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Jan Kopinski

Jan Kopinski has 25 years experience in performing and recording as leader and producer within a number of projects.These include PINSKI ZOO, MIRRORS REFLEKTOR LIVE SOUNDTRACKS to film, KOPINSKI & KONIKIEWICZ GHOSTMUSIC PINSKI ZOO 7, PZBASSCORP, JAN KOPINSKI QUARTET.

Jan has toured extensively in the UK as well as Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, France, Austria, Italy, Norway and New York; he has also recorded various sessions for radio, fillm and TV. His RECORDINGS, 11 albums and 2 singles include, -PINSKI ZOO EARTH ZONE K GHOST MUSIC

Jan is a singular musician who has followed a personal path, in a search of an expressive sax sound earning him a reputation as a true original.Born in the UK his father was a Polish bomber pilot and his mother Anglo-Irish. The home was uncoventional and a little odd but there was plenty of stimulating influences both musically and artistically. Although Jan tried guitar and harmonica when the UK got the blues bug, it was when he came under the spell of John Coltrane’s "My Favourite Things" epic recording in the mid sixties that Jan took up saxophone seriously. First on a white Grafton acrylic alto then on soprano and tenor. He was studying Fine Art at Art College and after finding employment scarce, had plenty of time to woodshed. This long period of study was an end in itself. It didn’t seem necessary to gig. It was in the late 70’s that he started his own groups to create the settings for his later work. The first band, LAST CALL, proved a solid training ground, playing here and in France. In 1980, with co-founder keyboard player Steve Iliffe, they formed the almost legendary PINSKI ZOO.

"...a compelling power unique in English Jazz" - The Wire After catching the attention of, firstly the rock press (NME) they released their first album on Jan and Steve’s label, Dug- Out Records, in 1980 - "Introduce Me to the Doctor". Recognition in the Indie Charts and a distribution deal with Rough Trade Records led them to further recordings , "The City Can’t Have it Back", "The Dizzy Dance Record" (with famous dub producer Adrian Sherwood) and “Speak” and a couple of singles. Jan set up a tour of Poland with friends in the strict but lively jazz scene of the mid eighties, winning Individual prizewinner at Jazz Nad Odra. Further tours of Poland, a "Live in Warsaw" album released on Poljazz , and a regular touring schedule of Europe followed . Jan returned to Poland with a second tour and set up a working relationship with Wojtek Konikiewicz, Polish pianist and composer, who toured UK with Jan and PINSKI ZOO in 1987.

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Jan Kopinski's Reflektor: Mirrors

Read "Jan Kopinski's Reflektor: Mirrors" reviewed by Chris May


Jan Kopinski's ReflektorMirrors33 Jazz2011 Tenor saxophonist Jan Kopinski is best known for his pioneering improv-meets-funk band, Pinksi Zoo. Formed in the mid-1980s, Pinski Zoo burst onto the emerging British delinquent-jazz scene around the same time as Rip Rig & Panic, then fronted by multi-instrumentalist Don Cherry's adopted daughter, Neneh. Rip Rig & Panic sweetened its avant-garde jazz content with guitars, songs with hooks, some savvy rock and roll image building, and ...

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"... Kopinski is one of Britain's few authentic voices on saxophone." - Ben Watson, Hi- Fi News & Record Review

"... one of the UK's instantly identifiable saxophonists." - Chris Parker, Jazzwise

"Pinski Zoo deserves mega-stardom because it not only funked your socks off but forsaw future developments in jazz fusion"- John Fordham, The Guardian

"At full throttle, there's no sound as full-blooded or as viscerally powerful as Pinski Zoo's" Chris Parker JazzUK

From the outset there’s a lovely convergence of materials and approaches, the Eastern European-flavored opening theme gradually giving way to Kopinski’s Trane-like flutters. At times it almost feels like litany on an unknown text, as on “Dream road” a dream of love and utopia,- which mixes contrasting modes in a particularly arresting way.... Stuart Broomer, Coda

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Primary Instrument

Saxophone, tenor

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Clinic/Workshop Information

workshops and masterclases, music to silent film. Including workshops for Universities, Colleges and Youth projects

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Jan Kopinski's...

Unknown label
2011

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Zone K

Megafon
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Mirrors

33 Jazz
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Earth

Slam Productions
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Folk House

From: Mirrors
By Jan Kopinski

Dream Road

From: Earth
By Jan Kopinski

Videos

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