Jazz at Ronnie Scott's, issue 149

July 2004

Although saxophonist Jan Kopinski is still perhaps best remembered as the leader of the seminal late-1980s loud-jazz band Pinski Zoo, he is featured here as a composer of film music (for Aleksandr Dovzhenko's silent classic Zemlya). The visual poetry and moving emotional content of the film's potrayal of a Ukrainian community living through what was the Soviet collectivisation project, is perfectly conveyed by Kopinski's multi-textured saxophone sound, which runs the emotional gamut from rhapsodic, almost Lloyd-like, warbling to gutsy passion. Steve Iliffe's eloquent, lyrical piano, and occasional contributions from Janina Kopinska's viola and Stefan Kopinski's bass complement the leader's brooding skirling beautifully, and the whole album, even without the film it illustrates, is a deeply moving and intensely personal statement from one of the UK's most instantly identifiable saxophonists.

CHRIS PARKER