The Guardian,

May 98

Jan Kopinski
Ghost Music (ASC CD 19)
****

At the original stoke Newington Jazz Café in the late eighties, an eccentric Nottingham free-funk band mixed infectious dance-floor beats with keyboard electronics and a saxophone sound that suggested Albert Ayler more than it did Ronnie Laws. This was Pinski Zoo, led by saxophonist Jan Kopinski, and it deserved mega-stardom because it not only funked your socks off but foresaw future developments in jazz fusion. But its members were diverted by other lives and its good to know that Kopinski and his keyboard partner Steve Iliffe are still creatively active. The music mostly takes Kopinski's ghostly Ayler-like sound at a trance-like walk, and at times it sounds like Headhunters meets free-improvisation. Terrific.

Review by JOHN FORDHAM