KRZYSZTOF SCIERANSKI

While the album is only his third solo album, the album comes fully loaded with a set of 8 well-crafted and well-executed tracks from the seasoned Polish bassist. Seeing as Scieranski is the namesake of the album, bass often supersedes the guitar and drum tracks, but Scieranski's skill with his fretless instrument shines beautifully on its own, showing the man's many years of practice and honing his prolific ability. Whether he is slapping, sliding, or just plucking along, Scieranski, along with fellow fusioners Pawel Scieranski (guitars) and Jan Pluta (drums) are effortlessly able to mesh as a cohesive group of creative jazz musicians, improvising over Scieranski's fun and upbeat fusion frames. Each member of the trio acts as a support for the other, whether Pluta is contributing a solid rhythmic foundation, P. Scieranski is accentuating some theme with an ambient or atmospheric guitar nuance or K. Scieranski himself is laying down the solid groundwork for which bassists are most well-known for, the whole album is teeming with beautifully cohesive instrumental prowess.

Scieranski seems to take a lot of influence from Jaco Pastorius, heavily using bass harmonics as a melodic technique, using jazz scales in a funky way, and utilizing the electric fretless bass with ease. His melodic tendencies as a composer often dip into the "soft" area; he utilizes warm, clean guitar tones and a gentler production atmosphere to brighten the heavy use of atmospheric bass harmonics, guitar swaths, and continuous use of the ride cymbal. In general, however, this seems to add a small layer of cheese to his otherwise very creative and fresh fusion. Of course, Scierenski knows how to bop as well, as songs like Touching You and Where is That Girl (already cheesy song titles, I know) can get into a very solid groove.

Overall, my discovery of Krzysztof Scieranski (eventually I will be able to type that name without a guide, hopefully) has been a good one. The man has solid grooves, a great tone, and a knack for writing melodious, well-developed funk-fusion. The album, "No Radio," is in no way groundbreaking in the fusion world, but Scieranski shows that he is no doubt a capable fusion bassist, and I recommend this very fun fusion album to anyone who enjoys fusion bass with an emphasis on atmosphere (the last two tracks are almost solely atmospheric bass soloing) and a slightly soft fringe quality. In the end, however, the album is very good. 3 stars.