Michal Urbaniak Group - Inactin' (1973)

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Michal Urbaniak Group - Inactin' (1973)

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This is a reissue of the second album recorded for the small German label Spiegelei by the ensemble headed by Polish Jazz saxophonist / violinist / composer Michal Urbaniak. The ensemble included also Urbaniak's wife at the time, vocalist Urszula Dudziak, keyboardist Adam Makowicz, bassist Roman Dylag, drummer Czeslaw Bartkowski and Yugoslav percussionist Branislav Kovacev. The album includes seven tracks, all composed by Urbaniak.

This album has several similarities to the live album Urbaniak and his ensemble recorded in 1973 in Poland, released as part of the legendary Polish Jazz series (Vol. 36) and entitled "In Concert", which in retrospect was one of Polish Jazz most significant and pivotal recordings and a giant milestone towards the discovery of Jazz-Rock Fusion on the local scene. Those two albums share several of the compositions and almost identical core lineup and most importantly the unique stylistic approach, which mixed Jazz, Rock, Electronics and Free Jazz in a way never previously attempted.

The Spiegelei contact, which also produced the album "Paratyphus B" recorded a year earlier with the same lineup except for Pawel Jarzebski on bass, happened as a result of the success Urbaniak achieved in Europe touring there extensively in the early 1970s, which culminated with his appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1971 and winning there a first prize as instrumentalist, at the time still playing the saxophone. The switch to violin, which was Urbaniak's original instrument, changed his career dramatically and marked the new period in his career. The entire period marks a turbulent time for Urbaniak and Dudziak, with their dramatic emigration to USA soon after.

The music Urbaniak's group created was definitely one of the most innovative and adventurous experiments done at the time, surely by any musicians originating from behind the Iron Curtain. The freedom of expression, which originated in the Free Jazz, mixed with the use of electric instruments and electronic voice enhancements, emerged as some of the most exciting sounds then, and to same extent even today, almost four decades later. Urbaniak used Polish folk motifs and uneven meters to make things even more exciting and Dudziak's visionary usage of the human voice was eons ahead of its time.

In retrospect the two Spiegelei albums and the three albums Urbaniak recorded for Columbia in the USA during the years immediately after his arrival there remain to this very day as his strongest statements, with the body of work created by him and his groups in the early 1970s being unsurpassed.

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Michal Urbaniak Group - Inactin' (1973)

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