Led by Polish guitarist Tomascz Kaczmarczyk, Slow The Bandmakes modern jazz fun and accessible again with a team of Krzysztof Werminksi/p-synth, Leszek Szcerba/ts-ss, Lukasz Sobalak/dr, Slawomir Berny/perc and Tomasz Grabowsky/b showing up at a 2023 gig in Dresden, Germany and combining the vintage soul jazz feel of George Benson and Grover Washington with a modern flavor all their own. The result is an album that makes you wish you were there taking in the vibes.
The success of this team is the upbeat backbeat supplied by the rhythm team, leading a funky beat and groove for Szcerba’s bold and beautiful tenor on the grooving “Grasshopper”, rocking hard under his soprano for the uptempo “Ada” or supplying a tasty tropical feely for Kaczmarczyk’s delicate nylon strings for “Payola”. Grabowsky delivers a hip bass line around Weminski’s mellow piano and the graceful guitar picks on “Yolanda” and digs into the deep rivulet around some splashy synth pulses for electrically charged “Metropolitan”. Szcerba’s tenor is a wonder at this gig, glowing with Werminski on the sensuous “Jog” and grooving with the blues as Kaczmarczyk plugs in on “Red Clouds”. The best part about these guys is that while they have complete ease in getting into a relentless feel, they never get locked into it, and get adventurous in their various changes of directions, taking an offramp here, or swerving into another lane there, as on the optimistic “Way Out”.
Are these guys gonna stay in Europe, or are there any plans of hitting the US? This is worth checking out in person.