Adam Bałdych & Leszek Możdżer - Passacaglia (2024)

On "Passacaglia", two of the most prominent characters in Polish jazz come together: violinist Adam Bałdych and pianist Leszek Możdżer.

This connection is so obvious that it has long been longed for by many. For more than a decade, to be precise. Adam Bałdych remembers the first time they met: "Leszek invited me to a joint concert at the opera house in Wrocław. Since then, we have met again and again to improvise together, but even more so to talk. It was clear from the start that we would harmonize musically. But I think we subconsciously wanted to save the intense playing together for the right moment, which we knew would come."

The fact that it took so long is mainly due to the extensive activities of the two musicians as leaders. Leszek Możdżer can confidently be described as a pop star of Polish jazz. His albums have reached the top of the charts and his Możdżer+ concerts with guests such as John Scofield and Marcus Miller have been attended by tens of thousands of fans. And Możdżer has also gained a loyal audience throughout Europe, especially in duo with Lars Danielsson and with his trio. Adam Bałdych also occupies an exceptional position. He has achieved a unique degree of improvisational and stylistic freedom on the violin, with the FAZ calling him the "greatest living violin technician in jazz" ten years ago. Both Możdżer and Bałdych move between classical, jazz and contemporary music. And both are ambassadors for the culture of their home country and have received the highest Polish Order of Merit, among other honors.

The first joint album "Passacaglia" is the musical essence of its protagonists. And it seems as if its components had been working inside them for a long time and just needed to be put together. Leszek Możdżer says: "It's as if we didn't play this music, but as if it played through us. It came about naturally through the interaction between Adam and me, not through an intellectual process. First we jammed for three hours, recorded everything and then formed compositions from individual motifs."

These collective compositions are complemented by some of Bałdych and Możdżer's own pieces and interpretations of themes by Erik Satie, Josquin des Prez and Hildegard von Bingen, which point to the pair's classical roots.

Bałdych and Możdżer use a highly unusual combination of instruments for the realization: In addition to the classical violin, Bałdych also plays a warmer-sounding Renaissance violin and shows himself to be a master of pizzicato, the plucked playing style of the instrument, as well as playing with the bow. Możdżer has long been known for preparing the piano with all kinds of materials. This time, the sound researcher goes a big step further and plays two concert grand pianos tuned to 442 and 432 Hz, sometimes simultaneously. He explains: "A while ago, I heard that tuning the grand piano to 432 Hz had a therapeutic effect and decided to try it out. Since I have two grand pianos in my studio, I left the second one in the normal tuning to have a comparison. One day I set up the two instruments next to each other so that I could play them at the same time. The result was amazing. It was like playing in higher resolution, suddenly I had 24 steps in an octave instead of 12. It's a liberation from the limitations of the tempered tonal system."

Essentially, Bałdych and Mozdzer are concerned with sound. About searching and finding it together. It is the sum of all melodies, rhythms and harmonies. And even if the starting point of this search is often the beautiful, warm and gentle, when listening to "Passacaglia" you are constantly surprised by the twists and turns that the music takes. Bałdych and Możdżer use complex, sometimes avant-garde means to create music of captivating clarity that has nothing technical about it and constantly reveals new colors and shades. Like many albums that captivate in the long term, Passacaglia is attractive and approachable, but doesn't reveal all its secrets straight away, but keeps you coming back to discover more.

TRACKLIST

1. Leszek Mozdzer & Adam Bałdych - Passacaglia
2. Adam Bałdych - Jadzia
3. Leszek Mozdzer & Adam Bałdych - Moon
4. Leszek Mozdzer & Adam Bałdych - December
5. Adam Bałdych - Gymnopedie
6. Adam Bałdych - Polydilemma
7. Adam Bałdych - Le Pearl
8. Adam Bałdych - January
9. Adam Bałdych - Beyond Horizon
10. Adam Bałdych - Saltare
11. Adam Bałdych - Circumcscriptions
12. Adam Bałdych - Resonance
13. Adam Bałdych - Aurora
14. Adam Bałdych - O Ignee Spiritus
15. Adam Bałdych - La Deploration Sur La Mort D'ockeghem