JOACHIM MENCEL, “BROOKLYN EYE” (Origin Records)

BEST RECORDING 2020 – High Fidelity Magazine (Poland)

“…Joachim Mencel has created an album of tremendous depth, passion and promise that speaks to the liberties that he’s always admired in America…Brooklyn Eye, simply put, has a wide-open gaze on possibility.” Dan Bilawsky, ALL ABOUT JAZZ

Joachim Mencel – piano, hurdy-gurdy
Pete McCann – guitar
Ugonna Okegwo – double bass
Rogerio Boccato – drums

Celebrated Polish pianist, composer, lyricist, and a foremost proponent of modern jazz on the hurdy-gurdy (vielle à roue), Joachim Mencel has a wide-ranging career composing for film, orchestras and ballet, touring with his jazz projects, or appearances with giants such as Lee Konitz, Dino Saluzzi, Richard Galliano, Dave Liebman, Eddie Henderson, Charlie Mariano, and many others. Though he’s experienced performing in America before, including being a part of the Monk Piano Competition in 1989, Brooklyn Eye is the realization of a dream forged in his youth behind the iron curtain. Recording compositions that were informed by the culture, musicians, harmonies and feelings of America, and then to record in New York City with several vital improvisors whose music has inspired him for years – guitarist Steve Cardenas, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Rudy Royston – Mencel terms Brooklyn Eye, “a symbolic, idyllic place where dreams come true.” Recorded the day after Notre Dame Cathedral burned in Paris, a palpable melancholy presided over the session, adding further dimension to this pivotal experience in Mencel’s musical life.

This project is co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland from the Culture Promotion Fund