Live

Piotr Wylezol, Purcell Room, The Southbank Centre 30/05/10

Pianist, Piotr Wylezol a virtuoso and composer with a highly developed ensemble sense took to the stage at the Purcell Room with steely eyed determination and a handful of eloquent compositions that show him to be eminently capable of spearheading the new polish jazz vanguard that's exploding around Europe.

The sophisticated level and the broad palette Piotr conjours up is truly remarkable. No wonder he's an essential part and quite possibly the core of The Nigel Kennedy Quintet.

So now, at last, he got to shine with his own excellent band to a packed crowd who had come to support both Piotr and the NK polish weekend on the southbank.

Angular, muscular yet highly sensitive playing as exemplified by his composition 'Nicholas Patu' sees PW share his wares with consummate ease. It's jagged feel magnified by Adam Kowalewski's driving bass gives way to PW's evocative expressions and drummer Krzysztof Dziedzic relishes the modal fluidity of the tune and plays with it like a cat teasing a mouse pushing and pulling across the beat to wondrous effect.

'Children's Episode' from his last album,a seductive low key theme, shows the deep reflective mood PW can find himself in,a creative height that easily sees him on a parallel to the great Keith Jarrett. This Polish powerhouse has bags of potential that is only just beginning to seep out to us this side of the channel.

Guitarist David Doruka gets in on the action too with his fast swing modal masterpiece 'El Gats' again propulsively led by wunderkind drummer Krzysztof Dziedzic. PW switches to rhodes for this progressive piece and underpins the taut and wiry playing of tenor saxophonist Adam Pieronczyk whose tone is absolutely sublime and consistently magical.

Lyrical, warm, haunting, expressive, subtle, (I could go on!) are just a few adjectives to describe Piotr Wylezol, Poland's best kept secret until now. It's great to see top European players making their mark here and wowing us the way Piotr did.

So to sum it up, a startlingly sincere performance and highly satisfying afternoon spent on the southbank in the inviting company of the Piotr Wylezol quintet. Rest assured they have unequivocally stuck in this listener's memory bank and will do for sometime yet!
Words Emrys Baird