Extra Ball

Extra Ball was born in January 1974 in a club Pod Jaszczurami in Cracow. The first line-up consisted of Jaros?aw ?mietana - guitar, leader, W?adys?aw Sendecki - electric piano, Jan Cichy - bass guitar and Benedykt Radecki - drums. Jaros?aw ?mietana explained the origin of band's name: "When we begun playing in Pod Jaszczurami there were automatic billiards pools launched there. They were very popular and the bonus for good play was an extra ball".

Extra Ball's true debut took place during the festival Jazz nad Odr? in the same year where the band gained the second prize. In 1975 the band played on further contests and toured the USSR in Autumn that year.
Next year Extra Ball recorded their first album, titled Birthday. The band had one more musician in its line-up then - a saxophonist Andrzej Olejniczak who joined the same year.
The album contains eight compositions of ?mietana and Sendecki. Extra Ball play here a technically high level melodic Jazz rock. In the second and fourth track they use East-European Folk dance themes a la Bartok with tricky twisted rhythm work. Coming from the main stream jazz field they switch sometimes from binary to ternary rhythms in the middle of a song. The leader and guitarist Jaros?aw ?mietana plays a "un-fusion" like fluid jazz guitar, often double lead with a synth or e-piano line. Blues for everybody is the only classic jazz track.
In December 1976 the percussionist Benedykt Radecki left the band and was replaced by Marek Stach. In the following year Extra Ball visited Holland and gave a series of concerts in Warsaw jazz club Akwarium. Material recorded during this performances was later issued on the LP Aquarium Live 3. A few months later, in December, the band disbanded.
In January 1978 Jaros?aw ?mietana resurrected the band but remained the only member from the original line-up. The new Extra Ball abandoned jazzrock and steered definitely towards mainstream jazz so it's of no interest to prog fans (unless they're jazz fans also). This incarnation of the band released four further albums.

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