By Five

“By Five” released by Not Two in 2000, captures trumpeter Jerzy Małek at a formative moment, leading a sharp, contemporary quintet through a set that announces his arrival as one of the defining young voices of Polish jazz at the turn of the century. Still early in his recording career yet already recognized as a musician with a clear sense of direction, Małek fronts a tightly balanced ensemble—Tomasz Grzegorski’s tenor saxophone cutting in counterpoint to the trumpet lines, Michał Tokaj’s piano shaping the harmonic frame, and the rhythm team of Romuald Twarożek and Sebastian Frankiewicz giving the music its forward motion and clean, modern contour. The session’s palette widens on selected tracks with the addition of Marek Romanowski’s trombone on two tracks, deepening the ensemble sound without disturbing the album’s crisp, contemporary focus. What emerges is a portrait of Małek as both composer and bandleader: melodic but never predictable, rooted in the language of post‑bop while leaning toward the sleek, urban sensibility that would mark his later work. “By Five” stands as an early document of a trumpeter who would become a constant presence on the Polish scene, and as a snapshot of Not Two’s openness at the dawn of the new century to polished, straight‑ahead jazz alongside its more exploratory impulses.