Zbigniew Namyslowski Quintet / Andrew Robson Trio / Huw Warren Trio

Zbigniew Namyslowski Quintet

Zbigniew Namyslowski inaugurated the first Berlin Jazz Festival with his quartet in 1964.

In the early days he played the trombone and the cello, but in 1960 the Polish musician ‘converted’ to the alto saxophone having joined Andrzej Trzaskowski’s combo. Influenced by Coltrane, Coleman, Parker and Rollins, he established a band with the predictive name Jazz Rockers in the same year. Michal Urbaniak joined the group shortly after. In the band of filmscore-composer Krzysztof Komeda he introduced Polish jazz to the west. In the mid-seventies Namyslowski came forth with his jazz-rock-masterpiece Kujawiak Goes Funky. In 1978 he began recording in the US. With his band Air Condition he was experimenting with reggae and pop and with the Zakopane Highlanders he was playing Polish folk music.

Andrew Robson Trio

Andrew Robson is one of the attractions of Sydney’s lively jazz scene. Before drawing attention with his trio, he played with Sandy Evans and The World According To James.

From the word go Robson maintained a highly individual style, whose characteristics are “naturalness, emotional connection and grace”, in the words of the Sydney Morning Herald. Robson gives the impression of having been born with a saxophone. He attracts melodies as if whistling lost in thought, the alto saxophone’s original sound spectrum is a starting rather than limiting point to him. In Australia he is mainly appreciated for his pleasure in story-telling and interaction. Robson plays to be heard, which is not necessarily an everyday occurrence in contemporary jazz.

Huw Warren Trio
with special guests June Tabor and Iain Ballamy

Warren’s sources are variegated: John Dowland, Charlie Parker, Hermeto Pascoal and Björk to name but a few. His keyboards function as a virtual orchestra. When he was young he used to play the Hammond organ in clubs, consequently he discovered jazz on the radio and learned to find access to the new music as a student of John Tilbury in the beginning of the eighties. Not long after he played with the Loose Tubes, there he got to know the saxophonist Iain Ballamy. Then he began attending to Brazilian and South African township-music. His album A Barrel Organ Far From Home (1997) for nine musicians is one of the most beautiful statements in recent British jazz history.