Press for Requiem
Click here for the official Requiem Press Release.
Stuart Broomer/All About Jazz NY
... a brilliant band... This profoundly lyrical CD can stand in the company of works like Herbie Hanckock's Maiden Voyage and Kenny Wheeler's Deer Wan.
Michael Tucker/Jazz Journal
...intelligently conceived and engaging project...The characterful, melancholy albeit sometimes sprightly music is delivered by carefully weighted playing all around. If this is testimony to the strength of Komeda's material it also says much about the maturity of this transatlantic take on matters European.
Bill Milkowski/Jazz Times
This tribute to Polish jazz pianist and soundtrack composer Krzysztof Komeda (renowned for his work on Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby) is lovingly handled by compatriots Andrzej Winnicki and Krzysztof Medyna, who have assembled a top-notch, freewheeling crew in bassist Scott Colley, trumpeter Russ Johnson and drummer Nasheet Waits. Stout-toned tenor saxophonist Medyna digs in on Komeda's three-part ode to John Coltrane, "Night-Time, Daytime Requiem," and wails on soprano on "Dirge for Europe." Johnson makes a potent frontline partner on compelling, emotionally charged pieces like "Prayer and Question," "Litania" and "Elutka."
Budd Kopman/AllAboutJazz.com
With the magnificent Requiem, pianist Andrzej Winnicki and saxophonist Krzysztof Medyna solidify and enhance their reputations as the prime promoters of the essential music of the Polish pianist and composer Krzysztof Komeda…The band’s playing, individually and as a group is superb … essential.
Dave Wayne/Jazz Review.com
Requiem is a wonderfully fresh look at the music of a composer who is finally getting his due in the jazz world. The playing here is fresh and inspired and in-the-moment, so much so that you never get the sense that this is merely another jazz repertory project. Highly recommended!
Rating: 5 Stars
Jakob Baekgaard/AllAboutJazz.com
... a cause for celebration ... done so in a sparkling, warm sound filled with the nuances that the music so richly deserves.
Press for Crazy Girl
Budd Kopman/AllAboutJazz.com (November 2007)
"The Komeda Project at Cornelia Street Cafe was electrifying, bringing the music of Krzysztof Komeda vividly to life. Though based on the original arrangements (those on paper and transcribed), the music as played by the present group revitalized it: the core, the exciting, the very alive essence of Komeda himself jumped from the stage. What came out ... was not a high-quality reproduction of some mystical music from the past, but living, breathing, completely alive music that did not sound dated in the slightest. The reason is that Komeda's compositions are Art and, as such, are timeless. As good as Crazy Girl is, hearing this music live was a fantastic experience..."
Tom Conrad/Stereophile Magazine
"Among music fans, jazz people typically possess an exaggerated need for new stimuli. To hear something that has not been heard before is their endless quest. They are hereby directed to Crazy Girl by the Komeda Project. My admiration for the album continued to grow as I listened to it. I think it is one of the strongest albums I have heard this year - and I get a LOT of albums in the mail!"
Performance: ****
Michael G. Nastos/Allmusic
"This CD is not a soundtrack to any movies, but select compositions from the screen works are given updates ... A further introduction to Komeda's music can be heard on many other recordings, but the Project has done his sound proud on this vital, exciting, and seminal offering that cannot come more highly recommended."
Budd Kopman/AllAboutJazz.com
"Highly recommended. The excitement, energy and the logical yet free structure of Komeda's work is readily apparent in the arrangements and playing. ... these tracks are not meant to be museum pieces, but rather a reaction in the present to the very core of Komeda's music.
...a wonderful introduction to the musical world of Krzysztof Komeda."
The New York Times
"While best known for his haunting soundtracks to Roman Polanski films, the Polish pianist and composer made plenty of music that commands full engagement. This quintet explores that rich musical terrain."
Keyboard Magazine
"Even amongst the many engaging, skillfully-executed projects that cross our desk, it's rare to discover something as unexpectedly compelling as this. On the group's latest release, Crazy Girl, arrangements of Komeda's works are sophisticated and engaging ... and the entire group's musicianship remains exceptional throughout."
Elliott Simon/AllAboutJazz - New York
"...a very versatile and potent quintet."
Stuart Nicholson/Jazzwise Magazine
"...updating Krzysztof Komeda's music within a contemporary hard bop context...that would not have been out of place on a Blue Note album."
C. Michael Bailey/AllAboutJazz.com
"The quintet’s musicianship is beautifully applicable and natural, with a certain organic recognition of the composer’s intent ... making it a compelling musical offering that stands apart from the typical, standard quintet fare."
Ryszard Borowski/Jazz Forum Magazine (Poland)
Translated from Polish
"It is perhaps due mainly to Medyna's intense and powerful tenor solos, that the music reminds us of John Coltrane, stylistically. That is a very good, even natural, direction where the Komeda's themes could be taken. Of course, each one of these instrumentalists has a distinctive personality; each one offers something uniquely his own, musically. And yet, at the same time, they have succeeded in preserving that certain overall mood that looms large over the whole record and determines its distinctive quality and originality."
Jazzenzo Magazine (Holland)
Translated from Dutch
"Crazy Girl proves again Krzysztof Komeda's special talent for combining sweet, catchy melodies with a threatening undertone. The five musicians of Komeda Project have chosen a somewhat stronger approach than Stanko (Litania, ECM), who foremost emphasized the lyrical side, but both do superb justice to the great talent of Komeda, which was silenced so
tragically."
Jazz & Tzaz Magazine (Greece)
Translated from Greek
"A dynamic combination of the constant movement and the lively rhythmic basis of the modern post-bop and the lyricism and the European perspective of Komeda. A beautiful tribute."
The Vortex Jazz (UK)
"None of the music's emotional power is dissipated in their absorbing, respectful yet consistently lively and compelling quintet treatments of some of the most under-visited items in the jazz canon. Recommended."