Maciej Obara - Unloved

The Guardian 80

(ECM)

Early in his first album for ECM Records, the Polish saxophonist Maciej Obara seems to be confirming that he knows all about the label’s famous penchant for vaporous tones and moonlit moods. But anyone who has heard Obara and his regular piano partner Dominik Wania live knows otherwise - both are improvisers of mercurial energies. If Ula, the opening ballad, begins in melancholy long tones and cymbal whispers, a jazzier urgency soon surfaces, and the Polish pair’s ensemble empathy with Norwegian bassist Ole Morten Vågan and drummer Gard Nilssen emerges. Obara’s pensive jazz-ballad originals are steadily intensified by graceful piano touches and pulsing basslines, and the late Krzysztof Komeda’s lovely title track is delivered in a resonating alto sax purr. Looser improv occupies the later stages of the set, with Obara firing off a barrage of clipped figures and scalding runs on Echoes, his thoughts quickwittedly mirrored by the pursuing Wania. This is a contemporary-jazz album of character and exhilarating drive.