Last night at the Skylark Mikrokolektyw, an electronically inclined jazz duo from Wroclaw, Poland, played the first of its two local concerts this week. I didn't make the show because I was watching the Raincoats make their long overdue and immensely satisfying Chicago debut at the Double Door, but I intend to be at the Hideout on Wednesday when they perform again, playing a duo set and another one with guests Jeb Bishop (trombone) and Joshua Abrams (bass).

That second set will likely be purely improvised, and judging from the recent album Zomo Hall (Not Two), Mikrokolektyw trumpeter Artur Majewski is up to the task. The album is billed to the Gerard Lebik/Artur Majewski Foton Quartet (the band is rounded out by bassist Jakub Cywinski and drummer Wojciech Romanowski), and the group's aesthetic is clearly rooted in jazz tradition. Lebik and Majewski engage in both quicksilver give-and-take and empathetic multilinear improv, snaking their sometimes fluttery, sometimes steely lines together in elegant, highly attuned dances, their gestures steeped in the postbop vernacular. The adept, alert rhythm section rarely settles into a swing, but its output nonetheless provides clear forward momentum. As usual you can hear Don Cherry in Majewski's concise, folklike phrases, but more than reflecting any particular group or era, the music here revolves around old-fashioned interplay. Below you can listen to a track from Mikrolektyw's debut album Revisit (Delmark, 2010) and another from Zomo Hall.

Mikrolektyw, "Lipuko"

Gerard Lebik/Artur Majewski Foton Quartet, "Two"

Today's playlist:

Marta Topferova, Trova (World Village)
Kiko Dinucci, Na Bocas dos Outros (Desmonta)
Mark Feldman & Sylvie Courvoisier, Oblivia (Tzadik)
Various artists, Delta Dandies: Dance Bands in Nigeria 1936-1941 (Savannahphone)
John Ellis & Double-Wide, Puppet Mischief (ObliqSound)