The Jazz Project - Album 85: Krzysztof Komeda - "Astigmatic"

               To further my understanding of Jazz, I'm listening through Jazzwise Magazine's "The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World". Each album is presented with my stream-of-consciousness thoughts for each track, my general thoughts of the album as a whole, and any relevant information I can capture about the album. Also included is my drink of choice while taking the album in. Thank you for joining me on my journey to [partial] Jazz enlightenment.

Album 85
Krzysztof Komeda - Astigmatic
Drinking: PBR

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1. "Astigmatic": The song opens with a jilted opening. Clean trumpets play over an eerie piano. The piano is almost manic in sound. I like how it's all starting to pull together with the drums and bass, falls away, and then comes back. The staccato rhythm is gripping. As the trumpets continue to perform I catch a mild glimpse of Miles Davis. Musically this feels like a relationship, starting with a fight, but about three minutes in it starts cooling off into a calm moment. Still, it feels like the piano, drums, and bass is operating independently of each other leaving me feeling disoriented. About six minutes in there is an odd trumpet solo that feels like it's trying to display fragility, but gently or gracefully but in a manic, crazy way. It's like looking for your keys in the house when you're already 20 minutes late, this crazed frenetic mindset builds inside until it almost fully takes control of you. This crazed piece segues to a duet between the trumpet and bass. I wonder what this studio session was like. I want to believe they were all on the same page as they performed this music, but how would you recreate these moments? It feels like a stream of consciousness that is freely flowing through these musicians. At ~11 minutes in we get a familiar Jazz moment with free soloing and one hell of a walking bass line. I know it can't last, but it's a nice change of pace from the journey this album has taken me on. At ~13 minutes the saxophone takes the spotlight for a sporadic and clustered solo. Regardless of how it sounds, this player has some serious chops. The bass takes over with a sliding and bend heavy, yet quiet solo. A feeling takes over that the music is mimicking a bad dreamscape. The entity is trapped and hysterical, yet free. A drum solo pops up around the 18-minute mark, which was a highlight, it's arguably my favorite part of this track. The band comes back together around the 19-minute mark to close out this track. These moments are very similar to the opening of the album. As an equally eerie ending comes closing in, I find myself wondering if this was a one-take performance. 
2. "Kattorna": This is the shortest track on the album by far. It features a much more conventional opening to a track, and I find the riffs to be quite pleasing. It sounds like the chase scene in a late-night gangster movie. Or perhaps watching beat cops rolling his way through the night. Highlights for me are the bass work on this track and the drum work. This band likes flirting with varying levels of tension, and we only leave the tension for brief moments. It's almost exhausting to listen to. 
3. "Sventetic": I love what the bass offers up during this intro, it's very vocal! It sounds like a cold and misty morning, and the sun is struggling to break through and burn off the mist. Suddenly, the sun breaks through and at two minutes in it's painfully hot, making the world feel sluggish. This song could be a soundscape, painting pictures with these tight, jabbing lines in black and white. Six minutes in we get a break with some classic jazz noodling. I hate to say it, but my lack of theory knowledge might be impeding my ability to follow along on this track. I want to see it as a song instead of a sonic experiment, but I can't really find the narrative in the song. Perhaps it's because there isn't one, but I'd be surprised if that was the case. With five minutes left on the clock, we make a return to the moments from the intro. That appears to be the formula for this album, passage, intro, repeat passage. 

Overall Thoughts: This album was largely beyond my comprehension. I certainly tried to follow along but I struggled with the lack of melodic structure. I agree with the quote from Jazzwise magazine, "Stanko himself said that this is an album that could never have been made in America". It's not something that would have survived American culture. I'm glad it found its place though, and I want to come back in the distant future and see if I have a better experience with this album.

Info: This album was recorded over two days in December of 1965, and the album was released in 1966 on the Muza Label. It was produced by Wojciech Piętowski, and features Krzysztof Komeda as the bandleader and on piano, Rune Carlsson on drums, Günter Lenz on double bass, Zbigniew Namys∤owski on alto saxophone, and Tomasz Stańko on trumpet.

If you want to purchase this album, you can do so here! 

Cheers!