Pablo Bobrowicky
“
He is perhaps the only musician who, in my opinion and taste, has managed to play a type of jazz in which elements of the great Latin American musical tradition are triggered in an extremely convincing and organic way
„
Franco D’Andrea
«His rhythmic sensitivity is excellent. It is very easy to play solo when he accompanies you with his rhythm. He develops his ideas very well! To me, this is the most important thing and it will help him find his voice in jazz and his personal style to express himself. When he improvises, he is very melodic. Pablo listens and reacts very well. We played Straight No Chaser medium and he played a terrific solo. We also played other pieces together for quite some time and it was perfect. It is a real pleasure to listen to him».
Jim Hall
«Pablo’s main feature seems to me to be the extreme naturalness of the things he plays, the originality of the phrases, and overall his great jazz relevance. There is the jazz of all times but also a lexically relevant introduction of unusual rhythms such as Murga, Candombè, Chacarera, Zamba and other rhythms of African and Afro-Indian derivation, located mainly in the areas of Argentina that border with Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia. Pablo plays indifferently, depending on the expressive needs of the piece, on the four with a swing that would call out many swing artists in New York and Harlem, both on odd time signatures and on spaces. In other words, he has no problem with tempo and rhythm, he possesses the sense of melodic construction and of solo architecture, and does not copy anyone despite having, like everyone, recognizable influences that dissolve in an original and personal musicality that favors feeling over the technical exhibition».
Sergio Veschi
«I’m willing to refund listeners who are not satisfied with the jazz standards recorded by Pablo Bobrowicky. The Argentinian guitarist who works for an Italian label does not offer us Latino versions of Monk, Duke and Dizzy; rather, he confronts us with a perspective view of the music of the second half of the 20th century. Bobrowicky’s inspiration comes from Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery and Jim Hall. It is on their styles that the Argentinian’s dexterity was formed. His swing comes from Christian, the deep groove from Montgomery, while, like Hall, Bobrowicky is more comfortable with ballads and slow pieces. When he plays blues, I can hear the spirit of Tal Farlow. The guitarist breathes American jazz, making it flow in his great Argentinian heart and then returning it not as a translation but as a landscape of the soul. Where does the jazz of this new century come from? Bobrowicky firmly defends the inspiration gained in out-of-the-way places, far from the incestuous New York scene. The distance granted to European and South American jazz players allows them a different perspective, a serious change of horizon and a free development of ideas. And if words fail, it is only because it is a great musical achievement».
Mark Corroto, All About Jazz
«An artist who can be appreciated for his original approach even to the most orthodox jazz language (as evidenced by the elaborations of the two famous Monkian themes or the brief, almost dazzling collaboration with Bobby Watson), Bobrowicky thrills every time the jazz-inspired improvisation becomes a flexible research tool as well as one of connection with other cultural traditions. The cultural heritage of Bobrowicky, probably of European and Jewish origin (Polish, judging by the surname), plays no preponderant role but relates on par with the multiethnic experience so characteristic of modern Argentinian culture: the echoes, light at times and heavier at others, of ancient Andean and Afro-Brazilian rhythms permeate compositions/improvisations with a breadth as vast as the land that produced them. Bobrowicky seems to be a new musical explorer. The path that he seems to want to indicate to us will probably lead to other riches still unknown today».
Gianni Morelenbaum Gualberto
«It’s not easy to give a precise idea of South of the World. It is a precious document of the Bobrowicky-Minichillo-Agudo trio that testifies to one of the best expressions of the ‘way to jazz’ in the southern hemisphere. It is avant-garde, but not in the commonly recognized sense: Unlike the avant-garde we know, this music, geographically almost on the edge of the world, is spontaneous and amazes the listener without wanting to amaze. This interesting playlist, in which, in three songs, you can hear also the saxophones, alto and tenor, by Bobby Watson and Sam Newsome (in a trad-oriented piano-less format), winds through popular folklore (Casinha pequenina), original compositions from more varied flavors, and standards of Monk (Straight No Chaser and Well, You Needn’t). The thing that keeps the listener going is the coherence of the three-way dialogue that does not pass through sophisticated arrangements or fill the musical discourse with frills. Bobrowicky is an excellent guitarist influenced by Jim Hall and the music of his land; Bobro possesses the lyricism and warmth of his roots and is endowed with an impeccable technique, a rich language and a deep knowledge of the history of jazz, just like Minichillo and Agudo. The musical message of the trio is the vehicle of hidden and unconscious thoughts and moods, all organized in an internal dialogue (nothing to do with the conventional notion of interplay), directed towards others, towards the listener, engaging Monkian melodies in a polyrhythmic background and angular phrases in a very rigorous harmonic context as is necessary for soloists in piano-less contexts. Their music, although distant, has the power and the wonder of bringing the maker and the listener closer, bringing them to a higher degree of harmony, creating a sort of communicative closeness. Probably it is also this that makes their music so important: here we can evaluate and feel the nature of the relationship between musician and listener. Furthermore, the role of the marimba played by Norberto Minichillo deserves a special mention, as he harmoniously succeeds in the difficult task of integrating foreign musical languages with the highly developed and structured discourse of jazz without falling into one of those musical colors that do not give much neither to jazz nor to the ethnic substratum they are inspired by. I could also extend these considerations to Luis Agudo, adding however that he succeeds in this work with unparalleled effectiveness: South Of The World amply testifies to the importance of this musician who knew how to take away percussions with a classic decorative and supplementary role, masterfully grafting onto the sound, supporting it and sometimes indicating it its way. In this record Agudo also reveals himself as a very personal drummer. Lately, a young man named Tony Scott has been interested in this record (and he wanted it!), particularly impressed as he was by the style of Minichillo at the marimba. Maybe another episode of Music for Zen Meditation?»
Tony Mancuso, JazzNotice
«His rhythmic sensitivity is excellent. It is very easy to play solo when he accompanies you with his rhythm. He develops his ideas very well! To me, this is the most important thing and it will help him find his voice in jazz and his personal style to express himself. When he improvises, he is very melodic. Pablo listens and reacts very well. We played Straight No Chaser medium and he played a terrific solo. We also played other pieces together for quite some time and it was perfect. It is a real pleasure to listen to him».
Jim Hall
«Pablo’s main feature seems to me to be the extreme naturalness of the things he plays, the originality of the phrases, and overall his great jazz relevance. There is the jazz of all times but also a lexically relevant introduction of unusual rhythms such as Murga, Candombè, Chacarera, Zamba and other rhythms of African and Afro-Indian derivation, located mainly in the areas of Argentina that border with Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia. Pablo plays indifferently, depending on the expressive needs of the piece, on the four with a swing that would call out many swing artists in New York and Harlem, both on odd time signatures and on spaces. In other words, he has no problem with tempo and rhythm, he possesses the sense of melodic construction and of solo architecture, and does not copy anyone despite having, like everyone, recognizable influences that dissolve in an original and personal musicality that favors feeling over the technical exhibition».
Sergio Veschi
«I’m willing to refund listeners who are not satisfied with the jazz standards recorded by Pablo Bobrowicky. The Argentinian guitarist who works for an Italian label does not offer us Latino versions of Monk, Duke and Dizzy; rather, he confronts us with a perspective view of the music of the second half of the 20th century. Bobrowicky’s inspiration comes from Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery and Jim Hall. It is on their styles that the Argentinian’s dexterity was formed. His swing comes from Christian, the deep groove from Montgomery, while, like Hall, Bobrowicky is more comfortable with ballads and slow pieces. When he plays blues, I can hear the spirit of Tal Farlow. The guitarist breathes American jazz, making it flow in his great Argentinian heart and then returning it not as a translation but as a landscape of the soul. Where does the jazz of this new century come from? Bobrowicky firmly defends the inspiration gained in out-of-the-way places, far from the incestuous New York scene. The distance granted to European and South American jazz players allows them a different perspective, a serious change of horizon and a free development of ideas. And if words fail, it is only because it is a great musical achievement».
Mark Corroto, All About Jazz
«An artist who can be appreciated for his original approach even to the most orthodox jazz language (as evidenced by the elaborations of the two famous Monkian themes or the brief, almost dazzling collaboration with Bobby Watson), Bobrowicky thrills every time the jazz-inspired improvisation becomes a flexible research tool as well as one of connection with other cultural traditions. The cultural heritage of Bobrowicky, probably of European and Jewish origin (Polish, judging by the surname), plays no preponderant role but relates on par with the multiethnic experience so characteristic of modern Argentinian culture: the echoes, light at times and heavier at others, of ancient Andean and Afro-Brazilian rhythms permeate compositions/improvisations with a breadth as vast as the land that produced them. Bobrowicky seems to be a new musical explorer. The path that he seems to want to indicate to us will probably lead to other riches still unknown today».
Gianni Morelenbaum Gualberto
«It’s not easy to give a precise idea of South of the World. It is a precious document of the Bobrowicky-Minichillo-Agudo trio that testifies to one of the best expressions of the ‘way to jazz’ in the southern hemisphere. It is avant-garde, but not in the commonly recognized sense: Unlike the avant-garde we know, this music, geographically almost on the edge of the world, is spontaneous and amazes the listener without wanting to amaze. This interesting playlist, in which, in three songs, you can hear also the saxophones, alto and tenor, by Bobby Watson and Sam Newsome (in a trad-oriented piano-less format), winds through popular folklore (Casinha pequenina), original compositions from more varied flavors, and standards of Monk (Straight No Chaser and Well, You Needn’t). The thing that keeps the listener going is the coherence of the three-way dialogue that does not pass through sophisticated arrangements or fill the musical discourse with frills. Bobrowicky is an excellent guitarist influenced by Jim Hall and the music of his land; Bobro possesses the lyricism and warmth of his roots and is endowed with an impeccable technique, a rich language and a deep knowledge of the history of jazz, just like Minichillo and Agudo. The musical message of the trio is the vehicle of hidden and unconscious thoughts and moods, all organized in an internal dialogue (nothing to do with the conventional notion of interplay), directed towards others, towards the listener, engaging Monkian melodies in a polyrhythmic background and angular phrases in a very rigorous harmonic context as is necessary for soloists in piano-less contexts. Their music, although distant, has the power and the wonder of bringing the maker and the listener closer, bringing them to a higher degree of harmony, creating a sort of communicative closeness. Probably it is also this that makes their music so important: here we can evaluate and feel the nature of the relationship between musician and listener. Furthermore, the role of the marimba played by Norberto Minichillo deserves a special mention, as he harmoniously succeeds in the difficult task of integrating foreign musical languages with the highly developed and structured discourse of jazz without falling into one of those musical colors that do not give much neither to jazz nor to the ethnic substratum they are inspired by. I could also extend these considerations to Luis Agudo, adding however that he succeeds in this work with unparalleled effectiveness: South Of The World amply testifies to the importance of this musician who knew how to take away percussions with a classic decorative and supplementary role, masterfully grafting onto the sound, supporting it and sometimes indicating it its way. In this record Agudo also reveals himself as a very personal drummer. Lately, a young man named Tony Scott has been interested in this record (and he wanted it!), particularly impressed as he was by the style of Minichillo at the marimba. Maybe another episode of Music for Zen Meditation?»
Tony Mancuso, JazzNotice