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Jan specialises in improvisational music drawing on jazz and influences from Eastern Europe and contemporary music. For 25 years he has led a successful contemporary jazz group, PINSKI ZOO, touring the UK, Europe, New York and Poland, playing at major jazz festivals, concerts and jazz clubs to critical acclaim. He travels regularly to Poland, for both research and touring projects –including international trio, ZONE K (KOPINSKI & KONIKIEWICZ).He composes for image and silent film with REFLEKTOR, a flexible group from duos to sextet.He has recorded several radio and TV broadcasts, 12 albums on various record labels, including live recordings from concerts in Poland, Austria, New York and UK. Jan is a research fellow at University of Salford and also a visiting lecturer Leeds College of Music.
Jan Kopinski’s sax sound originated in the inspiring Coltrane / Sanders era and he’s developed a unique way of incorporating not only Jazz, but Eastern European influenced cries with a fascinating guitar-like use of electro-acoustics – including sax feedback!

*PINSKI ZOO -Described as true UK originators of ..’power-fusion/ free-funk”, PINSKI ZOO is a unique band playing passionate music which takes the audience on a journey through mysterious soundscapes, emotional jazz forays and whiplashes back into fearsomely funked-out grooves from a twin bass rhythm section.PINSKI ZOO's performances and recordings have been critically acclaimed for many years and includes several awards. A unique sound, combining the edgy British grittiness of the street with darker evocations of Eastern Europe.
PINSKI ZOO’s full-blooded style has been linked with the harmolodic outfits such as Prime Time, recording 9 albums they made an impact playing across Europe, Poland and right at the heart of the New York scene in the 90’s at the Knitting Factory. They collaborated and recorded on tour with Polish musicians, in difficult times in that country, and still maintain links. A potent force on the late 80’s /90’s UK jazz scene with a unique fusion sound which has foreshadowed later styles.

“ A COMPELLING POWER UNIQUE IN ENGLISH JAZZ”- The Wire...

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

• “PZ is still uncategorisable … still uniquely exciting, danceable and darkly atmospheric, still powers irresistible pulses without stooping to tediously inflexible beats, still conjures nebulous, magical, mysterious soundscapes from forbidding ranks of hardware, still enchants with tender melodies plucked from the rowdiest melee.” BBC Music Magazine 2006...

• “ the group’s sustained but constantly free and mobile handling of funk grooves is a collective triumph” The Guardian 2006...

• “…volatile mixture of freedom and funk.” New York Times

• " Maverick magic, fearsomely funky" London Evening Standard

• "Sheer exhilarating invention" Jazz on CD

• "QUITE A FEW ARE ATTEMPTING TO FUSE FREE JAZZ WITH PUNK, BUT PINSKI ZOO ARE AHEAD OF THE PACK." The Independent 2007

• “Pinski Zoo are still out there and still on cracking form. Organic, no-surrender, spiritually uplifting music, After Image is probably the best album the band has released to date. After 25 years at the barricades, that's an astonishing achievement. AllAbout jazz.com 2006...

• “AT FULL THROTTLE, THERE'S NO SOUND AS FULL BLOODED OR AS VISCERALLY POWERFUL AS PINSKI ZOO'S ” jazzUK 2006...

PINSKI ZOO at The Wardrobe Leeds

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MIRRORS with Reflektor
MIRRORS:The Great Bear (extract)

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PINSKI ZOO at Sheffield

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*MIRRORS - his most recent music-to-video work opened this year’s National Review of Live Art, playing with his 6 piece REFLEKTOR, featuring Melanie Pappenheim on voice, and Jim Boxall, video artist (see www.myspace.com/jimboxall).
Jan has been commissioned by Opera North Projects to develop MIRRORS, with the shimmering voice of Melanie Pappenheim (heard on Kubrick's film Eyes Wide Shut, Gangs of New York and vocal group The Shout), Steve Iliffe's glowering piano and Kopinski's characteristic volatile saxophone. REFLEKTOR are intensely intuitive and personal - his daughter Janina's viola playing has depth and experience, (from Boulez to pop multi media sensation Gorrilaz}. Stefan Kopinski, long time member of Pinski Zoo and Reflektor recording on 3 of Jan's last cd's, is also a digital artist (www.stefankopinski.com). Patrick Illingworth is an exciting drummer working not only in the jazz scene but also with varied bands (808 state, Cinematic Orchestra). Jan's composing style is shaped by visual elements, using jazz and improvisation to create a highly personal reflection upon a world of dislocation, memory and transition. The music also explores impressions of folk, religious and contemporary music that so beguiled modern Polish composers such as Szymanowski.
MIRRORS will be recorded on the new jazz Services label, and a tour of the 80 minute event will follow.

His music with REFLEKTOR includes MIRRORS,Live Soundtracks to silent films (EARTH, Berlin, The Seashell and the Clergyman, NOSFERATU) and to visuals.

*EARTH is a beautiful classic Ukrainian silent film that transcends its Soviet messages into a moving human tragedy. Jan’s live soundtrack uses viola, piano, sax and narration in English and Ukrainian.

"It’s music of great pathos and beauty,.." -CODA 2005

• EARTH…”manages to maintain the wonderful sense of slowly-unrolling time which is Kopinski's forte” Ben Watson,Hi-Fi News 2004

• “The whole album, even without the film it illustrates, is a deeply moving and intensely personal statement from one of the UK's most instantly identifiable saxophonists”. Chris Parker, Jazz at Ronnie Scotts 2004

• “By using his own family in the band Kopinski evokes the intimate, inexplicable binds/bonds of family life that are integral to Dovzhenko's silent film”. Andy Robson, Jazzwise 2005

*ZONE K -KOPINSKI & KONIKIEWICZ - “Kopinski’s raw spookily hollow and haunting saxophone sound….this is music of character and bite” – The Guardian...

*GHOST MUSIC – “the textures resulting from Kopinski's saxes slowly unfurling over hypnotic backing, especially when mixed with viola, are intriguingly original and demand to be heard” - Jazzwise

beskid niski

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ALBUMS -
PINSKI ZOO:
- INTRODUCE ME TO THE DOCTOR
THE CITY CAN'T HAVE IT BACK
THE DIZZY DANCE RECORD
SPEAK
LIVE IN WARSAW
RARE BREEDS
EAST RAIL EAST
DE-ICER
AFTER IMAGE(2xcd)

JAN KOPINSKI:
GHOST MUSIC
ZONE K, Kopinski & Konikiewicz
EARTH.

More details of JAN KOPINSKI's projects and cds go to the website www.jankopinski.com