HERITAGE

Very rare Michal Urbaniak's album. Recorded in Stuttgart, Germany with his Fusion band. Quite different from his earlier works.

Urbaniak's violin isn't soloing instrument there, but part of well balanced fusion sound. Kenny Kirkland, US keyboardist, plays one of his first recordings ever on this album. His keyboards sound is a basis for all compositions on this album and sounds very Corea (RTF time) influenced. Another great musician, participated on this album, was US bassist Tony Bunn, ex -Sun Ra's Intergalactic Research Arkestra member.

Album's music contains jazzy wordless vocals of Michal's wife and well-known Polish jazz- singer Urszula Dudziak, heavily influenced by psychedelic Gong's vocals. All music is extremely interesting combination of melodic Eastern European and funky US early jazz fusion.

Very interesting and pleasant album. Must have work for any serious jazz fusion collection. Extremely rare recordings now, though.

I will admit it. I collected Michal Urbaniak's albums back in the seventies not for his performance, although he is a fine violin player, but for his wife's vocals. Urszula Dudziak is an amazing performer, an exceptional scat vocalist with a four octave range, and a flair for the bizarre that falls somewhere between Yoko Ono and a space alien.

Urbaniak writes and plays nice, but not spectacular fusion pieces, and has a nice flair on his violin (although he's no competition for the likes of Jean-Luc Ponty). His band is good, as well, although they sound like a hundred other seventies fusion combos.

It's Dudziak who raises the music above the normal. Whether she is just adding background vocal percussion, or taking the lead, she dominates the pieces with her weird vocal brilliance. One question though: Why does Cucu's Nest appear on so many albums?