Jakub Klimiuk Quintet
The Marr’s Bar, Worcester
Thursday 31st October 2024
With the bar staff in full Hallowe’en regalia and makeup, Music Spoken Here presented another astounding night of original, contemporary improvised music at The Marr’s Bar on Thursday from the Jakub Klimiuk Quintet.
Guitarist Jakub Klimiuk, who also composed all the pieces performed, was joined by Simeon May on sax, who I discovered has worked with quite a few musicians from the Birmingham scene. The rhythm section comprised Cody Moss on keys, Huw V Williams on bass and Adam Merrell on drums.
The set featured music from Jakub’s debut album (un)balanced, released in May this year, which includes seven full compositions, interspersed with brief studies from each of the players. The set opened with the pleasingly mellow and melodic Absence of Colour,the third track on the album. This gave both Jakub and Simeon lots of space to improvise, each with beautiful tone.
An introduction to the band was then followed by Apart, a piece not included on the album that, while centred on a 6/8 meter, broke into free passages of syncopated improvisation mainly led by Simeon and Cody, before falling back into the groove and a sweet electric piano solo from Cody on his Nord Stage keyboard. A solo guitar passage segued into the lively samba / calypso feel of Casio – which Jakub intentionally wrote as a “happy tune” and hit the mark, also featuring Huw with a delightful bass solo. The first set closed out with Distance, the final track of the album, which sold a few copies on CD during the break – always a good indication of appreciation from the audience.
The band returned to open the second set with Sceptical, the track recorded on the album as a sextet featuring Mark Lockheart (who incidentally is the uncle of saxophonist Dan Lockheart, who opened our Autumn program in September last year). On the recording, Simeon played bass clarinet on this piece, an instrument that seems to be making an appearance at a few Music Spoken Here gigs, including Jingu Bang last year and Hejira in the summer. As Simeon had travelled on the train for this gig, he had brought only his tenor sax, but the piece was done more than justice by the quintet nonetheless.
This was followed by Episode, which Jakub announced as the first composition the band had played together, not included on the album. It was another mellow, melodic piece which included a brief feature from Adam, as well as giving Huw another stretch on the fingerboard of his upright bass. Dualism and Wait are adjacent towards the end of the album and one played into the other in this performance, with the set ending on Beach, the third tune of the evening outside of the album, indicating a decent repertoire of original compositions that young Jakub has already got in the bag. The audience had already been prepared for this moment, and with calls for “Więcej!” (Polish for “More”), the band returned for a delightful encore.
Check out Jakub Klimiuk Quintet’s music on Bandcamp
By: Dave Fuller, Music Spoken Here
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