“Remembering the Music of Zbigniew Seifert”

by Tomasz Handzlik in Gazeta

An incredible concert combined with the realization of the documentary movie called “Passion” was performed by former members of Zbigniew Seifert’s band at one of Cracow’s Jazz Clubs, “Piwnica Pod Baranami” - the one where this tremendous violinist used to play in the 1970’s.

…“Passion” illustrates the story of Seifert’s life using the memories of the musicians who had the pleasure and rare occasion to meet him. Among others in the movie, you will see John Scofield and famous Polish musicians Jaroslaw Smietana, Janusz Grzywacz, Zbigniew Wegehaupt and Mieczyslaw Gorka. Jaroslaw and Zbigniew participated in the session for the last recording with Zbigniew Seifert, “Kilimanjaro.”

Six years ago Zach Brock met Dave Kikoski at a jam session in Chicago. Kikoski advised Brock to listen to some records of the great Polish violinist, Zbigniew Seifert, explains Harper.

Brock was in awe the first time he heard Seifert’s records. “I had never heard anything like it,” Says Brock thrilled.

We had a chance to observe his passion during Tuesday night’s performance. “Twelve More Bars to Go” by Wayne Shorter opened the evening. “We played this very theme to open the evening together with Zbyszek,” explained Jaroslaw Smietana.

. . . The concert was followed by discussion about Seifert.

“It was the very beginning of the 70’s. I was young and I wanted to play jazz, so I asked Zbyszek to give me some advice. He invited me over to his place and took out his scorebook and guess what was there, the complete transcription of Coltrane’s album, “Blue Train!” It was incredible. He transcribed all parts for all of the instruments! He told me to do the same because the best thing I could do was to study on my own.”

“Seifert was a genius. He wasn’t imitating Coltrane. He was a Coltrane of jazz violin himself.”

“Violinist Zach Brock Co-Produces Film On Polish Hero”

by Eric Fine in Downbeat

Zach Brock discovered Polish jazz violinst Zbigniew Seifert about six years ago. Now Brock not only wants to absorb Seifert’s influence, he is trying to restore his legacy.

Seifert was 32 when he died of cancer in 1979. He has received little exposure outside of Europe, and his catalog remains largely unavailable. Brock and filmmaker Erin Harper are producing a documentary that will chronicle Seifert’s life and career. They spent three weeks in October 2007 shooting in Poland, Germany and Austria, while interviewing Seifert’s family, friends and colleagues. PASSION, the documentary’s working title, will likely premiere late this year or in 2009. The film will take its name from a 1979 album called “Passion” (Capitol).

“There’s something that’s beyond the idea of playing great,” Brock said. “Zbigniew’s playing reminds me a lot of the way I feel when I listen to John Coltrane.”

Trumpet player Tomasz Stanko, whom Brock interviewed last fall in Poland, recalled performing with Seifert in a quintet from 1969 to 1973. During this period, Stanko said, Seifert concentrated on alto saxophone rather than violin. He had abandoned the violin for several months after he completed his conservatory studies in the late 1960s in Krakow.

“He wanted to have a break and then stopped playing with vibrato and started to play like Coltrane,” Stanko said. Had his life not ended prematurely, Stanko believes Seifert would have achieved an international profile.

Bassist Glen Moore recorded with Seifert on Oregon’s 1977 album, “Violin” (Vanguard), and on “Introducing Glen Moore” (Elektra). Moore said Seifert translated Coltrane’s influence to the violin through the use of double-stops and also bowing techniques reminiscent of Stuff Smith.

“He was such a master,” Moore said. “He had so many ideas that were beyond the norm. Playing with Zbigniew was like being with a great conductor, playing with somebody who had such a great sense of possibility that he could draw others totally into it.”

“Meet the great bright hope for jazz violin”

by Howard Reich in the Chicago Tribune

Great jazz violinists always have been in perilously short supply, which may explain why many listeners have been investing their hopes in the work of Zach Brock…

…Brock has combined the best of two worlds: instrumental virtuosity and creative improvisation. More important, he has done so on the violin, an instrument that historically has been marginalized in jazz…

…“Brock has a rich, often deep, tone,” noted Richard Kamins in the Hartford Courant. He “explodes with furious fiddling,” observed Jerome Wilson, in Cadence. “Brock can wail, worry and screech like Jean-Luc Ponty,” noted Wilson, in another review.

…For Brock’s Green Mill date, he will present his most daring projdect to date: his Arrival/Departure band, which champions the groundbreaking music of the nearly forgotten Polish jazz violinist Zbigniew Seifert. Having discovered Seifert’s recording “Passion” several years ago at Chicago’s Jazz Record Mart, Brock eventually became fascinated with the music and the man, who died in 1979 at age 32.

Seifert essentially absorbed the innovations of John Coltrane and pushed beyond them, taking the violin into freshly contemporary techniques, says Brock. He’ll be playing Seifert’s music, as well as his own, with such formidable artists as guitarist McLean and singer Grazyna Auguscik.

Brock also is working on a documentary film about Seifert - “PASSION,” which is being directed by Erin Harper.

“Zbigniew was really coming from somewhere totally different; he was completely original,” says Brock.

“Zach Brock offers a fresh take on the past at Green Mill”

by Howard Reich in the Chicago Tribune (A review after Zach’s concert with “Arrival/Departure” at the Green Mill.)

Presenting the Chicago debut of a splendid sextet he calls Arrival/Departure, Brock explored the little-known music of Zbigniew Seifert, the visionary Polish violinist who died tragically young, at 32, in 1979. Despite his international profile at the time of his death, Seifert has been largely forgotten, an unfortunate development that Brock is attempting to remedy with Arrival/Departure.

But this is no ghost band or repertory outfit. Rather then simply revisit Seifert's music, Brock and friends are re-examining it according to their own tastes and sensibilities. And though these musicians sound as if they're just beginning to grapple with Seifert's intricate works, they're off to a promising start.

…on Seifert’s “Man of the Light,”… After playing a rhapsodic opening solo, Brock unreeled Seifert's serpentine tune in exquisite unison with singer Grazyna Auguscik and guitarist John McLean.

“The Ride of Your Life”

By Donna Shryer in Strings, April 2008

It’s no wonder that Brock loves his current path, especially a detour that last October took him to Poland, Germany, and Austria. That’s when Brock and a documentary film crew, headed by director Erin Harper, began the movie PASSION…

…The film traces the life of little-known Polish jazz violinist and composer Zbigniew Seifert, who died at the early age of 32, but whose playing has continued to touch Brock and others. During the filming, Brock interviewed musicians, family, and friends who knew Seifert and he will, of course, be playing Seifert’s arrangements on the film’s soundtrack.