BETWEEN OR BEYOND THE IRON CURTAIN
Various Artists

(Crippled Dick Hot Wax CDHW 875) CD and Double 12inch Vinyl.
www.crippled.de

Ever wondered what jazz was like in the days of Cold War on the far side of the Iron Curtain? Well this album, subtitled ‘Rare Grooves from Eastern Europe 1967 – 1978’, is full of the dark and devious music that was all set to subvert prevalent ideologies and make the youth jump and jive in outrageous western manner. No matter how hard I try, I keep seeing images of dour souls in uniform desperately seeking to keep this from the ears of the proletariat . But you can’t keep the devil’s music down, can you?

These rare tracks come from Poland and Czechoslovakia with one from the GDR and, as you might expect, they are a mixed bunch. Some sound like the kind of thing you hear when you’re being kept waiting in a phone queue and your call ‘will be dealt with’. Others, like Gustav Brom, offer jazz-funk that recalls the more restrained moments of the Baden-Baden Workshop Band. There are some muscular solos from trumpet and baritone sax on this track though the rhythm section seem unable to rise up and give them the push that might have sent them even further into exploratory flights. Grupa Organowa Krzysztofa Sadowskiego offer a similar take on the genre and have equally exciting trumpet and tenor solos that raise the temperature somewhat. A rather limp Hammond solo takes it down a bit, for me.

I expected Adam Makowicz’s Drinking Songto be a more raucous affair but the drinks on offer would probably be of the cocktail variety. It’s all cool electric piano and relaxed percussion and there’s nothing wrong with that. The Novi Singers do a kind of group scat with some vocal soloing which was never going to trouble Poland’s regime but it might have suited certain sixties film scores.

More interesting is Jazz Celula a band that boast a guitarist who, at times, sounds like Phil Miller and they also have a tight brass section, including a tenor saxophonist who displays some of Coltrane’s influence They are a band I would like to hear more of. Prague Big Band is equally worth hearing and feature a valiant flautist over a massed brass and jazz funk soundscape. For a change from that Karel Velebny & SHQ lay down a vibes and sax dominated piece that contains echoes of Zappa’s King Kong riff. There is also a freer feel to some parts of this track which is refreshing.

So, throughout the 16 tracks there are lots of funky bass and keyboard riffs and since the subtitle says ‘grooves’ that’s what you might expect. You wont find anything here that represents a challenge to the boundaries of jazz. There is nothing as daring as the music produced by many of the South African musicians who injected life into the British scene during this era. They too were used to working under conditions of oppression. Maybe in Eastern Europe this was as bold a statement as was possible. I’m glad it’s survived and outlived the regimes that thought it posed such a threat. It is a partial picture and I hope there will be more to come to further reflect the diversity of jazz in the Europe of those times.

--Paul Donnelly--