"(...)Guitarist Rafal Sarnecki, who was born in Warsaw in 1982 and moved to New York five years ago, also shows considerable accomplishment and even more potential. Less tightly wound than Kaczmarczyk but comparably adventurous, Sarnecki carries influences of the visionary American guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel.
Like Rosenwinkel, Sarnecki ventures far beyond the bebop and post-bop idioms of the past and into a freer - though still chordal - musical language. Sarnecki's original compositions merge the high-flown lyricism of Polish culture with an idiosyncratic, thoroughly disarming way of building long and winding musical phrases. He's clearly at the start of forming an improvisational syntax for himself, but it already shows originality and daring. (...)"
Howard Reich, 9.11.2010. Chicago Tribune
The reviews of "The Madman Rambles Again" album:
"The Madman Rambles Again is a counterintuitive name for such a carefully constructed album. The compositions feature layered, periodically angular melodies, showing off tight arrangements and a serious dramatic flair. Far from being a madman, guitarist Rafal Sarnecki is a decidedly forward-looking leader with an intense aesthetic on this sophomore effort.
Instrumental leadership is not self-evident. The supporting instruments are at least as prominent, and often more so than the guitar, suggesting good things from Sarnecki's management. The importance of compositions seemingly supersedes individual statements, and a very egalitarian hand guides the arranging—both fine qualities.
"The Student Protest" is spun from several intertwined melodic statements: Beginning with a guitar drone, the track layers a three-note motif on the flute, followed by a mechanically boxy piano vamp, and finally a trumpet, adding a warm vibrato over the top. There is some tightly bookended improvisation before the sequence is repeated, but with a twist: the melodic components have all been rotated to completely different instruments. This is a technically challenging piece executed with flawless exuberance. Madman indeed.
The title track opens with a trumpet/tenor saxophone counterpoint duet that is again tightly composed. But here the music opens up a little, eventually breaking with a solid if unconventional walking bass line. The counterpoint remains integral, but plenty of room is given over to improvisation, notably a brilliant turn by pianist Pawel Kaczmarczyk.
"The Song Is You" employs broken meters and rhythms with an exceptional delivery by percussionist Lukasz Zyta. Sarnecki is also at his best here, turning in a clean, extended improvisation that confirms his chops as a soloist in addition to his obvious strengths as a composer. Tenor saxophonist Lucas Pino also makes a noticeably strong contribution. Perhaps the most straight-ahead track on the album, there are nevertheless plenty of neat tricks that keep the surprises coming.
The Madman Rambles Again keeps a lot of balls in the air, with inclusions of Latin Rhythms on "Hermeto," as well as some aggressive guitar effects on "Bucaramanga." But at the core of every track are disparate melodies tightly woven into whole cloth. Every second of this record is meticulously structured, with nothing left to chance except the solos, which themselves are highly contextualized by the surrounding compositions. It's clear that an enormous amount of effort went into crafting this album, and the result is worthy of a serious listen."
- Greg Simmons, All About Jazz, Aug 23,2011
"Last year I had an opportunity to listen to three CDs of young and very talented Polish mainstream guitarists: Daniel Popiałkiewicz "The Hope For Tomorrow" (2010), Przemek Strączek "Light & Shadow" (2010) and Rafał Sarnecki "Songs From A New Place" (2008). And couple of days ago I got Rafał Sarnecki's new album "The Madman Rambles Again", second after abovementioned debut recording. I am glad to write that it is step forward which evidenced on three different levels.
First, the music is more diversified than on his previous CD since he added a horn section. Lucas Pino, alto saxophonist from Phoenix, is living in New York now, where he met Sarnecki who then was studying there at Aaron Copland School of Music. Pino has an interesting sound, a little edgy yet meticulous phrasing shows evident influence of great New York masters of past as Parker, McLean, Konitz and present like David Binney, Steve Lehman and most of all Chris Potter. He is accompanied by Jerzy Małek, a top young trumpeter from Poland, a type of player who fits well everywhere, like in recent recording with above mentioned guitarist Przemek Strączek, where they played dialogues in Jim Hall and Chet Baker cool jazz manner. Here Jerzy Małek plays on more aggressive, bopish note and he is equally good. Outstanding! It is noteworthy that Sarnecki kept intact a very decent rhythm section from "Songs From A New Place" in persons of Paweł Kaczmarczyk (piano), Wojciech Pulcyn (bass) and Łukasz Żyta (drums) who in two songs (tracks 4,5) is replaced by Paweł Dobrowolski. On two tracks (1,3) pulse is augmented by percussion of Jose Manuel Alban Juarez.
Second, all songs on this record are originals composed by Sarnecki and as Tomasz Stańko noted, who made a kind introduction to this album, "(they) are cohesive and interesting". Some of them are real wamps, "The Student Protest" being an example, a film with which I enclose at the end of this post and recommend to take a look at. Generally speaking music is accessible, melodic, mainstream jazz with clear New York bopish as well as Latin influences.
Third, the album is issued by good label Fresh Sound New Talent for which Piotr Wyleżoł recorded his noteworthy "Children's Episodes"(2009). Congratulations for both Rafał Sarnecki and Spanish label for being able to identify an interesting young player. It is available worldwide through Blue Sounds and Amazon distribution."
- Tomasz Nowotny, polish-jazz.blogspot.com
"This is the 2nd album by the excellent Polish guitarist / composer / arranger Rafal Sarnecki, following his outstanding debut released a couple of years earlier. Sarnecki manages to repeat the same level of freshness and quality, but the new album is different in many ways, mostly due to the fact that Sarnecki lived in NY for some time, absorbing some of the Big Apple's influences, which are evident in the brass arrangements, Latin rhythms and overall sound of the recording. But fortunately this amalgamation of American influences did not replace his European roots, which remain intact, especially in his superb compositions. He composed seven of the eight tracks on the album and included one standard, same as last time.
His musical cohorts consist partly of the same excellent musicians who recorded the debut album: pianist Pawel Kaczmarczyk, bassist Wojciech Pulcyn and drummers Lukasz Zyta (on six tracks) and Pawel Dobrowolski (on two tracks) (all five are members of the pianist's Audiofeeling Band), strengthened by a brass section: US saxophonist / flautist Lucas Pino and trumpeter Jerzy Malek. Percussionist Jose Manuel Alban Juarez (despite the name he's Polish) guests on two tracks. The sextet format allows Sarnecki to develop a much richer orchestration and complex arrangements for his superb compositions, which he does beautifully, carefully avoiding overdoing it, which is a rare and commendable approach. The performances are of course stellar and these young musicians bring a wide smile on veterans' (like me) faces, seeing that Jazz has a future after all.
What I particularly admire about Sarnecki is his ability to eschew the Fusion trap – he manages to keep this album 100% Jazz, which is extremely rare for guitar albums these days. The album was released on the Spanish Fresh Sound label, which releases albums by young and promising Jazz musicians from all over the world, giving them a chance of international exposure, an admirable policy deserving support. Polish Jazz legend Tomasz Stanko gives Sarnecki some warm compliments on the album's cover, and I'm only happy to concur with his opinion – this is definitely a great piece of music, which deserves repeated listening and an honorable place on the shelves of Polish Jazz discography. Wholeheartedly recommended!"
- Adam Baruch, June 2011
The reviews of the "Songs From a New Place" album:
"It's amazing that this young artist already has so much to say...when you hear him it takes your breath away." - Rzeczpospolita
"The youthful energy which emanates from every note on the CD perfectly corresponds with the surprising musical maturity of the leader, both on a compositional level and in its narrative drama and its
individual phrases." - Jazz Forum
"Through perfect teamwork the band creates a concise, logical musical structure, from which periodically emerges a pianistic display (by the great Pawel Kaczmarczyk) or a guitar solo." - Onet.pl
