Jazzy Chopin, or jazz of Chopin? The title that didn’t come easy.

Everybody probably has their own way of playing Chopin, which is for me a fantastic observation because Chopin himself was a genious and when it is transformed through a sensitivity of a good musician it turns to be a musical adventure.

Today I wanted to put one of more interesting releases into a certain genre or some musical context. Chopin Revisited is something more than a translation of the genius’s compositions to jazz music. Since there is relatively few citations on the Rafal Rokicki Trio’s CD.

For the better.
Leszek Możdżer, Włodzimierz Nahorny, Andrzej Jagodziński, Makoto Ozone, Novi Singers, Filip Wojciechowski. The list of jazzmen reaching for Chopin is quite long, but the trio of Rafał Rokicki proposed some other approach to the Chopin himself. Something like Dominik Wania with Ravel, but it is not any replication in any way?

Funny. I was recently writing that when a critic doesn’t know what to write then he writes about aesthetics. Timbre, sound. Since it is difficult to depict any definition of aesthetics. However, I just about  aesthetics. Because, soundwise it is a record that relates to me in 100%. It is peaceful, musicalyl hushing-up, full of calm, slowly resonating sounds, which allows for a moment of a reflexive pensiveness.

In fact, even before I unpacked the record – even though you should not judge the CD by its cover I was wondering whether the next jazzy Chopin can surprise me in any way? damn, it is a next jazzy Chopin. And that is why you should not judge a CD by its cover.
The music presented by the trio of Rafał Rokicki (Rokicki- piano; Michał Kapczuk- bass i Paweł Dobrowolski- drums), is the music exquisitely done with style, full of beautiful timbres and details, which are truly very pleasent to listen to. And that’s what it is all about. Exactly. I’ve recently listented to a lot of Leonard Cohen. Originally the reason I reached for this record was very simplistic. I was looking for a record to relax. I was lost a bit in this music, but honestly speaking it allowed me to look at the recently received records in a different way? and Chopin Revisited is a very positive one. 

Often Chopin, is for me, played in a rather schematic way. Despite of a great artistic quality of the recordings – I have in mind the recordings of the trios of Filip Wojciechowski or Andrzej Jagodziński – formwise they are rather predictable –  or maybe the predictability comes form the fact that I know the style of both gentlemen very well?

In this matter the trio of Rafał Rokicki was a mistery to me. Firstly – the form. Here there’s no traditional divisions: theme – improvisation – theme. at least not in such order. But the greatest pleasure for me were the improvisations. It is enough to listen to the way the pianist played with the theme of the Mazurka In F major Op. 68 nr 3, absolutely the best fragment of the CD.

For me, the time spent with the music played by the Rafał Rokicki Trio was very pleasent. And what surprised me the most, it was also intriguing. Because this Chopin is one of the better realisations of the music by the genius pianist. Nice record.

Mikołaj Szykor

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