PINSKI ZOO & Wojtek Konikiewicz

Event information

JAN KOPINSKI saxes WOJTEK KONIKIEWICZ keyboards
STEVE ILIFFE keyboards STEFAN KOPINSKI bass
KARL BINGHAM bass PAT ILLINGWORTH drums

As part of the EFG London Jazz Festival this concert of PINSKI ZOO and WOJTEK KONIKIEWICZ is a significant musical re-union, for it was exactly 30 years ago that JAN KOPINSKI first led Nottingham free funk jazz group PINSKI ZOO on several extensive tours through a bleak, but musically exciting post-martial law Poland.

Meeting Polish pianist/composer WOJTEK KONIKIEWICZ led to several collaborations, tours, recordings and journeys of research in Poland, playing their defiant, uncompromising music at major festivals, but also in towns and villages barely visited by western groups. Albums include a rare Poljazz album - Live in Warsaw, a UK album- Zone K and Jan’s recent of reflections upon Poland - Mirrors.

JAN KOPINSKI’s sax sound originated in the inspiring late Coltrane, Ayler era, with a mixture of Jazz passion, abstract funk and melancholic Polish folk influenced cries. PZ co-founder, Steve Iliffe’s brilliantly dense and angular keyboards, a dazzling rhythm section of electric bassists, Karl Bingham and Stefan Kopinski and stunning drummer, Pat Illingworth can conjure jazz excitement in a mix of whiplash grooves and tender composition.

Hugely influential in the formation of defiant Polish jazz co-operatives such as Free Cooperation, Tribute to Miles Orchestra, pianist Wojtek Konikiewicz has that dedicated technique, but open minded approach that has led to collaborations with cross genre music including improv, folk and sacral music within Poland and worldwide including USA, India, Japan Mexico.

“ Organic, no-surrender, spiritually uplifting music” AllAbout jazz.

“ A huge influence on today's current British jazz scene” Time Out

"Volatile mixture of freedom and funk." New York Times

“Kopinski is one of Britain’s few authentic voices on saxophone” Hi-Fi News and Record Review

“Konikiewicz creates consistently engaging and fluent music on the piano” Jazz Review

“Pinski Zoo is still uncategorisable … still uniquely exciting, danceable and darkly atmospheric, still powers irresistible pulses without stooping to tediously inflexible beats, still conjures nebulous, magical, mysterious soundscapes from forbidding ranks of hardware, still enchants with tender melodies plucked from the rowdiest melee.”
BBC Music Magazine

SEATING UNRESERVED.