Press Commentary:

Tuesday, 17 November 1998, Aargauer Zeitung

Traveling Through Fantastic Worlds of Sound

Gipf-Oberfrick: Inspiration Between Klezmer, Jazz, and Classic
by Hubert Keller

The concert at the Galerie Hofstatt in Gipf-Oberfrick was characterized by great intensity despite all the different ways in which a restaurant can distract even the attentive listener. Witek Kornacki (clarinet, saxophone), Felix Huber (piano), and Lech Wieleba (bass) built a bridge between the different cultures of East and West and in blending different musical styles created fantastic new worlds of sound. In 1993, Kornacki and Huber had recorded the CD East-West Inspiration. Since then, they have continued their travels between East and West in many concerts in which they developed their sound, built on their repertoire, and further refined their differentiated technique full of variety.

Independence of Mind

Kornacki, Huber, and Wieleba are very distinct musical personalities who show a great independence of mind, who invest a lot of power into their music but can also take a step back and support each other's play. Jazz musician Huber and Klezmorim Kornacki complement each other while Lech Wieleba adds to their interpretation and mood with his play characterized by excellent technique.

Klezmer is the way of expressing and Interpreting an original style of mus c. As a Klezmorim, Kornacki can express the most subtle feelings on his instrument; he makes it moan, cry, laugh, dance, narrate and also sing, always keeping his soft rich tone without going over the top like other Klezmorim are often bound to do. Most of the time, Kornacki creates e point of origin for the group, then Huber develops the theme, sometimes going back to a more classic style sometimes adding more jazz elements to it, only to unerringly find his way back to the original theme and again return it to Kornacki.

Complete Understanding

Huber is the inspirational force in the trio and arranges most of their titles. It gets especially interesting when this Frick-born man is dictating the theme as composer and changes the direction of the inspirational flow from East to West. The three musicians harmonize with each other perfectly, listen attentively, and take up each other's ideas to blend them into beautiful sounds.