Glasgow-based saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski joins forces with Scottish compatriot pianist/arranger Euan Stevenson for this award winning, genre-bending musical adventure.
Featuring a unique amalgamation of classical string quartet meets jazz quartet plus harp, 'New Focus' showcases a cinematic soundscape of through-composed melodies meeting cutting edge improvisation, drawing upon influences from across the musical spectrum. This hefty nine-piece ensemble features The Glasgow String Quartet (Scotland's leading string quartet comprising some of the finest virtuosos from The Royal Scottish National Orchestra) and, alongside Stevenson on piano leading the first call drum and bass team of Alyn Cosker (drums) and Michael Janisch (bass), Wiszniewski at the helm on saxophones and Alina Bzhezhinska on harp.
Stevenson's tight knit arrangements offer concise, pleasing trajectories, preserving the original sentiment of each composition, enriching them with ever changing soundscapes of strings and harp. Wiszniewski's tone (capable of sounding as sweet as Getz or as plaintive as Coltrane) tells parables of Polish ancestry while the arranger's own crystalline piano laments for pit closures in a northern mining town. A powerhouse rhythm team provides a counterfoil, never allowing the music to become sentimental. This is music at its resourceful best; borrowing the harmonies and sonorities of the classical world, the tone poetry of Scottish Folk, the directness of pop, and all mixed with the bustling edginess of jazz rhythms and improvisation.
Personnel: Konrad Wiszniewski (saxophones), Euan Stevenson (piano), Alina Bzhezhinska (harp), Michael Janisch (double bass), Alyn Cosker (drums), Glasgow String Quartet: William Chandler, Jacqueline Speirs (violin), Ian Budd (viola), Betsy Taylor (cello), Alina Bzhezhinska (harp)
