SBB [AKA: SBB 1]

SBB's first album was a live record of two concerts in Warsaw "Stodoła" Club in April 1974. After 23 years this it was finally released in extended version and includes not two tracks (as on vinyl edition) but six.

Józef Skrzek as a welcome on "I Need You Baby" said: "today we'd like to introduce you... music". Just like that... Just few words which express the credo of this album.

"I Need You Baby" is a piano blues for the beginning. Real emotions show in second track: "Odlot". It a CHAOS recieved in the court of the crimson king - incredible sound of Antymos Apostolis's guitar (almost like Fripp...).

"Wizje" includes two parts. The first vocal one ("Erotyk") is inspired by the works of Keith Emerson and Co. with nice David Gilmour soundlike guitar from Floyd's early psychedelic era.The second one is a fantasic instrumental masterpiece with great Jerzy Piotrowski's drum solo. Bill Bruford wouldn't shame to play duet with him.

"Zostało we mnie" brings the climate of the first part of Crimson's "Moonchild". "Krajobraz Po Bitwie" is an instrumental show of SBB's members aspecially Józef Skrzek's on bass guitar.

"Figo-Fago" includes magnificent themes from blues classic songs and fine Skrzek's harmonica solo.

This concert presents SBB as a group of great musicians not worse than ELP or King Crimson. It doesn't matter that they take inspirations from from these bands. This album includes orginal and absolutely magnificant music.

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.

SBB takes off

Before releasing their debut album, Silesian Blues Band already gained much popularity due to two years of playing with Czesław Niemen. In 1973 Józef Skrzek, Apostolis Anthimos and Jerzy Piotrowski left Niemen to play their own music, under their own name. In the early 1974 they met Franciszek Walicki who took care of band's concerts organization, promotion and helped to record their debut album. He also suggested to shorten band's name to three letters: SBB.

Band's eponymous debut LP, is not a studio album. It contains fragments of two completely sold out concerts that took place in Warsaw on 18 and 19 April 1974. Original LP contained 2 tracks and about 38 minutes of music (I Need You Babe and Odlot were merged as one track, Wizje was the second one), the CD version contains another three tracks from those concerts (Zostało we mnie, Wicher w polu dmie and Figo-Fago) and one studio track - Toczy się koło historii. The whole concert from 19 April 1974 was released in 2007 on double CD album Complete Tapes 1974.

- Good evening, we would like to present you... the music... - Józef Skrzek introduces the band and the music emerges. The opening track, I Need You, Babe is a simple (not to say: banal) blues ballad. Next track, Odlot starts with a short drum solo and then turns into a more lyrical part - a song Odlecieć z Wami, which turns into a noisy and lengthy guitar solo. Next track, nearly 19-minutes Wizje is in my opinion the best track on this album. It starts with a guitar solo and then another lyrical part - song Erotyk - comes. The rest of Wizje suite is a long and impressive keyboard solo. The synthesizer used by Józef Skrzek was Davolisint, which - as the CD booklet says - was a simple and primitive device, but had really an unique sound. Wizje, and the original LP, ends up with the riff 'borrowed' from The Noonward Race by The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

The other three live tracks on CD re-release (not as bonus tracks) are: Zostało we Mnie (beautiful ballad), Wicher w polu dmie (rough and noisy jazz-rock improvisation) and Figo-Fago (crazy blues-rock improvisation which was previously played in Niemen Band). The bonus track is the only studio one on this release. It's Toczy się koło historii, recorded in 1974, which riff was used later on SBB's album Follow My Dream (Track Going Away) while lyrics were used on Józef Skrzek's solo album Ojciec Chrzestny Dominika.

Released in 1974, SBB quickly became a rock classic in Poland and it is still sort of a cult album. I think it's a good start for the band but it's not as good as their following studio releases. It has some great moments, but also some less inspired - overall it's inconsistent in quality. Anyway, I think it may appeal to the fans of guitar improvisations and jazz-rock in general; I can recommend this album to the fans of Mahavishnu Orchestra and Jimi Hendrix.

Overall, good but uneven album, 3.5 stars.

This must be one of the best - if not THE BEST - live albums released by a group from Poland and in Poland we have plenty of fantastic bands from the progressive genre but none of them even got close to this live masterpiece album. Recorded in Student's Club Stodoła (The Barn) this album is packed with awe-inspiring guitar solos, guitar-bass duels and hypnotic drums playing. The backbone of this gig are the improvisations which are nicely built around several short compositions and give the feeling of one giant flowing piece of music. The compositions on this debut SBB album are so significant that the band was coming back to them during the next three decades as performing and recording ensemble. This album can easily be put on a shelf with giants like Made In Japan or The Song Remains The Same and to be frank, for me this SBB album is the winner among any other live album ever recorded. Hats off.

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.

The first ever release of SBB and it's a Live album!

Already experienced musicians stretching out in a fashion that prior to this LP was unheard of in Eastern Europe. Indeed, rather uncommon anywhere else. Largely due to this work, SBB have actually established a new genre and influenced numerous other bands that sprung up like mushrooms as a consequence.

Soaring guitar and keyboard duels dominate the performance, somewhat reminiscent of Santana/McLaughlin duel on "Flame-Sky", Brand X "Malaga Virgen", or even "One Word" by Mahavishnu. The difference is that SBB extends these improvisations much further. If you are into that sort of delivery - as I certainly am - you'll find these pieces indispensable.

The odd lyrical track on vocals and piano wouldn't be missed, but considering the length of the performance, one is still left with ample material to pay attention to.

Some of the bonus tracks on the CD release are also part of this concert, representing matching material - in places perhaps even superior - that didn't fit onto the original LP.

Highly recommended!