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.

All the while Jan was exploring his interest in not only Coltrane, Shepp and Ornette but the hovering energy of contemporary Polish composers like Penderecki and east European folk music. The band was uncategorizable. They were called Free Funk Jazz / Punk Jazz / Outfunk jazz, etc…… Sometimes a maelstrom of sound, other times a hypnotic theme over backbeats. In the late eighties, whilst UK jazz was in the grip of defining itself in the reflection of bop and purist backgrounds, Jan was still pursuing a musical language which felt happy looking at Penderecki and funk - with a premium on passion. He felt an endorsement for his style whilst supporting Ornette Coleman and Prime Time and his harmolodic form of jazz, with its scattershot harmonic-rhythm-melody. Now managed and recording for Jazz Café Records (the original influential London venue set up by Jon Dabner) PINSKI ZOO became a dominant force in the jazz fused scene of the late 80’s & 90’s.They recorded 2 more CDs “Rare Breeds” and the highly acclaimed “East Rail East”.

In 1991 at the Cannes Midem Festival PINSKI ZOO was voted “Best Band” at the British International Jazz Awards. Further European tours followed, a stint at New York’s Knitting Factory and a British Council tour of Poland and a CD in 1994 on Slam Records, “De-Icer”, with live tracks from Europe and New York.

In 2007 PINSKI ZOO released a definitive live double album AFTER IMAGE (see PINSKI ZOO and PRESS for pics &reviews) and a new generation is finding a link between PZ's power fusion and mashing up of style in favour of expression.

Jan was also following his interest in contemporary composition and folk music and in 1990 was rewarded with a commission from Nottingham New Arts Works - “Music In Missing Places”- setting PINSKI ZOO in a line up including viola, cello and additional sax. Other projects included solo performance at the Bergen Contemporary Music Festival and various soundtracks for film broadcast on Channel 4 and BBC 2. Offshoots of the original band were inevitable and Jan explored a texture of sampled and digital textures with Iliffe’s keys and a twin bass rhythm section PZ BASSCORP.

Having initially trained as a Fine Artist, Jan still has a strong interest in visual work and collaborated on a commission with film maker Frank Abbott on a 90 minute multi image thriller - DRIVE ME CRAZY - for which Jan wrote the music performing with Iliffe and vocalist Melanie Pappenheim at Shots In the Dark Festival 1996 and touring the UK.

Jan worked on a special project for his next CD, “Jan Kopinski GHOST MUSIC”. on ASC Records which brought together many of his works for visual imagery and gave expression to his research in Poland. GHOST MUSIC featured his son Stefan on bass, now a regular PINSKI ZOO member,as well as his daughter, Janina, a classical viola player.

“...at times it sounds like Headhunters meets free improvisation. Terrific.” - The Guardian. GHOST MUSIC toured the UK featuring the musicians on the CD. Further works for visual images include the soundtrack for “Geometry and Gravity” with film maker Tony Hill for Year of the Artist 2000 and in the same year a commission from Broadway cinema and East Midlands Arts to write and perform the music for “Zemlya (Earth)”, a classic silent film from Ukrainian director Dovzhenko, an 80 minute performance with Jan on sax, Steve Iliffe on keys, Janina Kopinska on viola and narration by Yeva Paley/Oksana Tyminska. EARTH is the resulting cd. They perform in cinemas and Arts Centres throughout the UK, with a national tour in 2004.

Further research and touring in Poland has led Jan to set up an anglo/Polish trio KOPINSKI & KONIKIEWICZ, with Polish composer pianist Wojciech Konikiewicz and PZ drummer Steve Harris, recording a cd ZONE K

MIRRORS is Jan's recent music to visual project collaborating with video artist Jim Boxall to utilize the visual footage that Jan has collected over 20 yrs of visitng Poland and commissioned by Opera North to compose new work for six piece and video projections. This is a major project featuring Jan's original compositions, derived from his interest in Polish music and film.And it reveals the imagery that sometimes inspires his music. Jan performs MIRRORS with his flexible group REFLEKTOR and there is a link here to his music to silent film, where in addition to performing to EARTH jan plays in the duo form of REFLEKTOR with Steve Iliffe to silent film - including not only intense Ukrainian film “Zemlya (Earth)”, and classic horror NOSFERATU , but also darevil comedy films by Harold LLoyd, SAFETY LAST.

Jan is available for concerts with PINSKI ZOO “Zemlya (Earth)” MIRRORS REFLEKTOR and solo gigs.

Awards.....Pinski Zoo - Best Band (small group category), at the The British International Jazz Awards, Cannes 1991.Individual Prizewinner at the Jazz Nad Odra Festival , Poland 1985.Various awards for research and development, recording and touring in the UK, Europe and Poland from the British Council, Arts Council of England, & Jazz Services. In between touring and work obligations Jan also is an educationalist, lecturing part-time in Universities, running workshops, masterclasses, private tuition, and has been Artist in Residence at Leeds College of Music and Research Fellow at University of Salford.

Awards:

Nottingham New Works Commission Composer 1991 Best Band (small group category), at the The British International Jazz Awards, Cannes 1991. Individual Prizewinner at the Jazz Nad Odra Festival , Poland 1985