Slowly, slowly, the best of Polish jazz and rock start to appear on CDs. String Connection was the greatest Polish jazz band in 1980s. I was lucky enough to see them live in Moscow Olympic Village in mid-’80s. (Incidentally, it was the first “foreign” band I ever seen live. Those were the days.)
Now Bizzaramente was recorded by a rather different band. The two original String Connection members, Krzesimir Dębski (violin, keyboards) and Krzysztof Przybyłowicz (drums), are joined here by Dom Um Romão (percussion) and Peter Szalay (tabla). Frankly, I was expecting a more interesting result from this collaboration. There’s not much of string connection — the sound is dominated by Dębski’s keyboards (rather than violin), and it must have sounded dated even back in 1988. The absence of a real bass player is pretty obvious. I wouldn’t call it jazz either. At best, it could be a movie soundtrack. The music is well-crafted and pleasant but there’s nothing, really, bizzarramente about it — except, perhaps, Paysage à la Balthüs 2, which is my favourite song on the album.
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