Maciej Obara Quartet

Maciej Obara is a Polish saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and improviser. His powerful tone is characterized by idiosyncratic phrasing and a diverse approach to modern jazz. His recordings, beginning with his 2007's leader debut Message from Ohayo, feature his own compositions in bridging post-bop, avant, and modal jazz. 2010's Four by the Maciej Obara Special Quartet showcased his work in an international band with Mark Helias, Nasheet Waits, and Ralph Alessi. After releasing the widely acclaimed Komeda on Four Tune, Obara signed to ECM and made his debut with the label on Unloved in 2017 with a quartet that included Dominik Wania, Ole Morten Vågan, and Gard Nilssen. 2019's Three Crowns featured his originals and compostions by Polish composer Henryk Gorecki, approved by the artist's family. In 2023 he released the quartet recording Frozen Silence. Obara developed his own musical language from the very beginning. Despite collaborations with artists from Japan, the United States, and Europe, his main focus remains his original quartet with Dominik Wania on piano, Ole Morten Vågan on double bass, and Gard Nilssen on drums. The members of this band represent a narrow group of European jazz musicians who consciously and uncompromisingly avoid musical literality in favor of a clearly distinguishable sound. Obara studied at the Polish Music Academy, where he created his first trio with Maciej Garbowski on bass and Krzysztof Gradziuk on drums. They won a competition for young bands and recorded two albums, Message from Ohayo and I Can Do It. Both attracted positive reviews from the Polish jazz community. In 2008, Obara received an invitation from world-renowned trumpeter Tomasz Stańko to join his New Balladyna Quartet (and later the Tomasz Stańko Quintet), and recorded "Terminal 7" on Dark Eyes. While in Stańko's ensemble, Obara met pianist Wania, who became his constant musical companion. Initially, Obara's artistic interests leaned toward contemporary jazz from the East Coast. He invited saxophonist Antoine Roney for a Polish engagement, then traveled to New York in order to record the new material with musicians centered around the artistic and pedagogical community of SIM (School for Improvised Music). As a result, two more recordings were released with the support of the cultural institution Ars Cameralis Silesiae Superioris: Three with John Lindberg on bass and Harvey Sorgen on drums, and Four with Ralph Alessi on trumpet, Mark Helias on bass, and Nasheet Waits on drums. Obara's next step was the enlargement of his original trio lineup, inviting Wania and creating the quartet that recorded his fifth album, Equilibrium, opening a new stage of the saxophonist's musical development based on a more tonal approach and more complex compositions. In 2012, Obara was selected to join the group of ten musicians from Europe who took part in the project Take Five: Europe, a professional development scheme produced by Serious (the organization that produces the London Jazz Festival) in the U.K. Take Five: Europe brought together some of the most talented emerging jazz musicians from France, Holland, Norway, Poland, and the U.K. Participation in this project was a turning point in Obara's career. It not only led to performances at the London Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Molde International Jazz Festival, Jazztopad, and many others, but also to his collaboration with Norwegian artists including bassist Vågan and drummer Nilssen. After Take Five: Europe, he established his first permanent international quartet, which included the aforementioned musicians and Wania. This quartet turned into Obara's primary unit. As the Maciej Obara Quartet, they recorded Equilibrium in 2011 and toured the globe to support it, performing at Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Jazz Standard in New York, Porgy & Bess in Vienna, and the Cotton Club in Tokyo, as well as at festivals including the Tokyo Jazz Festival, Jarasum International Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz, Ottawa Jazz Festival, Molde Jazz Festival, Festival Jazztopad, Izmir Jazz Festival, and the New Haven Jazz Festival. The band recorded three albums for the Polish record label ForTune as Obara International during this fruitful period: Live at Manggha and Komeda (2013) and Live in Minsk Mazowiecki (2015). At the end of 2016 Obara was invited by ECM's Manfred Eicher to record an album for the label, and the saxophonist and his ensemble entered Oslo's Rainbow Studio in January 2017. Unloved was issued in November of 2017 under the Maciej Obara Quartet name, and all but one composition was by Obara save for the title track, which was composed by Krzysztof Komeda. In 2019, Obara's quartet released Three Crowns, titled for the Trzy Korony summit of the Pieniny mountain range in the south of Poland. In addition to six originals -- including "Mr. S," a tribute to Polish jazzman Tomasz Stanko -- the album included readings of two pieces by Polish composer Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, whom Obara came to know while living in the composer's hometown of Katowice. The recordings of "Three Pieces in the Old Style" from 1963, and "Little Requiem for a Polish Girl (Tranquillo)" from 1993, mark the first time the composer's family encouraged an interpretation of his works by improvisers. In September 2023, Obara issued his third leader date for ECM. Titled Frozen Silence, it featured his regular quartet with Wania, Vågan, and Nilssen. Obara's compositions were inspired by his isolation during the pandemic; most offer reveries of a solitary walker in direct response to encountering nature directly. The album also included "Rainbow Leaves," co-credited to Obara and Nikola Kołodziejczyk. It was originally composed to augment the saxophonist's Concerto for saxophone, piano and chamber orchestra.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo