Michal Urbaniak's Fusion - Ilex
We're counting down to the end of the 1st half of the year with some anniversaries, so get out your promise rings and those funny flat bladed things that cut the cake.
I've covered this guy once before a few years ago, but I like the idea of 50th anniversaries so we're highlighting him again.
This is another one of those where I cherrypick the most preFM-ish shows from Wolfgang's House Of Stolen Concerts -- most of them scan as hopelessly lossy, but a good decent few of the jazzy ones aren't -- and reassemble them from their garble into something worth listening to.
Recorded exactly five decades ago tonight in some podunk, backwaterily bumblefucked venue -- Carnegie something, I can't remember -- as part of 1974's incredible Newport Jazz Festival, I don't think this circulates anywhere but over there on Bill's Bootlegs, so I decided to change that.
Anyway look out in this one for Michal Urbaniak's then-wife -- yes, she deserves a day of her own on here -- Urszula Dudziak, who goes buckwild in this show, swooping and divebombing her vocals in ways that make Yoko Ono sound reserved.
Also of interest here is Urbaniak himself, who plays a good deal of horn as well as violin, which is somewhat unusual for him.
Michal Urbaniak's Fusion
Newport Jazz Festival
Carnegie Hall
New York City, NY USA
6.29.1974
01 Hymn of the Uranian Sequels
02 New York Batsa
03 Butterfly
04 Ilex
05 band introductions/Seresta
Total time : 42:07
Michal Urbaniak - violin & saxophone
Czeslaw Bartkowski - drums
Pavel Jarzebski - bass
Wojciech Karolak - keyboards
Urszula Dudziak - vocals & percussion
320/48k audio streamed from Wolfgang's Vault
spectral analysis goes to 20 kHz, making this essentially equivalent to a preFM source
converted to 16/44 CD Audio, repaired, denoised, tracked & slightly remastered by EN, June 2024
244 MB FLAC/direct link
This is a severely funkafied 42 minutes of fun, and finds Urbaniak in between two of his greatest records: 1974's Fusion and Atma, also from then.
I'm tryna whip another soundaversary into shape for tomorrow to end the month, but no promises.... even with a promise ring.
Until then, wrap your ears around these Polish fusioneerings, coming to you live 50 years after the fact!--J.
