Sing Sing Penelope & Andrzej Przybielski - Stirli People In Jazzga (Monotype Records, 2009) ****

Sing Sing Penelope is a Polish "post-jazz" band, established in 2001 by musicians playing in jazz, avant-garde and rock groups. For this album they have trumpeter Andrzej "Major" Przybielski as their guest of honor. The latter is a kind of popular figure in Polish jazz, having played with all kinds of bands, in all kinds of settings, from traditional big band to free and avant-garde jazz, yet without having released any record as a leader. Sing Sing Penelope consists of Tomasz Glazik on saxophone and synthesizer, Wojciech Jachna on trumpet and flugelhorn, Rafal Gorzycki on drums, Daniel Mackiewicz on electric piano, synthesizer, organ and percussion, and Patryk Weclawek on bass. The music is hard to describe. Influences range all over the place, think of splintered sound of the electric Miles mixed with the psychedelia of the early Pink Floyd (the organ! the synth!), joined by the melancholy of Tomasz Stanko (especially on Hosanna SSP), and added to that a freewheeling modern jazz touch, all sweet with a little sharp edge. Clever, inspiring and beautiful music.

Listen to an excerpt from "Stirli People".

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