Muzyk Robert Kacprzycki

Like a jazz...

Robert Kapcrzycki, october 2013

"Dusk on the morning", 6:25
Author: Robert Kacprzycki,
Piano: Zdzisław Kalinowski,
Conga drums: John from Kongo,
Lead guitar, solo guitar, bass guitar, other percussion: Robert Kacprzycki

"Night Cab", 6:56
Author: Robert Kacprzycki,
Alto saxophone: Michał Borowski,
Conga drums: David Saucedo Valle,
Vocal: Sean Pom Palmer,
Lead guitar, solo guitar, bass guitar, other percussion: Robert Kacprzycki

"One night too much", 5:25
Author: Robert Kacprzycki,
Alto saxophone: Michał Borowski,
Conga drums: David Saucedo Valle,
Vocal: Sean Pom Palmer,
Lead guitar, solo guitar, bass guitar, other percussion: Robert Kacprzycki

"Veteran 1", 3:32
Author: Robert Kacprzycki,
Soprano saxophone: Michał Borowski,
Conga drums: David Saucedo Valle,
Vocal: Sean Pom Palmer,
Lead guitar, solo guitar, bass guitar, other percussion: Robert Kacprzycki

"Way to be free", 3:54
Author: Robert Kacprzycki,
Tenor saxophone: Michał Borowski,
Conga drums: David Saucedo Valle,
Vocal: Sean Pom Palmer,
Lead guitar, solo guitar, bass guitar, other percussion: Robert Kacprzycki

"Veteran 2", 5:45
Author: Robert Kacprzycki,
Piano: Zdzisław Kalinowski,
Conga drums: John from Kongo,
Vocal: Sean Pom Palmer,
Lead guitar, solo guitar, bass guitar, other percussion: Robert Kacprzycki

"Mozabique", 18:34
Author: Robert Kacprzycki,
Alto saxophone: Michał Borowski,
Conga drums: David Saucedo Valle,
Lead guitar, solo guitar, bass guitar, other percussion: Robert Kacprzycki

"Story of many", 10:56
Author: Robert Kacprzycki,
Alto saxophone: Michał Borowski,
Flute: Michał Borowski,
Conga drums: David Saucedo Valle,
Lead guitar, solo guitar, bass guitar, other percussion: Robert Kacprzycki

All mixed and mastered by Robert Kacprzycki

Here is some background information on the origin of this record:
David came back from Mexico at the end of 2009, and while he was away, I recorded another record entitled ‘Marcado por la libertad’ which translates to ‘Marked by freedom’. It was recorded within the ‘free jazz’ concept. While in Mexico, David was interviewed by the local radio station in Mexico City, where my piece ‘Nigh Cab’ was aired for the first time. It was the first public transmission of the instrumental version of this piece and it seemed to have got a very good response. My sensual and very characteristic bass guitar made a good impression. I liked playing long pieces with a whole load of improvisations, sometimes lasting up to 30 minutes. The first ‘Night Cab’ ran for approximately 15 minutes. David told me: ‘This piece is amazing mate, but cut it down to three and a half minutes and make it more people friendly’, which actually meant ‘less jazz’. ‘How do you make three and a half minutes from 15 minutes?’ I laughed, ‘this means that I will need to remove the majority of the good stuff…’. Until now, I never did it that way, once I started playing it was difficult for me to stop, and the time stood still for me then. I had a little think and I suggested: ‘maybe not three and a half minutes but 6 minutes, I will also write some good lyrics in Polish, you will put it into English and we will have an agreement, one way or another’. We both agreed to my proposal and I got started. I recorded completely new soundtrack versions for this piece and David recorded the complementing conga and started translating my lyrics. On the completion of the entire track, we recorded the melodic line for the vocal. At that point, we were faced with the following question - where do we get a vocalist from? Subcomandante was in touch with a few musicians. He told me about a party at Sean Palmer’s to which he was invited by Sean, and in his opinion, Sean had a great voice for my compositions. He said that I could accompany him to this party, have a word with Sean and try to enlist him for my project. This is what took place - I bought two afro wigs and we went to Sean’s party. The wigless had no entry. I was introduced to Sean and he agreed to join us on the condition that he likes my material. I assured him that I completely understood his approach and I promised to send him the soundtracks later in the week for his personal approval. And that is what I did.
After a week or so, Sean called me and said that he really liked my material and we could start to record the vocal. The three of us met together in my studio. I have to admit that I had not cooperated with such a professional vocalist as Sean before. Sean walked around the studio for about 30 minutes while emitting inarticulate sounds, stretching his chest muscles and doing other things which seemed very strange to me. Once he had finished, he asked me for the material. I then played him the previously prepared recording. After listening to it once, he said that he has two versions of the vocal, he will record them both and I can select the better one. In the end I selected the second version, although both were as good as each other and my choice was simply a matter of taste. This was the end of the recording session on that day, in my free time I was working on the recorded soundtrack and future tracks. It took us a little longer to record the vocals to other tracks, as Sean was often busy. After a few months we recorded the following pieces: ‘One night too much’, ‘Veteran 1’ and ‘Way to be free’. David Saucedo Valle did not get to hear the last track, as he died on 26 July 2010. The death of our friend shook us greatly and I decided to record a track in his memory, entitled ‘Back to the roots’ which was to be sung by Sean. Unfortunately, the track has still not been completed due to Sean’s unavailability, as he has found it difficult to cope with the loss of David. I hope that one day we will have an opportunity to record this beautiful track together. The loss of a friend, unavailability of the vocalist and a need to create music bothered me for constantly. I decided to find a new drummer and complete the compositions which I had stored in my mind. After some time I enlisted John who is African by origin, comes from Congo and has been playing the conga drums since he was a child. He was taught all he knows on the matter by his late grandfather who played in a tribal musical ensemble. In view of the beautiful harmony of the ‘Veteran’ piece, I began to work on an instrumental version of this track and called it ‘Veteran 2’. I invited a pianist to join this project and play the background which I had arranged and John played the conga drums. I played the remaining instruments in that piece. I used a similar approach in relation to the ‘Dusk on the morning’ track, which is a combination of classic piano and elements of light and sensual jazz.

‘Mozambique’, in turn, presents a completely different attitude. Its beginnings go back to the start of 2010, when we were recording a lot of tracks with David. One day, on his return from Cuba, David came to see me in my recording studio and started telling me about his time playing music across the Caribbean Islands, while at the same time presenting me with new rhythms which he had learnt while practising drumming with local musicians. The majority of these rhythms differed greatly from my musical temperament and due to their specific nature, they significantly limited my improvisational possibilities. Then David told me about his encounter with one Cuban individual who taught him to play a specific kind of rhythm which in its nature was a mixture of Cuban and African drumming. The word ‘Africa’ always had a certain magical feel to me so I decided to listen. What I heard was completely at odds to what he had showed me previously and it left me completely euphoric. I got hold of my guitar and immediately started to improvise in tune with the new drumming background. After 30 minutes of playing together I asked David to record a lengthy sample of this inspirational drumming style and to mix in different variations in order to enable me to create some good accompanying music. I saw an expression of astonishment on his face and heard him say: ‘Are you actually planning to make music based on rhythm???...’, to which I replied ‘I see nothing strange in that’ - as I am often inspired by accidental things which frequently are not even related to music. I could see amusement mixed with surprise on my friend’s face but he did what I asked him to. I needed about a week to finalise my new musical arrangement and I sent it to David to get his opinion. He was extremely surprised that such an unassuming thing as rhythm heard somewhere by chance can end up inspiring such a good track.

Before I completed the record ‘Like a jazz...’, after the death of my friend, I decided to redo this track slightly and I recorded completely new guitars which resulted in an entirely new sound which can be found on my current record. Due to quite an extensive improvisational section in this track, I added it purposefully as one of the final tracks on the record, not wanting to devoid the listeners of the opportunity to understand this sensual composition.