String Beat!

In 2007, my husband Otis and I lived in the Polish neighborhood of Toronto, right next to a Goodwill. We would venture there about once a month, and always headed straight to the record bins. One day, a particular record caught our eye: “String Beat”. Now, we are record collectors, but we don’t know much about Polish Jazz, only that it is indeed a great, underrated country (at least in these parts) for Jazz. We were completely floored when we listened to this record once we got home: it was outstandingly good! A little research made us realise that this was also a rare, sought after funk/jazz record, too. Wow.

The only downside to this near perfect album, is the unbearable cover of the already unbearable “Obladi-Oblada”. The album was originally released in 1975, and Henryk Debich, the famed Polish director and arranger behind this album, unfortunately passed away in 2001. I have no idea if this has been reissued or blogged ad nauseam about. All I know is: we paid 0.50$ for it.

Here it is in full, with two sample cuts.

Henryk Debich – String Beat: Bez Metalu
Henryk Debich – String Beat: Badz Wieczorem W Diskotece

Henryk Debich – “String Beat” full LP (zip)