SBB [AKA: SBB 1]

This is SBB's first recording and it's a live one from 1974. Man I have this love hate thing for this record. The hate part is for the first 4 1/2 minutes of the opening track which features piano and bluesy vocals. Not a fan. It's like listening to a lounge singer. We get about 5 1/2 minutes of piano and reserved vocals on the second side long suite. While not as bad as the first example it is disappointing.

The first side long track called "Odlot" begins with the aforementioned piano and vocals, then we get the good stuff. It starts with a killer drum solo then the guitar and bass joins in as the singer does his Robert Plant impression. It calms right down. Vocals 7 minutes in and it's still very restrained. Nice guitar 11 1/2 minutes in as drums pound away. The tempo picks up. We get some fuzzed out bass and then the guitar starts to rip it up 15 1/2 minutes in. Amazing ! I could listen to this all day. It starts to settle 18 minutes in to the end.

"Wizje" is the other side long track and it begins with the guitar crying out and making noise for over 3 minutes. Impressive. That's when the piano and reserved vocals come in. The guitar starts to make lots of strange noises as drums pound away.The drumming is incredible 16 minutes in.The tempo picks up a minute later as the guitar returns.

I think 3.5 stars is fair for this one. I tell you though, these three guys can play with the best in the world. I really enjoy just listening to them play and jam, i'm just not a fan of the piano / vocal sections.

Legendary Polish band,starting under the name Silesian Blues Band and formed in 1971 in Siemianowice Slaskie by Józef Skrzek,Apostolis Anthimos and Jerzy Piotrowski.An intense live activity and promotion helped the band become known also outside of the Silesia region.By early 72' they decided to collaborate with Czesław Niemen and a new group,NIEMEN was born.This nice act lasted no more than one year and a half,releasing four albums and touring around Europe.Afterwards the trio of Silesian Blues Band shortened their name to SBB (but this time it came from ''Szukaj, Burz, Buduj'' aka ''Search, Break, Build') 'and continued producing music.In 1974 SBB released their first LP on Polskie Nagrania Muza ,a live recording on the 18th and 19 April 1974.A 1997 CD re-issue of this album contains a number of bonus tracks to sum up to almost 80 minutes of music.

STYLE: Combining Jazz,Blues,Rock and Classical Music in a much improvisational way,SBB are really a hard band to compare.Opening number is totally out of atmosphere,a bluesy ballad with uninteresting content.With ''Odlot'' SBB show many of their skills and influences.An electric outburst with plenty of free jamming parts,the track opens with a jazzy rhythm with a spacey atmospheric mood before it gets into an Anthimos' show with very extended Hendric- influenced soloing.First ten minutes of ''Wizje'' are Józef Skrzek's moment with his piano dominating the atmosphere surrounded by his lyrical performance,while afterwards the band turns the track into a free loose structure with obscure guitars and keys,where even Piotrowski contributes with a long drum solo.

On a little talk about the re-issue's bonus tracks,these come as a good follow to the original work,as they continue on the improvisational mood of the original LP with a few structured vocal-led blues sections.

INFLUENCES/SOUNDS LIKE: East-Europian bands arec trully hard to compare.Imagine JIMMY HENDRIX on guitars collaborating with two Jazz-Rock musicians on drums/bass/keys in a rather Free Jazz/Blues form.

PLUS: SBB are a band with a name perfectly chosen.This trio tries to explore the possibilities of blending different styles of music in a unique way.Musicians are all very good handlers of their instruments,no doubt about it.

MINUS: The biggest issue of the album for me: No structures at all.This album has a free music form in 90% of its running time and sounds more as a rehearsal than a well-organized live performance. Additionally most of these parts are long-stretched,resulting two over 10.min. tracks of pure improvisation.A couple of listens get me boring to death.The mellower parts with the ballad-feeling are also quite uninspired and forgettable.Vocals are not of significant reference.

WILL APPEAL TO: Only for collectors,maybe also to those into free or more experimental forms of music.

CONCLUSION/RATING: Strange story...this album is very progressive but it's not Progressive Rock.I am not a fan of too much improvisational music and thus ''SBB 1'' was for me a hard and painful experience...and while I recognize how open-minded this band was back then,I doubt this album will enter my CD player in the future...1 star.

S.B.B - st (1974) LIVE

When the English scene was just about to stumble and move into a free-fall direction, the Eastern European countries awoken. After an equal beneficial cooperation with Cheslaw Niemen, the Sylisian Blues Band recorded it's first own lp whilst changing it's name to the Polish equivalent of Search - Break - Buildup. The debut album was recorded live, but the sound quality is actually quite good.

The cohesive qualities of the band aren't fully present yet, and one could even say this live set is a bit of a mess. Both side long compositions/jams begin with an acoustic piano-blues (with really great vocals of Józef Skrzek). Then, suddenly the style changes into improvisational dirty hard-rock with some avant-garde leanings at times. Distorted bass-solo's, heavy experimental guitar playing by Apostolis Antymos with yet some more dirty effects and fierce drumming by Jerzy Piotrowsk. During the jams Skrek sometimes plays on his key-instruments. During the heavy distorted bass-lines I sometimes get reminded of the Zeuhl genre, of which the sound is sometimes resemblant. The sound of the performance is exciting, but the lack of structure does make it a haze at times.

Conclusion. This debut/live album shows a very talented band playing with lots of energy, but lack of direction. The very sensitive blues-piano parts combined with the almost heavy-metal- like distorted bass jams just don't work together that well. Still, this album can be enjoyable for it has many interesting instrumental passages and the piano/vocals-parts are actually of a very high standard. If you are a fan of the band, this is not something that should be skipped, but it's nowhere near a good place to start. In stead, I'd would recommend Pamiec (third) for early S.B.B. exploration. This one get's three stars.