Lech Wieleba – Poetic Jazz

Since the turn of the century Wieleba has increasingly performed in Switzerland and the area around Lake Constance. In 2002, for example, he was involved in the theatre production “Rothschild’s Violin”, based on a short story by Anton Chekhov, in the Théâtre La Fourmi in Lucerne. In 2002 he presented his programme Sureste Tango, and in 2004 a programme of tango, jazz and Klezmer music in La Chaux-de-Fonds in western Switzerland. As early as 1995 he began work with the Hamburg actress Paula Quast on a poetry and music portrait of the Jewish poet Mascha Kaléko (1907-1975) who originally came from West Galicia in Poland. The show was presented in German-language countries until 2007.

But Wieleba’s new programme of “Poetic Jazz” has been the centre of his work since 2002 was his”. The first CD album “Open The Heart” appeared in the same year. It was recorded live in the concert hall of the Augustinum in Aumühle near Hamburg, with Jan-Peter Klöpfel on the  flugelhorn, André Mornet on piano, Ali Husseini on drums and, of course, Lech Wieleba on the double bass. The CD contains the first versions of “Waiting for the Call” and “La Chanson de la Pluie”. Reviewing it in the Allgäuer Zeitung on the 14th February 2003 Christoph Pfister wrote: “A miraculous lightness fills this music formed from the deepest origins of jazz, formed from the pastel autumn melodies of Slavic musicians and the high art of classical music”. In 2005 Poetic Jazz, played concerts in places like Düsseldorf Berlin and Nuremberg, partly with a new line-up.

In April 2005 the quartet was invited by the Jazz in Olten Society to come to Switzerland for a guest appearance in the Vario-Bar in Olten. Announcing the concert Silvano Luca Gerosa – he was president of the society until 2008 and is now a part-time member of the editorial staff of the Swiss jazz magazine, Jazz 'n' more – wrote that “elements of classical music are fused with jazz with Slavic melodies, thereby creating music that is rare, moving, wonderfully political and lyrical”; and in more detail: “Indeed Poetic Jazz are neither afraid of beautiful dreamy melodies, nor of melancholy tones. It is rare for a jazz band to be so emotional and get under your skin so deeply. This is surely because of the very special line-up of the band featuring Claas Ueberschär’s lyrical flugelhorn. Wieleba’s son, Pawel, is the drummer: more correctly, he does not drum but caresses his instrument. The Polish pianist Vladislav Sendecki, deserves a special mention. He made a name for himself as the pianist in the NDR Big Band and has played with such greats as Jaco Pastorius, Joe Henderson and Billy Cobham.”