Tracklist :

A1 – O cyzm marza zakochani (what the lovers dream of)
A2 – Walc katarynek (barrel-organ waltz)
A3 – Gdzie szumiace topole (two rustling poplars)
A4 – Listki brzozy polnej (leaves of a birch-tree)
A5 – Jada wozy kolorow (painted wagons are coming)

B1 – Zapiszemy nasza milosc (we shall write down our love)
B2 – Nie zmogla go kula (bullet couldn’t fell him)
B3 – Dialog o polnocy (midnight dialogue)
B4 – Kwiat jedney nocy (flower of one night)
B5 – Plasy pod pegazem (dancing in the pegasus bar)

(play all tracks)

with Janusz Hojan, Waclaw Lesicki, Jan Kuzio and “Zespol Instrumentalny Jerzego Miliana” (his band, presumably), songs by Jerzy Milian, Pjotr Figiel, Wladimir Nahorny, S. Rembowski, Katarzyna Gärtner, J. Loranc

Anyone looking into polish jazz will very soon stumble over Jerzy Milian. His amazing style playing the vibraphone (vibes) and the fact the he recorded loads of records (classics like “Bazaar”, “Ashkabad Girl” or his record with the Katowiche Orchestra) made him one of the most known jazz-musicians from poland, even back in times of the cold war.

This record is a very rare one which I didn’t even know about until I found it at the closing-sale of a local record-shop. The great thing is that this record is extremely versatile, you get anything from slow, easy songs to incredibly fast and energetic bursts of music, but each song containing the amazing vibes (or xylophone) from Jerzy Milian.

There is a (home-?) page for Jerzy Milian in polish which contains an extensive discography, but as always you can also search on google.

Links :
Jerzy Milian – Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm | discogs

Tracklist :

A1 – Strona (snippet)
A2 – Jestes spoznionym deszczem
A3 – Wzejde polnym makiem
A4 – Otwieram list – brazowy wrzesien
A5 – W powszednie dni

B1 – Snij tylko szczescie (snippet)
B2 – Piesn geiry
B3 – Chce byc dla ciebie
B4 – Brzegi lagodne

(play all tracks)

music by SBB (Halina Frackowiak was background singer for SBB for some long time, for her own record they kinda switched the roles – she in the front, the band in the back.)

I chose this one because of its cover … A Fish-Bowl and some Ice and suddenly it all looks spacey. (Thats not her head in there, only a picture). Again thats not really a hit-record for me, some songs are nice but most of their charm comes from the fact that the language she sings in sounds strange and mystical to me, because I dont understand polish. But there are some good licks and breaks to be sampled. Also on a technical sidenote, the whole record sounds abit like a 96kbps mp3 (with a slurry, phased sound), but because it’s an original from the 70s they obviously wanted it this way.

I also found a great vid on youtube that seems to be a mixup between “Hair”, “Amadeus” and “Clockwork Orange” (yeah, sorry, but I find this rather scary …).

Go look on google for Halina Frackowiak or SBB.

Shopping links:

Halina Frackowiak – Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm.com
SBB – Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm.com