Kinga Głyk has put out a truly transcendent album “Real Life.” It’s easy to lose yourself along the complex, multipath journey that is comprised of twelve individually adventurous songs. Kinga is a young Polish-French bassist and composer that was unfamiliar with until very recently. She was scheduled to perform at GroundUP Music Festival but was unable to because of an accident and then I was supposed to see her at North Sea Jazz in Rotterdam but was unable to attend.
With Snarky Puppy’s Michael League as my sherpa, I know he’ll always lead me to some of the world’s absolutely best musicians and music and he sure did this time. The album is unique, equal parts because of the instrumentation, the musicians and musicianship and the compositions. My most appropriate description is psychedelic funky, fusion of the intergalactic kind for the exploratory mind. So let’s start the journey, track-by-track.
“In my first conversation with Michael, he asked me what I wanted to say through the music,” Kinga Glyk says. “I told him, I want to lead with the bass but I don’t want people to think this is just a bassist’s album. The idea was creating beautiful songs. Music can be interesting and strong enough itself to touch your heart even if there are no lyrics. I love to use music to describe my feelings and to make beautiful songs that can touch someone’s heart. You don’t necessarily think, oh, it must be a bass player who made this. It’s more about telling stories through music.”
Track By Track
Fast Life actually starts slowly with some sultry synth but then sweeps in full steam. Kinga is hitting it with an amazing rapid fire base line underneath some out of the Milky Way synth and Aerophone work. (An Aerophone is a musical instrument that produces sound by vibrating air — I had to look it up — it can play sax, clarinet, flute, violin, and synth sounds.) So this is the first listen to the instrumentation whith four keyboards, bass and drums. Who does that? Hats off to Brett Williams with the joyful keys solo and the late Casey Benjamin who shines bright on the Aerophone throughout the album! This one has a old ’70s a Blackbyrds rolling feel that transitions into more of a Return to Forever vibe to close out.
- Written by Kinga Głyk, Michael League, Brett Williams, Casey Benjamin, Robert “Sput” Searight
- Kinga Głyk – electric bass & vocals
- Casey Benjamin – aerophone (solo)
- Brett Williams – keyboards (solo)
- Julian Pollack – keyboards
- Nicholas Semrad – keyboards
- Michael League – keyboards
- Robert “Sput” Searight – drum set
- Written by Kinga Głyk, Michael League
- Kinga Głyk – electric bass
- Casey Benjamin – aerophone
- Brett Williams – keyboards
- Julian Pollack – keyboards
- Nicholas Semrad – keyboards
- Michael League – keyboards & fretless baritone electric guitar
- Robert “Sput” Searight – drum set
Unfollower kicks off with a Sput solo quickly joined by a monster bass, perhaps Michael on the fretless baritone. When the synthethis of multiple synths comes it’s quite dramatic. The two dueling synths telling a story together before the full wave envelops the headspace is electric. The two note into bass sustain ending is sweet.
Who Cares is funky as hell, again with that essentially four synth line (3 keys + aerophone), this time with Michael League on electric sitar (because, why not?). Nicholas Semrad takes a supersonic solo through the cosmos and Kinga has a swingin’ bass solo to close out this NOLA-style feel good tune.
- Written by Kinga Głyk, Michael League
- Kinga Głyk – electric bass (solo)
- Casey Benjamin – aerophone
- Brett Williams – keyboards
- Julian Pollack – keyboards
- Nicholas Semrad – keyboards (solo)
- Michael League – electric sitar
- Robert “Sput” Searight – drum set
- Written by Kinga Głyk, Michael League, Brett Williams
- Kinga Głyk – electric bass
- Casey Benjamin – aerophone
- Brett Williams – keyboards
- Julian Pollack – keyboards
- Michael League – keyboards & electric guitar
- Robert “Sput” Searight – drum set (solo)
Island feels like you’d expect, nice and chill with a marimba sounding opening from the bass. Casey Benjamin’s playing of the aerophone feels like a bird floating and soaring over the water. I’ve gotta admit that up until this album, I’ve never heard of an aerophone (different from an EWI) and I really love its versatility. Kinga has a terrific solo midway echoing the main theme and is sequentially joined by the synths, before Sput takes a dramatic, fast-paced solo. The reverb ending even has some bird-like sounds within to put a finer point on it.
Not Real sounds like a sprinkling of fairy dust on dew drops in the morning grass early on. When the head kicks in, it’s more of a space-funk jam. It’s bass prominent with Kinga mashing out some monster licks, especially when the synths take short breaks. This one is a little more stripped down than other tunes with ‘only’ Brett Williams on keys, Casey on aerophone and Sput on drums. The main theme repeats a few times building to an beautiful close.
- Written by Kinga Głyk
- Kinga Głyk – electric bass (solo)
- Casey Benjamin – aerophone
- Brett Williams – keyboards
- Robert “Sput” Searight – drum set
- Written by Kinga Głyk
- Kinga Głyk – electric bass
- Casey Benjamin – aerophone
- Brett Williams – keyboards
- Robert “Sput” Searight – drums
Unseen Bruises rolls from drums into a spy-thriller aerophone them with bass subtones for a short intermezzo piece.
Swimming In The Sky has some deep pocket Sput to open up. Casey leads off with the aerophone and some blended synths from Brett, Julian and Caleb. It’s a funky as hell beat. Caleb McCampbell is featured as a keys soloist. I’ve seen him perform years ago with Snarky Puppy as well as with The Funky Knuckles and he knows how to get down. Yea, he also has worked with Beyonce so there’s that. It’s another good vibe tune overall.
- Written by Kinga Głyk, Michael League
- Kinga Głyk – electric bass
- Caleb McCampbell – keyboards (solo)
- Casey Benjamin – aerophone (solo)
- Brett Williams – keyboards
- Julian Pollack – keyboards
- Robert “Sput” Searight – drum set
- Written by Kinga Głyk, Michael League
- Kinga Głyk – electric bass
- Caleb McCampbell – keyboards (solo)
- Casey Benjamin – aerophone
- Brett Williams – keyboards
- Nicholas Semrad – keyboards (solo)
- Robert “Sput” Searight – drum set
The Friend You Call starts off slow but once it builds with Sput’s cross stick beats and Kinga’s bass line, it gives me distinct memories of Weather Report’s Birdland with a similar tempo and rhythm. And that for me, is a true compliment as it’s one of the great classics in funk-fusion. The Friend You Call takes flight early on and the overall melody is super memorable. Kinga’s da-ba-da-ba-bum-bah is so reminiscent of Jaco. The synth lines sing just like Zawinul did so well. This one stands tall on this album for sure. The synth build to the end is totally exhilarating. Kudos to Caleb and Nicholas Semrad for those solos!
That Right There has Kinga leading off and it’s a super funky jam. This one reminds me of Larry Graham, specifically on the jam ‘Hair’ for the main theme (iykyk). For pure bass power on this album, this song is probably it. The fuzzed up synth + high range synth crush it and apparently there’s alternating solos from Julian Pollack and Nicholas Semrad – super cool! At one point on the high end synth it sounds like a Mario video game.
- Written by Michael League
- Kinga Głyk – electric bass
- Casey Benjamin – aerophone
- Brett Williams – keyboards
- Julian Pollack – keyboards (even solos)
- Nicholas Semrad – keyboards (odd solos)
- Robert “Sput” Searight – drum set
- Written by Kinga Głyk
- Kinga Głyk – electric bass, vocals
Funny Bunny as a short, entertaining interlude from Kinga soloing on bass and vox,
Sadness Does Not Last Forever is another personal favorite, even though it starts off very solemnly, almost hymnal. It transitions into a great drum-clapping rhythm with a sci-fi sounding synth. The drum + bass pattern is uniquely funky and the contrast with the synth is so out of this world. Once again, it brings to mind some of the great mystical works of Zawinul Syndicate. The mood elevates from start to finish, in my mind the story arc of this tune. The close with Kinga on bass and Casey on Aerophone brings us back to earth.
- Written by Kinga Głyk, Michael League
- Kinga Głyk – electric bass
- Casey Benjamin – aerophone (solo)
- Brett Williams – keyboards
- Julian Pollack – keyboards (solo)
- Nicholas Semrad – keyboards
- Robert “Sput” Searight – drum set
- Written by Kinga Głyk, Michael League
- Kinga Głyk – electric bass (solo)
- Casey Benjamin – aerophone
- Brett Williams – keyboards
- Julian Pollack – keyboards
- Nicholas Semrad – keyboards
- Michael League – keyboards
- Robert “Sput” Searight – drums
Opinions ‘only’ has 4 keys + aerophone + bass + drums, so naturally it’s about as full sound wave as any on the album. Gotta imagine that Nic Hard’s engineering and mix help craft the undulation of the synth sound. It’s got a very warm feeling and a fine closing piece
If you’ve read this far, then you probably like what you’ve read and heard so here’s a little bonus. Before the album came out, Kinga did this pre-concert with the album tracks included. It doesn’t have the same band roster but it’s an excellent show nonetheless and great to see it live.