MAN OF THE LIGHT

3.5 stars. McCoy Tyner met Zbigniew at the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1976 where the latter played Tyner some of his tapes. McCoy related that "... I've never heard such a violinist before." The title track here by the way is dedicated to McCoy Tyner. Seifert's unique style could be attributed to his idea of playing the violin like a sax. He was a huge John Coltrane fan and followed his path as far as his style of playing goes, not playing it in the usual way. Personally I am not a fan of his playing. I own 3 or 4 albums that Seifert is playing on including this one solo album of his. My favourite album that he is on that I own would be "Lift!" from 1973. That was a Volker Kreigel album that includes John Marshall, Eberhard Weber and more.

"Man Of The Light" was released in 1976 and it is his debut. He moved to Germany in 1973, and besides working with guitarist Volker Kreigel, he would become part of that Hans Koller band that included Wolfgang Dauner, releasing that record in 1974. When he moved to Germany he related that Joakim Kuhn helped him tremendously, not only musically, but personally. He mentions that he saw Kuhn play live in Poland when he was 16 or 17, and that a lot of East German musicians like Kuhn would play in Poland. So of course for Seifert's first album he has Kuhn playing acoustic piano on it, along with fellow keyboardist Jasper van't Hof who plays electric piano and organ here. These two keyboardists were part of ASSOCIATION PC at the time. We get jazz drummer Billy Hart, and old school jazzer Cecil McBee on double bass. Seifert and McBee are the composers here.

"Stillness" and "Love In The Garden" were performed as a duo. The first as violin/ bass, the second violin/keyboards. To over simplify it, the other four tracks feature bass and drums with the violin and piano soloing over top. This gets tagged with Modal Jazz and Post-Bop, and when I see these sub-genres mentioned I usually run the other way. Clearly a very well played album but one that really isn't my scene. I much prefer Michal Urbaniac's playing and style. And I mention Michal because he was a contemporary with Seifert and also from Poland, and also playing both violin and sax. Both would end up moving to America, but Seifert tragically passed from cancer in Buffalo NY at 32 years of age.

If your more into the traditional side of Jazz you will probably enjoy this record.