ATMA

Finding out about the music of Michal Urbaniak was such a huge discovery for me. Jazz/Fusion is my favourite of the sub-genres and he does it just the way I like for the most part. A child prodigy with the violin he also commanded the sax and pretty much anything he wants to play. This is a six piece and his wife adds some gorgeous vocal melodies while we get a drummer, bassist and keyboardist who plays clavinet, Fender Rhodes, farfisa and moog. Oh there's a second drummer mainly adding percussion and congas. Just a great sound to this one with my only complaint being with the opener which I'll get to.

"Mazurka" as I mentioned doesn't suit my tastes too well mainly for the traditional Polish music he adds with the violin. I'm so not into traditional music from any country really with that folkish vibe. Here it is with the violin melodies that come and go but at least they are contrasted with spacey sounds. Clavinet arrives before 2 1/2 minutes with those spacey sounds along with drums and bass. Violin takes over a minute later then more clavinet until that traditional sound returns late.

"Butterfly" is such an amazing tune with the Fender Rhodes, unique sounding violin and cymbals to start. Drums, violin and vocal melodies do take over. Such a feel good, summertime vibe here. Back to that opening theme after 1 1/2 minutes as contrasts continue. So good! The violin starts to solo before 3 minutes then back to the contrasts a minute later.

"Largo" opens with atmosphere as bass comes out of this then mournful violin. The sound here is kind of drifting until drums arrive after 2 minutes. Still laid back though. I like this.The violin rips it up late to end it. "Iilex" has a drum intro as bass joins in then violin. It settles back before 1 1/2 minutes then kicks in again as contrasts continue. Some vocal expressions around 3 1/2 minutes. Some fantastic drumming and violin later on.

"New York Batsa" opens with violin as clavinet, drums, bass and more kick in. A calm around a minute but it kicks back in quickly. These contrasts continue. There's some fast paced vocal melodies after 3 minutes sounding pretty cool. "Kama(Part I)" has these haunting vocal melodies that echo and then they get quite experimental. Man she's amazing! "Kama(Part II)" has her doing scats as bass and percussion join in. Vocal melodies follow then more scats as it builds. So good. Violin at 1 1/2 minutes.

"Atma:Yesterday" opens with bass and drums as Fender Rhodes joins in. Nice. Violin before a minute. This is fairly laid back and it sounds great. It does come to life before 3 minutes just before it ends. "Atma:Today" is uptempo with percussion, congas and electric piano once again as the bass and violin join in. "Atma:Tomorrow" has this relaxed start with bass, drums and electric piano. Some clavinet too then violin and farfisa later as it picks up some.

Looking forward to a few more of his releases in the coming months. My kind of music.

Michał's first album recorded and released for CBS Records in the USA (Fusion was a re-release of a previously released European-recorded album from 1973).

1. "Mazurka" (5:08) opens with a little spirit of Stéphane Grappelli in Michał's violin, but then his ground-breaking MIT- designed vi-tar electric violin hybrid takes off in the fashion only heard by the future sound of L. Shankar--all played over a wonderfully-lo-funk rhythm track held tightly together by Wojciech Karolak's awesome keyboard play (mostly clavinet). Awesome futuristic sound. Definitely genre-bending. (9.5/10)

2. "Butterfly" (7:13) more prototypical Smooth Jazz with wordless vocalist Urszula Dudziak's Northettes-like performance in much of the song's lead position over the first three minutes. The Latin-infused smooth funk is like BOB JAMES music only several steps up in terms of both sophistication and production. Michał's loyal band is so locked in, so synchronized and attuned to one another's perfectly blended contributions to the music playing beneath the soloists. (Wojciech is astoundingly good.) And I can't let this go without mentioning the amazing STEELY DAN/DAVE STEWART-like shift in the rhythmic tone of the song around 5:43 that comes from Wojciech--switching in and out of a bassa nova lite. Genius! So beautiufl! Then why do I find myself craving some of that raw "dirty" play from Michal's earlier albums? (14.75/15)

3. "Largo" (4:30) another "Silence"-like (from Inactin) slow violin and other drone-like bowed and synthetic instruments. Ula is in the mix, helping with the presentation of the main melody, but then providing ghost-like GILLI SMYTH-like faeirie-waif vocals between and around the impressive electric violin play of her husband. The drums, bass, percussion, and keys beneath are solid, as always, in their shifting duties of support. (8.75/10)

4. "Ilex" (5:48) a fast-paced, uptempo mostly-race, sometimes cruising song of great complexity suddenly turns quite serious and heavy at 1:15, but then at the very end of the second minute it shifts back into an awesome J-L Ponty-like cruising speed with some interesting Latin-Caribb rhythm play beneath Michał's soaring Ponty-like electric violin play. The bridges between solo passages are lightning fast and complex whole-band affairs in the same way that Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return To Forever use. Urszula gets the next solo but she is rather reserved, holding surprisingly close to the main melodies--which is even more amplified in the next section in which she tandems with her husband's frantic violin lines. It's nothing short of amazing! Easily a top three song for me. (10/10)

5. "New York Batsa" (5:03) more clavinet-heavy highway cruising with Ula in the lead with her husband's vi-tar and some saxophone (?!) very cool composition that takes no little talent and skill to pull off for all the band members-- especially the remarkable Urszula Dudziak. After the 2:25 restart, Michał takes a turn soloing all alone on his slow- flanged violin (not the vi-tar--that returns a little later). Columbia must be getting more comfortable (or impressed) with Ula's talents as they're really letting her have free reign as well more front and center positioning in the mixes-- it's not all GONG-like faerie work or sexy/soothing Northettes fare. (Thank god! She's just too talented to try to hold back.) (9.5/10)

6. "Kama (part I)" (2:24) or "Kama Ula" on some albums; a solo a cappella performance from Ula that is very, very heavily treated with many effects that I cannot begin to guess at. (Todd Rundgren-like.) (4.375/5)

7. "Kama (part II)" (2:21) the Ula-fest continues but this one is more straigtforward (less prodcessed) and more Flora Purim-like (though she definitely goes far beyond the Santería chanting of Flora as the song goes on) with some great fast-paced, highly percussioned jazz-funk running beneath her. (4.667/5)

8. "Atma : yesterday" (3:17) a surprisingly gentle and spacious slow jazz-funk that provides the spacey foundation for Michał to boldly go on his delay-echo-infinite-sustained violin some amazing melody playing. (Had the band possibly heard KOOL & THE GANG's "Summer Madness" before they created this song?) The man knows how to use his effects! (and inspire Jean-Luc Ponty along the way). Do I hear a little saxophone doubling up the violin at the end? This little tune could very well have served as a back up theme for Alan Almond's Pillow Talk radio show. (9.5/10)

9. "Atma : today" (3:30) uptempo yet not as breakneck as some of the other songs on the album--more Brasilian bassa nova in its base, the bass, drums, congas, rich multiple keys, and other Brazilian percussion are exquisite in their support of Michał's violin and background saxophone play. The fact that this man, a Pole, could find this kind of affinity for Brazilian bossa nova for his sensuous electric violin to play over but Jean-Luc Ponty never could exposes one of the flaws/biases in M. Ponty's music. (9.3333/10)

10. "Atma : tomorrow" (3:16) a variation of the first Atma's theme and sound palette, slightly changed, engineered slightly differently. Might Ronnie Laws have heard this before he launched into the recording of his first solo album? Not as rich or powerful as the previous "version" but still quite good. (9/10)

Total time: 42:30

A/five stars; an indisputable masterpiece of Jazz-Rock Fusion; one of the best/brightest shining examples of peak Third Wave Jazz-Rock Fusion that I've ever heard (and by now I've heard a few!) Absolutely an essential acquisition to any music lover who claims to know or love J-R Fusion.