1.Ula
2.One For
3.Joli Bord
4.Unloved
5.Sleepwalker
6.Echoes
7.Storyteller

Alto Saxophone – Maciej Obara
Double Bass – Ole Morten Vågan
Drums – Gard Nilssen
Piano – Dominik Wania 

A distinct vernacular, unabashedly quixotic lyricism and an authoritative style of playing are among the notable characteristics that define Maciej Obara. The Polish saxophonist and composer had performed with Tomasz Stanko in the trumpeter's "New Balladyna Quartet" project and he has recorded with John Lindberg, Ralph Alessi, Mark Helias and Nasheet Waits. Obara was also on board for the Fonda/Stevens Group Trio + 2: Live in Katowice (Not Two, 2009). Unloved is Obara's ninth album and his ECM debut.

This quartet recording includes pianist Dominik Wania who had met and played alongside Obara as part of the aforementioned Stanko quartet. Wania has been part of Obara groups since 2012, most recently recording Live at Manggha and Komeda, both on the For Tune label in 2013. Ole Morten Vågan has appeared on nearly forty recordings including eight with the group Motif, featuring trumpeter Mathias Eick. The Norwegian bassist has composed for Trondheim Jazz Orchestra and was a member of keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft's New Conceptions of Jazz project. The prolific drummer Gard Nilssen has appeared on more than thirty recordings and has worked with the likes of Tore Brunborg, Mathias Eick, Arild Andersen and Helge Lien. Like Wania, he was part of the two Obara live recordings.

"Ula"is a thoughtful ballad as is "Joli Bord," highlighted by subtle interplay between Obara and Wania and the saxophonist's occasionally soaring breakouts. "One For" has a lighter feel, emphasized by Wania's bright and nimble piano. An omnipresent contributor to so many Polish jazz albums, the late Krzysztof Komeda wrote the title track. "Sleepwalker" and "Echoes" are more open improvisations and provide the opportunity for Morten Vågan and Nilssen to stand out. The latter of the two features a blistering Obara solo. The soulful "Storyteller" closes the album with Obara's long searching lines, Wania delicate phrasing against a wash of cymbals.

Manfred Eicher's vision of the ECM style of improvised music has always been as defined as is possible, though the label carries less of a distinct "sound," relative to its overall output. That said, the music of Unloved speaks to a familiar aesthetic sensibility leaving no doubt that Obara's work is perfectly at home here. The Polish/Norwegian quartet plays with one mind but the individual synapses fire in many direction. The players anticipate each other's movements and set their courses with a mixture of refinement and flair. ---Karl Ackerman, allaboutjazz.com

„Unloved” to jeden z najważniejszych albumów jazzowych roku, którym Maciej Obara, polski saksofonista altowy, debiutuje w prestiżowej, monachijskiej wytwórni ECM Records. Maciej Obara to trzeci polski artysta po Tomaszu Stańce oraz Marcinie Wasilewskim, który pod własnym nazwiskiem nagrał płytę dla tej historycznej już dziś wytwórni. Przez wiele lat katalog polskich artystów w ECM pozostawał niezmienny i dopiero dzięki Obarze możemy pochwalić się obecnością kolejnego przedstawiciela naszej rodzimej sceny wśród najważniejszych międzynarodowych gwiazd muzyki jazzowej, takich jak Jan Garbarek, Keith Jarrett, Avishai Cohen, Charles Lloyd, Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, czy Jack DeJohnette.

Maciej Obara od początku kariery konsekwentnie rozwija swój własny język muzyczny. Choć współpracował z wieloma artystami z Japonii, USA i Europy, to od lat jego priorytetowym projektem jest autorski kwartet, w skład którego wchodzą: pianista Dominik Wania, kontrabasista Ole Morten Vagan oraz perkusista Gard Nilssen. Formacja reprezentuje wąską grupę europejskich muzyków, którzy świadomie i bezkompromisowo omijają muzyczne dosłowności, kreując swój własny styl. Najnowsza płyta zespołu „Unloved” jest dziewiątym autorskim albumem w dyskografii Macieja Obary. Opublikowane nagrania jak i koncerty grane na scenach najważniejszych światowych festiwali jazzowych zbudowały zasłużoną i niepodrabialną markę Macieja Obary.

Album „Unloved” został nagrany w Rainbow Studio w Oslo w styczniu 2017 roku, a wyprodukował go legendarny producent muzyczny Manfred Eicher. Jest to pierwszy międzynarodowy krążek, a zarazem pierwszy studyjny album kwartetu. ---Karolina Majewska, jazzforum.com.pl

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1. Cool Madness 	
2. Hidden 	
3. Tale 	
4. Domino 	
5. Cheshire Cat 	
6. Lady With A Weasel 	
7. Transcendental

Maciej Obara - alt sax
Dominik Wania - piano
Maciej Garbowski - bass
Krzysztof Gradziuk – drums

Maciej Obara, altoist, though young has already recorded significant albums. Check for example personnel on his last two discs: "Four" (2010) and "Three" (2010). You will probably find it astonishing with whom he already collaborated with! But it shall be less surprise if you know that few years before he was picked up by Tomasz Stańko for his New Balladyna Project. And since you can put two and two together from the list of those names you will already know that he prefers to walk on free side of jazz. With this album however he goes back to different kind of free: rooted rather in Jimmy Giuffre than in Ornette Coleman tradition. That is due to his partners, musicians with whom he already recorded his first two discs: "Message From Ohayo" (2007) and "I Can Do it" (2009). Krzysztof Gradziuk, a drummer, and Maciej Garbowski, a double-bassist, have made their own great careers specializing in merging cool and free elements in jazz and are universally recognized as one of the most exciting rhythm sections in Poland. They are best known from excellent RGG trio and if you check such albums of this band as stunning "Unfinished Story" (2007) dedicated to legendary cool jazz pianist Mieczysław Kosz, fully improvised "True Story" (2009) or recent "One" (2011), you will understand why Polish audience believe that this is probably the only trio in this country to be seriously compared to famous Marcin Wasilewski Trio. Finally, Dominik Wania completes this quartet, who got behind him valuable projects as sideman with Bronisław Suchanek, Jacek Kochan and Tomek Grochot (check "My Stories"), excellent education and immense talent predisposing him to as significant career as those of other members of this young "dream team" of Polish jazz.

But at the end of a day the most important is of course music. And it may be well described by applying a title of first track on this album which is "Cool Madness". It bursts with inner energy and reminds me of some battle between basic elementals, fire and ice, as impersonated by Obara's alto and Wania's piano, submerged in cool and deep space for improvisation as created by Gradziuk's drums and Garbowski's double-bass. Whether they all succeed in finding so much sought equilibrium between those ever conflicting forces is for you to decide... ---Maciej Nowotny, polish-jazz.blogspot.com

Obara i Dominikk Wania pierwszy raz spotkali się w składzie Tomasza Stańki i to u jego boku zapoczątkowali swoją muzyczną przyjaźń. Projekt Maciej Obara Quartet to nie tylko podsumowanie współpracy muzycznej z tego okresu, ale przede wszystkim wspólna praca nad wydaniem płyty.

Maciej Obara i Dominik Wania to wielcy indywidualiści, których połączyło pragnienie stworzenia polskiego kwartetu na europejskim poziomie. Niesforny i nie do opanowania Obara znalazł partnera, który z równą mu energią i wirtuozerią potrafi kreować muzyczne historie. W sekcji rytmicznej grają Maciej Grabowski i Krzysztof Gradziuk członkowie dawnego tria Obary.

Maciej Obara Quartet to projekt, na który fani saksofonisty tak długo czekali. Z dystansem podchodzący do elementu harmonicznego, dopiero z Dominikiem Wanią zdecydował się wzbogacić surowe brzmienie klasycznego tria jazzowego i stworzyć projekt ambitny, dojrzały, ale wciąż charakteryzujący się zadziornością i wigorem. Projekt Obary to bardzo wysublimowana energia muzyczna, tym razem osadzona w dojrzałym kontekście harmonicznym Wani. --- merlin.pl

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1 	True Tone 	6:13
2 	Morbid 	4:34
3 	Nordic Inspiration 	5:42
4 	Dream Theme 	5:31
5 	Faun's Reflections 	6:25
6 	Four Walls 	5:01
7 	Two Hearts From The Fourth Eye 	5:45
8 	The Other Obara 	5:40
9 	Wrinkled Puppet 	3:18
10 	Tale 	6:49

Maciej Obara - saxophone
Maciej Garbowski - double bass
Krzysztof Gradziuk - drums

On this album, Maciej Obara is joined by Maciej Garbowski on bass and Krzysztof Gradziuk on drums.The trio travels across jazz history, which leads to a somewhat too strong variation in styles and levels of intensity, but the playing is good. ---Steff Gijssels, polish-jazz.blogspot.com

Maciej Obara is a Polish saxophone player and improviser, characterised by his discernible phrasing and powerful sound.

Obara is a musician who has consequently developed his own musical language from the very beginning of his career, and, despite collaborations with artists from Japan, USA and Europe, his main focus remains his original quartet with Dominik Wania on piano, Ole Morten Vaagan on double bass and Gard Nilssen on drums. The members of the band represent a narrow group of European jazz musicians who consciously and uncompromisingly avoid musical literality, and create their own clearly distinguishable sound.

Whilst still at the Music Academy, Obara established his first trio with Maciej Garbowski on bass and Krzysztof Gradziuk on drums, going on to win the competition for the young bands and recording two albums (“Message from Ohayo” and “I can do it”). This powerful debut attracted the first positive reviews from the Polish jazz community. ---maciejobara.com

Juz pierwsze dźwięki płyty Tria Maciej Obary wzruszyły mnie, wprowadziły mnie w czar tej muzyki. Maciej Obara to wielki muzyk. Jego muzyka jest silna, dojrzała, głęboka pełna czaru, piękna. Jest jego własna. ---Tomasz Stańko, wsm.serpent.pl

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1 	Litania 	15:19
2 	Etiudy Baletowe – Introdukcja 	14:52
3 	Walter P-38 	14:02
4 	Kattorna 	6:52
5	Komeda's Medley 	(20:14)
5.1 	People Meet And Sweet Music Fills The Heart 	
5.2 	Astigmatic 	
5.3 	Svantetic

Alto Saxophone – Maciej Obara
Double Bass – Ole Morten Vågan
Drums – Gard Nilssen
Piano – Dominik Wania

It’s not a secret that Scandinavia has always been a fascination for Polish saxophonist Maciej Obara, especially in recent times when he started to look in his music for the "cooler means of expression". It was therefore a happy coincidence when during the Take Five: Europe meeting in 2012 his musical path crossed with two Norwegians: double bassist Ole Morten Vågan and drummer Gard Nielssen.

His decision to record the music of legendary Krzysztof Komeda seems to be natural. On the one hand Komeda is a point of reference for any jazz musician in Poland and to establish himself on our scene it is mandatory to record his music. Moreover Obara and pianist Dominik Wania were lucky to have some personal connection to Komeda as they both collaborated with Tomasz Stańko, a favourite trumpeter of Komeda, in his New Balladyna Project where they also played some of Komeda’s compositions. The same goes for the “Vikings” who were ready or even keen on to take up a role of some of such illustrious Scandinavian players like Rune Carlsson or Bernt Rosengren who used to appear on some of the most significant Komeda’s recordings.

But let’s go back to the music on this album which comprises five long up to 20-minutes tracks which nonetheless are highly expressive, keeping listener’s attention from very first to last second due to abundance of original ideas and great communication between players. The album begins with "Litania": an impressionistic introduction spreading a palette of "cool" sounds with delicate support by the rhythm section whose selectivity is striking. Dominik Wania in particular, as much here as anywhere else on this album, shows his awesome pianistic potential: his intuition, subtlety, feeling of a form and a certain kind of playfulness are simply beyond a praise.

Next "Etiudy Baletowe-Introdukcja” starts with a energetic drum solo of Gard Nilsen announcing an up-tempo character of this tune. And again our attention turns to Wania who masterfully plays with convention and texture, sounding at times with a blues roughness and occasionally giving also rhythmic puzzles to the bassist. He follows the groove by pushing himself in-between aggressive plucking of doublebass strings with surprising passages, repetitions and harmonic returns which though still firmly in the jazz tradition go beyond it at the same time.

"Walter P-38" is a track from a film etude with the music of Komeda illustrating a detective story. The evocative leitmotif played by Obara exemplifies well his exceptional timbre and expression which astounds me throughout this album. Unlike on his other projects, especially early ones, his tone is fully controlled, aware of what his partners are doing and, the most important of all, it gained this specific, Komeda blues characteristic. Next, another movie track, is a tune from Swedish movie "Kattorna" (“The Cats”, 1965). This tune is feisty and surprisingly courageous as for theme about female love. Like actresses in this film, the music shows predator claws on misleadingly soft creatures, mixing latin rhythms with a hot African beat. Gard Nilsen now in cooperation with his compatriot create a vibrant, fiery base, reminding me of sultry duos of William Parker and Hamid Drake.

The sound of Scandinavia can also be heard in “Komeda’s Medley” featuring bits of “Cages”, “Astigmatic” and “Svantetic” compositions. They are particularly present in airy “Cages” with its unhurried saxophone theme. Then this nostalgic ballad gives place to vigorous "Astigmatic", where the rough melody quickly loops time and again and the band’s music spins like a broken record. Finally “Svantetic” comes (both tunes from the legendary album “Astigmatic”, 1965) and the music is reaching its climax in sophisticated, hardbop solos of all musicians paying their tribute to Komeda’s genius and confirming Maciej Obara’s own words - its a dream team, a powerful trampoline to the international scene. ---Monika Okrój, polish-jazz.blogspot.com

Maciej Obara – bez wątpienia jedna z najjaśniejszych i bardzo docenionych już postaci na dzisiejszej młodej jazzowej scenie – nie złożył swojego artystycznego życia na komedowym ołtarzu. Nie uwikłał się w rozpamiętywanie legendy i pielęgnacje pamięci o niej. Nigdy nie krył, że woli sam brać się za bary z muzyką i swoim charakterem zapisywać jej kolejne rozdziały.

Toteż kiedy organizatorzy V Letniej Akademii Jazzu w Łodzi zwrócili się do niego z propozycją zagrania koncertu z muzyką Komedy, raczej trudno było spodziewać się, że zostawi wszystko i na kilka miesięcy rzuci się w wir rozmyślań nad repertuarem klasyka. Ale post factum przyznać też trzeba, że wcale tego nie musiał robić.

Dziś ma znakomity własny kwartet. W połowie norweski, w połowie polski, w którym grają oprócz Ole Mortena Vågana – kontrabas i Gardana Nilssena – perkusja (skądinąd muzycy zapoznani podczas wyjazdu na stypendium Take Five: Europe), on sam na saksofonie altowym oraz pianista Dominik Wania. I to właśnie zespół wydaje się w całej tej perspektywie przynajmniej równie ważny, co muzyka Komedy. ---empik.com

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