jazz, No. 12, 1970, Czesław Gładkowski, Garść refleksji krajowych [Some Comments on Music Events in Poland]. 72

8 The Tomasz Stańko Quintet Jazzmessage From Poland The LP Jazzmessage From Poland was recorded by Tomasz Stańko Quintet on 28 th May 1972, during a concert in Iserlohn (West Germany). It was the work of seasoned musicians, who no longer depended on the guidance of their leader, each of them making his own unique contribution to the music being performed. The dream of perfect non-verbal communication seems to have come true in this project. At some point in the quintet s career, its musicians became fascinated by free-jazz in its pure form. Their music projects became unplanned and highly risky. They did not write down their compositions, instead they created them afresh during live performance. This approach had inherent dangers. Unfettered spontaneity in music can turn out brilliantly, but it can also become boring. The LP Jazzmessage From Poland represents the peak of the quintet s creative powers. Jazzmessage From Poland (JG Records 030 Stereo) is the most interesting album, also because it was recorded (live in Iserlohn in May 1972) by the ambassadors of Polish jazz and even the cover was designed by a Polish graphic artist, Włodzimierz Rostkowski. The Tomasz Stańko Quintet appears on this album with its full line-up of Z. Seifert (el. vl), J. Muniak (fl, ts, perc), B. Suchanek (b), and J. Stefański (dr, perc). Side A contains two compositions: Aeoioe by Janusz Muniak and Tomasz Stańko and Heban by Zbigniew Seifert, while Side B features only one work, a most interesting composition by Stańko: his approximately 20-minute-long Piece For Diana, in which the quintet achieved near-perfection in modern free-jazz sound, form and style. 1 Performers: Side A: The Julian Cannonball Adderley Quintet: J.C. Adderley as Nat Adderlaey co George Duke p Walter Booker b Ray McCurdy dr Side B: Laboratorium and Zbigniew Seifert Compositions: Side A: 1. Pretty Paul (J.C. Adderley) 2. Denise (W. Booker) 3. Directions (J. Zawinul) 4. Walk tall (N. Adderley) 5. The Scene (N. Adderley, J. Zawinul) Side B: 1. Chorał [Chorale] (J. Grzywacz) 2. Plazma [Plasm] (collective composition) During the two years separating the quintet s first LP, Music For K, from Jazzmessage From Poland, the ensemble developed its own unique style. By comparison with their first album, Jazzmessage From Poland is more balanced, athough it also conveys plenty of expressive feeling. The album comes from the period when Seifert was playing violin in the quintet and Suchanek and Stefański were developing their characteristic type of walking 2. It was around the time when Tomasz Stańko started to use the term wood music for the kind of music that Seifert and Suchanek played as a duo. The dyads they played on violin and double-bass created a counter-balance to the other section of the ensemble the trumpet, saxophones and percussion. 1 Jazz, No. 10, 1973, Tadeusz Prejzner, Nowy polski Jazz na zagranicznych płytach [New Polish Jazz on Foreign Records]. 2 R. Kowal, Polski jazz Wczesna historia i trzy biografie zamknięte Komeda, Kosz, Seifert, op.cit. 89

9 man of the light. the life and work of zbigniew seifert Performers: Tomasz Stańko tr Zbigniew Seifert vn, as Janusz Muniak ss, ts, fl, perc Bronisław Suchanek b Janusz Stefański dr, perc Compositions: 1. Aeoioe (Muniak/Stańko) 2. Heban (Seifert) 3. Piece For Diana (Stańko) A wooden visiting card of Tomasz Stańko Quintet. Archive of Małgorzata Seifert Roman Kowal noted in his review: The internal homogeneity and coherence of his music is astonishing. Despite all the distinctive features of each instrumentalist s playing and notwithstanding the musicians complete freedom of expression one can nonetheless sense the commonality in their thinking that stems from a particularly fortuitous accord between these musical personalities and from their many years of working together. [ ] From that time on, they shook off the shackles of musical form ever more frequently. Less and less was being committed to paper, and, progressively, longer sections of their compositions came to be fully improvised to the point when they would walk on stage with nothing more than a germ of a idea or motif, possessed of a specific character, colour and articulation, and what ensued thereafter was a journey into the unknown. On this voyage the musicians had only one compass their musicality, and only one responsibility their loyalty toward their fellow-travellers. They reach their destination after a quarter of an hour or a full hour perhaps, depending on how they feel on a given day, how long the concert lasts, or how much music can fit onto a vinyl record. 1 The quintet s performance level was admired by German musicians such as Albert Mangelsdorff, who could not understand how the Polish musicians managed to produce such music and achieve such a degree of team thinking. In the first piece AEOIOE (Stańko Muniak), the band uses simple beat rhythms, seldom applied in Stańko s music. The melody is nearly tonal. This is especially true of the motif that appears twice in the piece. Seifert s Heban provides a counter-balance for this convention. The organisation of time and sound material is free, and the culmination (a monumental theme in unison) comes in the finale. The composition brings a display of Seifert s abilities as a violinist. [ ] In Piece For Diana the composer (Stańko) demonstrates his interest in sound colour. The composition brings clear associations with jungle music. Against the background of large sustained chords (functioning like a pedal note) we hear the sound of pipes, the whining of a flute, the whimpers of a flexatone all of which form an extremely colourful landscape. I probably do not need to praise the musicians skills as they are universally recognised and acclaimed. I would like only to single out the performance by the quintet s youngest member, the bassist Bronisław Suchanek, who demonstrates a rare sensitivity both in his arco and his pizzicato (an excellent solo in Piece For Diana ), coupled with phenomenal technique. 2 1 R. Kowal, Polski jazz Wczesna historia i trzy biografie zamknięte Komeda, Kosz, Seifert, op.cit. 2 Jazz, No. 10, 1972, Kazimierz Czyż, Wśród płyt, Nowe trendy, Jazzmessage From Poland [Record reviews: New trends - Jazzmessage From Poland]. 90

10 The Tomasz Stańko Quintet We ll Remember Komeda The LP, We ll Remember Komeda, dedicated to the memory of the great Polish jazzman, was recorded on 22 nd and 23 rd June 1972 at the Tonstudio Walldorf near Frankfurt-am-Main. Joachim Ernst Berendt, the producer of this album, invited an international group of musicians to the recording studio: Tomasz Stańko (tr, p, arr.), Michał Urbaniak (vn, ss, ts, arr.), Zbigniew Seifert (vn, as), Urszula Dudziak (v, perc), Attila Zoller (g), Roman Dyląg (b), Peter Giger (dr), and Armen Halburian (perc). The music selected for this album is widely diverse. It includes both compositions recorded by Komeda in Cologne for the LP Oh, My Sweet European Home (1967) and Komeda s film music (Kattorna, Rosemary s Baby, Knife in the Water). Krzysztof Komeda sought musical inspiration mostly in the work of contemporary Polish poets (for example, K. I. Gałczyński, W. Szymborska, Z. Herbert, Cz. Miłosz, and others), and his compositions reflect the moods of those poems. His strongest impact on audiences, however, was registered by his film scores noteworthy, as they are, for their powerfully evocative moods. The musicians who contributed to the present album had all played with Komeda in the past, knew him very well, and they have tried to remain true to the spirit of his music, selecting such forms of musical expression as they think Komeda might have used if he were able to play with them today. Michał Urbaniak made the following observations about Kattorna : I arranged this piece in the rock style, as I believe that this is the style in which Komeda would compose today. Komeda was fascinated with electric instruments, and this fascination is reflected in the electronic transformations applied [on our LP] mainly by Urszula Dudziak, Urbaniak, Zoller and Seifert. The best example of this is Crazy Girl, which he dedicated to his wife Zofia, wonderfully arranged and performed by the ensemble. In the brief piece for Rosemary s Baby (arr. Roman Dyląg), the musicians strive to re-create the uncanny atmosphere of the film by using its distinctive instrumental sound. The individual instruments are assigned roles, so that Urszula Dudziak impersonates the witch, the bass the devil, and the other instruments are supposed to create the mood of a witches sabbath. The compositions arranged by guitarist Attila Zoller, labelled Lamentoso No Love Song At All and Canzone for Warsaw are quite different; they are permeated with a seriousness and sorrowful mood. The twin contexts of their musician friend s parting, together with recollections of the cruelty of World War II impart to this music a dual significance. In terms of expression, the most interesting piece on this record is Komeda s Witches, inspired by Sebyła s poem and Performers: Tomasz Stańko tr, p, arr Michał Urbaniak vn, ss, ts, arr Zbigniew Seifert vn, as Urszula Dudziak v, perc Attila Zoller g Roman Dyląg b Peter Giger dr Armen Halburian perc Compositions: 1. Choral and Repetition (arr. Stańko) 2. No Lovesong At All (arr. Zoller) 3. Crazy Girl (arr. Urbaniak) 4. Meine S: a) Canzone For Warschau (arr. Zoller) b) Witches (arr. Stańko) c) The Trumpet Player Is Innocent (arr. Urbaniak) d) Dirge For Europe (arr. Seifert) 5. Kattorna (arr. Urbaniak) 6. Rosemary s Baby (arr. Dyląg) 91

11 The Tomasz Stańko Quintet vised concert on the factory floor timed to coincide with the change of shift. The jazzmen were primarily interested in the sociological aspect, namely, in the reception of difficult music by manual workers unaware of current fashions and the snob appeal of avant-garde movements. Stańko was also following his pioneering instincts: What would be the acoustic effect of playing on the shop floor? Stańko and Company improvised a classic head-arrangement, while at the same time observing workers reactions and incorporating all the extraneous noises (such as the shift-change siren) into their composition s world of sound effects. The result was a genuine success. The musicians were later informed that a appreciable increase in work output had been observed from shifts coinciding with their concert. This is no lark; it could serve to inspire serious research into the effects of jazz therapy. 1 Stańko s comments on this event, printed in Jazz Forum, prove that the concert on the factory floor was an interesting assessment of the reception of their by-no-means-easy music. Stańko was hoping that such experiments might help break down barriers in reception as the music was reaching listeners in the places where they most at home. 2 Apparently, even Voice of America reported on the interesting experiments conducted in communist Poland. Zbyszek wrote to his family: Our musical meetings are almost finished; in two days time, we will be heading back to Warsaw. It has been a great time. We attracted many students and I hope they have benefited from our workshops. I will arrive in Cracow with Agnieszka on the 20 th. Around 15 th September we must leave for West Germany. Then we come back for another two or three weeks and then I m off again back to Germany. 3 In the September 1972 issue of Jazz monthly, we find the following entry: 10 th and 11 th July Tomasz Stańko Quintet gave two performances in Olsztyn as part of the Art in July series (this time in the following line-up: J. Stefański dr, B. Suchanek b, T. Szukalski ts, Z. Seifert vn, and the band leader). Baden Baden New Jazz Meeting This festival was organised by the Radio/Television Südwestfunk Studios in West Germany. When asked which of his musical projects he valued the most, Joachim Ernst Berendt, founder of the festival, answered unhesitatingly, the New Jazz Meetings, most assuredly: They have been held in Baden Baden since the mid-1960s as a meeting of young musicians from all over the world, representing new trends and directions in jazz. The concerts are recorded and broadcast by Südwest Radio in Baden Baden. The main idea of the festival is to provide musicians with an ideal environment, free of any commercial pressures, where they have the opportunity to express themselves and present new concepts and new compositions, new arrangements and types of sound, music formations and trends without any limitations. Many new talents have been discovered at this festival over the years, as well as many ideas that have since become an indispensable part of various international music events. Jazz specialists and experts frequently remind the audience that those ideas originate from the New Jazz Meetings in Baden Baden. 4 1 Jazz, No. 1, 1973, Józef Balcerak, Off Beat. 2 Jazz Jamboree 1972 programme book, English version. 3 A postcard sent from Chodzież on 15th August Jazz, No. 10, 1974, an interview with Joachim Ernst Berendt conducted by Władysław Idzior. 93

12 Zbigniew Seifert s International Career Left to right: Philip Catherine a Berklee graduate, Lawrence Berk founder of the Berklee College of Music, and Zbyszek Seifert. Archive of Agnieszka Seifert The illness frustrated Zbyszek and Agnieszka s plans for moving to the USA, even though this had now been made possible by a lucrative offer from the famous Berklee College of Music. Lawrence Berk, head of Berklee College of Music, came to Germany to sign the contract with Zbyszek, who was to teach jazz violin at the jazz department while, at the same time, studying in the composition department. Their prospects looked suberb: two years of intensive English would enable Agnieszka to become Zbyszek s manager, while he, by then, would have mastered composition techniques well enough to become a professional composer. He was also planning to use his abilities in the area of film music. These are the plans they made with Chris Hinze, who, as Roman Kowal, explains was entertaining great hopes of conquering the US music record market by employing Zbyszek as his Trojan horse, and using Capitol as a means to this end. The prospect of a contract was becoming more and more real. They would both move to the United States where Seifert was supposed to play and record and Hinze was to produce his music.1 Zbyszek wrote to his family: I must be in Berklee (Boston) for the start of the summer semester on 3rd June. We are planning to leave West Germany toward the end of May. First, we must see to our flat. Fortunately, we will be able to leave some of the furniture there because the student who is taking over the flat has agreed to store some of it. Other stuff (old) clothes and equipment we re leaving with Dieter and Karl.2 Soon after the cancer diagnosis, in July 1976, the Seiferts moved not to New York but to a flat in Laendstrasse, Munich. Despite having already signed a contract with Berklee, their departure 1 R. Kowal, Polski jazz Wczesna historia i trzy biografie zamknięte Komeda, Kosz, Seifert; op.cit. 2 From a letter to family, Dortmund, 11th April

13 Zbigniew Seifert s International Career The duo Seifert-Mangelsdorff scored a big success at the festival. Mangelsdorff said: of all the musicians I can think of at the moment, Seifert is the one who appeals to me the most. 1 The press wrote that the Mangelsdorff-Seifert Duo has been praised even more highly by critics than the renowned tandem of Anthony Braxton and George Lewis, 2 which also performed at Donaueschingen that year. Another reviewer, however, criticised the stagnation evident at the festival: On the initiative of J.E. Berendt, for the last five years a jazz concert has been a regular feature of the festival programme. In 1976, its first part was entitled The Art of Duos. Albert Man-gelsdorff chose the violinist Zbigniew Seifert, with whom they performed for the first time as a duo. Unlike in the Mangelsdorff-Brötzmann duo, this time the performance was mostly all in the same meter. Nearly all the ideas came from Mangelsdorff, and Seifert frequently couldn t catch up with the trombone pushing forward a bit too hard. Seifert sounded all too frequently like a Romantic virtuoso. Naturally, the two musicians collaborated all the time, but their conversation seems to have been in different musical codes. Stylistically Mangelsdorff and Seifert did not go beyond the conventional, and their technique was dominated by blues-feeling.3 At the Berliner Jazztage ; left to right: Philip Catherine, Zbigniew Seifert, McCoy Tyner, Jan Byrczek. Archive of Jazz Forum 1 Jazz, Rytm i Piosenka, July-August Jazz Forum No. 4/XXVI 1977, Joachim Ernst Berendt, Zbigniew Seifert romantyk na tropach Coltrane a, [Zbigniew Seifert a Romantic Following in Coltrane s Footsteps], reprinted from Jazz Podium, No. 48, 4/ Jazz, No. 3, 1977, summary of an article in Jazz Podium, Zeszłego roku w Donaueschingen [Last Year in Donaueschingen]. Donauerschinger Musiktage festival programme. Archive of Agnieszka Seifert 139

14 Zbigniew Seifert s International Career instrumental colour is as important in this music as composition structure, melody and harmony. It is a pity that the interview with Seifert has been superimposed on the music of On The Farm, which, as far as one can hear it, seems to be a dynamic piece with strong jam-session qualities, worthy of being presented in its entirety also because it provided more expressive space to the other musicians. The interview itself, though perhaps the journalist s questions were not really imaginative, will be a valuable item in the archive of every jazzlover. Seifert s only original record released in Poland is not (and could not be) a sensation, nor is it, objectively speaking, successful and representative of the eminent violinist s output. 1 Soon after his visit in Cracow, Seifert travelled with his wife to the United States to record his second album for Capitol. The producers promised him absolute freedom in the choice of musicians and instrumentalists. Seifert could hope, therefore, that this would be his dreamt-of album. Passion Seifert was full of hope during his journey to New York. For two years he had not been able to play due to illness. For many long months he stayed in hospitals in Munich, near Frankfurt-am-Main, in Bonn and in Hanover And then his condition improved. Zbigniew Seifert during the recording session for the LP Passion (photo by Patrick Hinely, Work/Play Performers: Zbigniew Seifert vn John Scolfield g Richie Beirach p Eddie Gomez b Nana Vasconcelos perc Jack DeJohnette dr Compositions: 1. Passion 2. Where Are You From 3. Sunrise Music / Kilimanjaro 4. Pinocchio 5. Singing Dunes 6. Quo Vadis 7. Escape From The Sun 1 Jazz Forum, No. 75 2/1982, Kazimierz Czyż, Recenzje [Reviews]. 159

15 Zbigniew Seifert s International Career During the recording session for Passion, Jack DeJohnette, Zbigniew Seifert. Photos by Patrick Hinely, Work/Play During the recording session for Passion. Photo by Patrick Hinely, Work/Play the title of the album was invented by the former manager of Weather Report. This is how Zbyszek appeared in the eyes of his friends and the music environment as a man of passion, charisma and authority, almost a cult figure.1 Passion was his final effort, recorded in New York in November Seifert must have been thinking in terms of a summation of his music, for this is his most successfully diverse album. [ ] Again, having a good band helped. Eddie Gomez and Jack dejohnette are especially on the mark, as is Nana Vasconcelos. John Scofield 2 takes some nice, slightly raunchy solos, and Richie Beirach s piano colorations add a harmonic depth without mucking up the sound as pianos too often do in these sorts of settings. Especially noteworthy is the writing for string orchestra, on three tunes, Sunrise Music, Singing Dunes and Escape from the Sun. Seifert s scoring reflects an understanding of the string family as an integral whole last heard in the works of Debussy protégé Cyril Scott. In jazz composition, the only things to compare it to are Josef Zawinul s chamber-oriented works of the early seventies, but Seifert developed his music score more fully. Some of the arrangements Postcard sent to family from New York. Archive of Małgorzata Seifert 1 R. Kowal, Polski jazz Wczesna historia i trzy biografie zamknięte Komeda, Kosz, Seifert; op.cit. 2 Originally Zbyszek wanted to invite the guitarist John Abercombie to this session, but when he heard John Scofield in Germany he was delighted with his playing and he invited Scofield to the recording instead. 161