“Long-Distance Connections” is Łukasz Pawlik’s second album released under his own name after „Lonely Journey” (2016). The new album was recorded on three continents and features some famous jazz musicians, such as Randy Brecker, Tom Kennedy, Gary Novak, Mike Stern, Dave Weckl, along with a bunch of hot names of Polish jazz scene, including Dawid Główczewski, Cezary Konrad, Michał Kapczuk, Szymon Kamykowski and the Australian percussionist Phil South. The album, initially released in Poland in 2019, will be released in the US and world-wide by the American label Summit Records in August 2021.
Pawlik’s music on the album combines the elements of jazz, fusion, world music, electronics with the traditional sounds of the acoustic piano or the cello. Despite the structural complexity of the material, the themes of the songs are very melodic and they spur featured musicians to make passionate statements through their solos. The intense rhythms of the music are driven by the outstanding drummers (Konrad, Novak, Weckl). Their co-existence on the album offers a unique opportunity to witness a remarkable feast of colors and different faces of a drum virtuosity at the same time. Another attraction for listeners is undoubtedly the presence of Mike Stern on three tracks, which opens a new chapter of collaboration between the two musicians that began 3 years ago on Łukasz Pawlik’s previous record „Lonely Journey”. Whereas the results of Pawlik-Stern collaboration have been materializing for 3 years, both in studio and on stage, it is the very first act of a joint music making by Łukasz Pawlik and Randy Brecker. On the 2 tracks recorded by Brecker we can hear the sophisticated phrasing and lyricism that he is known for. The presence of mesmerizing personalities, rich instrumentation, space created by samples and computer effects uplift Pawlik’s music into new, often cosmic dimensions.
Łukasz Pawlik – piano, cello, keyboards, synthesizers, programming
Randy Brecker – trumpet, fluegelhorn (4, 7)
Dawid Główczewski – alto & soprano saxophone (1, 2, 7, 8)
Szymon Kamykowski – tenor saxophone (3, 4)
Tom Kennedy – electric bass (1, 2, 7, 8)
Cezary Konrad– drums (4, 8)
Gary Novak – drums (3, 5, 6, 7)
Michał Kapczuk – electric bass (4, 6)
Phil South – percussion (1)
Mike Stern – electric guitar (1, 3, 7)
Dave Weckl – drums (1, 2)
About Łukasz Pawlik
Łukasz Pawlik was born into a family with a rich musical tradition. Both of his parents are successful concert pianists. His mother Jolanta is an active chamber musician and lecturer at F. Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. His father Włodek Pawlik is one of the most celebrated jazz musicians in Poland, the first Polish jazz musician who won a Grammy. Growing up in such circumstances, he was exposed to classical music as well as jazz from an early age and started his musical education as a child. The first instruments that he picked were the piano and the drums, although it was the cello that became his primary instrument for the following years. The relationship with this instrument has been lasting until today.
Łukasz has had an opportunity to play in some renowned German orchestras, such as Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal. He was also a prize-winner of many cello competitions, including the first prize at the K. Wiłkomirski Cello Competition in Poznań, enabling him to study in the USA, which proved to be a milestone on his musical path. It was during the time of his studies at Western Michigan University, when he became keenly interested in jazz. 5 semesters spent studying the intricacies of different kinds of music, composition and counterpoint, creative interactions with other students spurred him to start to develop his own musical language.
The first, important platform for his compositional attempts was the international jazz-group Kattorna, a band that was formed to celebrate the music of Krzysztof Komeda, whose works Łukasz strived to popularize internationally. However, as the time passed, the group’s repertoire started to gravitate towards Łukasz’s musical visions, in the meantime, gaining top honors at many jazz competitions, such as Warsaw Hopes, Berlin Jazz Award, Krokus Jazz Festival, Jazz Nad Odrą (2nd prize for Łukasz at the Individual Competition). In 2010 the band recorded an album “Straying To The Moon”, positively received by the critics, that comprised mostly Łukasz’s music. After a couple of years spent as a member of symphony orchestras, Łukasz started to work on new material for the upcoming CD under his name. He selected a bunch of outstanding musicians to record the instrumental parts, such as the saxophonist Dawid Główczewski, with whom he’d already collaborated for many years in Kattorna, the Poland’s top, Grammy-winning rhythm section Paweł Pańta – Cezary Konrad, as well as special guests: Mike Stern and Michael “Patches” Stewart. The material can be described as a multi-layered contemporary jazz. It was the very first album, on which Łukasz appeared as a performer, composer and a producer. The record met with enthusiastic reception in Poland and paved the way to concerts of Łukasz’s band with Mike Stern. The musical journey led Łukasz to the completion of an entirely new material that he was composing through 2016 and 2017. His new album „Long-Distance Connections”, released in June 2019 in Poland is a truly global undertaking, as it was recorded on 3 different continents by musicians from the USA, Poland and Australia. This time around, Łukasz was fortunate to gather a line-up of his musical idols, such as Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, Dave Weckl, Tom Kennedy and Gary Novak, along with the top Polish jazz musicians that he works with domestically to create a blend of mesmerizing personalities delivering heartfelt performances of the highest calibre. The album was co-produced by the drum legend Dave Weckl.
