JACEK KOCHAN — Man Of No Words (review)

JACEK KOCHAN — Man Of No Words album cover Album · 2008 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
snobb
Polish drummer Jacek Kochan began his career in the 70s, in the early 80s he moved to New York where he played with many local RnB, funk and jazz musicians and studied music. In the mid 80s he relocated to Canada, where played as an orchestra musician and recorded with John Abercrombie and others. After a return to Europe in 1995 he continued to collaborate with leading jazz musicians (Dave Liebman, Greg Osby, Palle Mikkelborg, Lars Danielsson, Dave Fiuczynski and others) and released solo albums as well.

'Man Of No Words' is a surprisingly strong album - surprisingly because at the time of release it passed almost unnoticed. Possibly one of the reasons is it was released on domestic Polish label without wide distribution around the world, who knows...

Music on this album is complex multi-layered avant-garde jazz, pre-composed, perfectly played and with lot of space for (controlled) improvs. All the musicians who collaborated are competent, but the main frontmen, besides of Kochan, are sax player Gary Thomas and pianist Dominik Wania. The compositions are rooted in avant-garde jazz golden age sound, but with lots of modern elements: beside drums, Jacek uses lots of electronics and gets partial help from accordion, strings and reeds. Even more - in some moments you can even hear some nu jazz arrangements! But most importantly, all of these elements sound absolutely organic!

This album sounds quite accessible from the surface but requires repeated listening and every new listen shows different nuances of the music presented. Great work of modern avant-garde jazz without avant-garde fetishism.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Sanyas Post Bop
STEVE TURRE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Pianohooligan : Critique of Swing in Two Parts, Pts. 1 & 2 Third Stream
PIOTR ORZECHOWSKI (PIANOHOOLIGAN)
Buy this album from MMA partners
Jason Stein, Marilyn Crispell, Damon Smith, Adam Shead : Spi​-​raling Horn Avant-Garde Jazz
JASON STEIN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Utopia Jazz Related Improv/Composition
OLIVER LUTZ
Buy this album from MMA partners
Charlie Pyne Quartet : Nature Is A Mother Vocal Jazz
CHARLIE PYNE
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

FULL ALBUM - Oliver Lutz - Utopia w/ Leif Berger, Constantin Krahmer
OLIVER LUTZ
js· 10 hours ago
Lift
DAVE WILSON (US/NZ)
js· 2 days ago
Nature is a Mother
CHARLIE PYNE
js· 2 days ago
Marta Warelis solo @ FourOneOne 5-11-23
MARTA WARELIS
js· 3 days ago
The Chapparrals - Shake Your Head (US, 1978) [Full LP] {Funk, Disco, Soul} ??ULTRA RARE KILLER LP??
THE CHAPPARRALS
js· 4 days ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed