Some ramblings in English about the music I love, about the concerts in Krakow or elsewhere I get to witness, about cds I manage to get my hands on and particularly like. Also about the music I play on student's radio frycz. Stay tuned.
Jazz Alchemist
The number of live events is an effective distractin of late but I hope I'll manage to get some writing done these days. The following week's main event is undisputedly the duo concert with Matthew Shipp and Sabir Mateen, but it's not the only one worhty of the attention.
20.05 Shoshana at Alchemia
a dynamic alternative rock duo straight from Tel Aviw. It's gonna be LOUD!!!
21.05 Mikrokolektyw at Klub Re
Artur Majewski and Kuba Suchar in a acoustic trumpet - drums duo within an electronic environment. The very recent "Absent Minded" cd released by the prestigious Delmark records is gathering very good reviews, quite deservingly so.
22-23.05 Kuba Pluzek Trio at Piec'Art
A n elegantly swinging act with the verteran Artur Skolik on drums. The trio's debut cd couple of years back was a pleasant endeavour with somewhat retro charm.
22-26
22-26.05 BluesRoads Festival at Zaczek and other clubs
A blues marathon that, concerts, live music battles as well as blues history lectures. Check the complete program here.
23.05 Matthew Shipp / Sabire Mateen - SaMa at Alchemia (Krakow Autumn Jazz Preview)
One of the masters of modern piano on one hand and one of the most underrated reed (and especially clarinet) players. For those who can come to Krakow, this concerts is a must. The others will have to settle for the brilliant recording released on Not Two.
26.05 High Definition at Harris Piano Jazz Bar
The energetic quartet led by Piotr Orzechowski, a youthfull and modern vision of jazz. You can't not dig it.
It was an extremely busy week (no time to write, each day busy with a concert). I'd say Wovoka (tantalizingly psychodelic folk-blues) and Hucpa (double drum jewish wedding fiesta with alto sax leading on the ballroom) were the definite highlights.
Krakow remains a stage of student's festival for another week so pleny of live events this week as well, but not as many if you look for alternative jazz. The blues fans should be well satisfied though:
13.05 Adam Baldych Imaginary Quartet at Lizard King (part of the "Starzy i Mlodzi czyli Jazz w Krakowie festival")
A dynamic violin player and energetic quartet whose sound is deeply inspired by the modern jazz New York scene.
12-13.05 Magdalena Piskorczyk at PIEC'Art
For 6 conscutive years the winner of the best female vocalist title by the "Twój Blues" magazine. I don't think it needs commenting.
For the next days PIEC'Art focuses on young Krakow jazz scene and will present
14.05 Ola Trombola Quintet(A.Guguła-tp, S.Pezda-sax, N.Kolodziejczyk-p, M.Parker-db, G.Dowgiałło-dr)
15.05-16.05 Mateusz Gawęda solo / Mateusz Gawęda Trio
15.05 and 19.05 Bartek Przytuła Acoustic Jam Session / Przytuła & Kruk
Przytuła hold the top blues vocalist titles on the male side of the top lists , charismatic singer will lead Wednesday jam session with Krzysiek Pietras on piano and Tomek Kruk on dobro guitar, the latter will return on Sunday, the duo will be joined by Maciek Kudla on drums.
16.05 Cuefx Band at Alchemia
Cuefx proposes a deep club sound, elements of hip-hop and nu jazz could be find in there as well. Aleksander Papierz's presence (a known from the variety of noise, core, free and experimental projects) should gurantee a crazy ingredient.
Another busy week ahead of us. Krakow becomes for the next fortnight or so a mix of student festivals with each university holding its own program and many open air concerts featuring indie, rock, pop polish (and some international) stars will be presented. Enjoy as much as you can and want to, personally I'd like to bring your attention to the traditionally jazz/alternative independent schedule:
06.05 and 7.05 Shock Wave at PIEC'Art
I wrote briefly about group's jam at Literki couple of months ago, the dynamic presents some of the most active young musicians in Krakow with Dominika Rusinowska on violing and Slawek Pezda on saxophone as the leading voices. Mix of free, modern, punk, rock and more.
07.05 Rara Avis at Alchemia
Rara Avis in the words of Ken Vandermark, featured in the grup led by a cast of young reprentants of Italy:
“I'm extremely excited about the group for a number of reasons: the band is a cooperative, without a designated leader, everyone's ideas and playing caries equal weight; the Italian members of Rara Avis are part of a new generation of players who are very knowledgeable about contemporary developments in improvised and composed music; and the fields of sound the ensemble explores are unique in terms of texture, velocity, dynamics- the traditional hierarchies of what instrument is "melodic," what instrument supplies "rhythm," are so turned on their head and blurred that it is often impossible to identify the creative sources at work during a performance. These things, and many others that the group incorporates into its music, make Rara Avis a special band for me, and most certainly for fans of modern improvised music”.
07.05 Rafal Mazur & Keir Neuringer at Bomba
Rafal Mazur talked extensively about the history of this duo in the recent interview, the music is as personal as this long-living duo's relation is now. Nonetheless the rich history, each meeting is a new experience.
08.05 Samech at Alchemia
Samech was found by Anna Ostachowska, graduate of Music Academy in Krakow and Birmingham Conservotoire in UK. The band's initial repoertoire was based on klezmer music, today it presents a wide conception of world music. The Quartet is viola, cello, bass and percussion, it got recently recognized by John Zorn who released its music on internationally recognized Tzadik label.
08.05 Jazzcore Jam Session Party - Mike Parker's Birthday Party at Harris Piano Jazz Bar
Mike Parker is an american double bass player, living and creating in Krakow for a while, member and leader of numerous projects like Mike Parker's Unified Theory or N.S.I. Quartet (first prize of the 2012 Jazz Juniors festival). The evening will feature most of the musicians playing in the variety of his projects. Should be lots of fun.
09.05 Rykard Parasol at Alchemia
Rykard Parasol is sort of a female Nick Cave. Her songs are noir stories about love and murders and alcohol. Her voice is seducing and dark. She's both poetic powerfully dramatic stage presence. Every single of her previous concerts in Krakow packed the club, probably her performance during the open-air concert during Cracow Jewish Festival a year ago brought her some new ones.
09.05 Pink Freud at Piekny Pies
Pink Freud is one of those band living on the fringes of alternative rock, electronica and jazz genres and this band music and energy has a kind of commercial appeal that defies any of the genres above. Pink Freud music live is a performance os usually a mixture of fun, funk, joyfull and energy, some jazz swag and punk anarchy. The most recent project is band's music for an audiobook to Philip K. Dick's "Blade Runner" (or, as the original title was - "Do androids dream of electric sheeps?").
(EDIT, last minute addition) 09.05 Wovoka at Bomba
A peculiar quartet with Rapheael Roginski, Pawel Szpura (names very familiar to the avant jazz followers), Ola Rzekpka (from Drekoty and Alten Zachen) and Mewa Chabiera. Root inspiration in the old american music, rural blues as well as native americans.
11.05 Bartek Przytuła Band at Alchemia
For something completely different, why not a blues night with Bartek Przytuła? Seems a perfect way for a saturday night.
(EDIT: Last minute addition) 11.05 Hucpa at Cheder Cafe (parte of the MuLaKuŻ series)
For the 60th birthday of John Zorn a special project playing the music of Masada series, Maciej Obara (saxophone) with Bartek Nazaruk and Michal Bryndal on percussion.
This a special project and there's no material on the web the most classic Masada group should serve as an appetizer:
12.05 El Greco at Manggha (part of the "Starzy i Młodzi czy Jazz w Krakowie Festival")
Joachim Mencel used to be my favourite musician in Krakow, his trio concerts were absolutely brilliant, his compositions were always beautifull songs, his playing filled with passion and charisma that betrayed the mainstream idiom in many ways, at least in my ears. El Greco is mostly a smooth, funky, pop venture. But it's a world class as such.
Meantime in Warsaw....
09.05 - 12.05 New Jewish Music festival
A very varied festival program starts presents the many faces of modern jewish music and gathers speed till the finale concerts with the Riverloam Trio (Trzaska, Brice, Sanders) and Horny Trees Big Band.
Here's the last piece of the interview with Tomasz Dabrowski. Big thanks to Tomasz for the talk and to Malgorzata Michalska who did come up with the idea for the meeting.
(you play a very specific instrument, you call it
„balkan horn”, can you tell more about it?)
This is an instrument I got at a bargain price from a
gentleman in a village near Łódź city. I found it on allegro [a
popular auction website], no one wanted to buy it. I saw it and got
very intrested – it looks very old, and most of all it looks very
strange, with a huge bell for example.
I turned it has a very different sound as well. There
are those technical matters I'm not really an expert in. If you play
trumpet and flugelhorn, you have to use two different mouthpieces.
Same thing if you play in a small combo or you play in big band. If
you play lead part you have to use a shallower mouthpiece so the
sound would be more upfront, you're leading the section, the
whole big band as a metter of fact. I'm really terrible at it,
and that is for the biggest advantage of my balkan horn, I can easily
play with the same mouthpiece I use on the trumpet but the sound is
very different, ambitus is larger, the articulation is different.
The way this is instrument is built nobody can tell
me what it is. I know it's from the 60s, I even wrote to the
manufacturer but they were of no help as well. It's very fragile,
you could crush it in your hands, if you hit it gives away more of a
„plastic” sound rather than „brassy”. It allows you to play
also with the tuning. It's a sort of a laboratory, you can always
experiment with new sounds.
(I think I recall Ambrose Akinmusire talking about
how the temperature or blood pressure could change the way he sounds,
what are your ways to practice the instrument or habits you acquired
during those years)
Somebody once asked Dexter Gordon how come he can
play so well while being drunk and he said it's because he practices
while being drunk as well. I think one need to be vary carefully
about so called juju's, musical rituals. Trumet requires a great deal
of discipline, you need to stay in shape.
As I'm home for Christmas, everyone's sitting at the table, and I
need to rehears this or that. Firstly, to have an excuse to stop
eating, secondly, because I know If I don't do it now, I will have to
catch up later.
It's a brass instrument, which means it's different
as well every day. You can't learn it once and be done with it.
You're a doctor really, you need to check every day what's working,
what needs some more practice so it would function properly.
You thinks sometims it's a problem with the blast, or
articulation and it turns out often it's because of the breathing.
Peter Evans taught me that, he asked me if I practice breathing, and
I replied I had it covered ad the very beggining. He said he used to
thought that as well. You need to keep going back to the very
elementary things. You need to keep them straight.
Breathing, articulation, air blast. On
a daily bases as you start playing those are all seperate
issues, the thing is how to put them together. It requires practice,
you need to find ways that work for you and let you keep the frame
straight.
I had trouble with that, for many yearts. I'd
practice while watching television, it doesn't work. This instrument
demands focus and discipline.
I became very interested in the teaching of Arnold
Jacobs, he was the lead tuba player of the Philharmony in Chicago.
One of his postualtes was this: it doesn't matter what it looks like,
what's crooked, what's slipped out. The note, its sound, what you
play it is a direct result of what you have in mind. This is how I
see it now and how I'm trying to teach my students.
I think you're really learning to play music, you're
trying to find a way to express yourselve, the trumpet is just a tool
you chose and you use to do it. You need to shorten as much as
possible the distance between what's on your mind and what comes out
of the instument.
This works the same way with the more technical
issues. For example, if you want to play a high note, some people
think, you know, one needs to lick here, move that. Maybe it will
work, I don't know. I base my approach upon Jacobs' teachings –
it's easier if you find a way to relate your playing to your thoughts
– sound in your head. Trumpet is just
an instrument, it's a tool, it doesn't determine the music – you
decide how it will be. It's the same with the sound. If you give a
guy who has his own sound four different trumpets to play, there
might be slight differencies but the sound is determined by the
humand, not by the object. Articulation, phrasings, it's all in the
sound and it all stays with you.
As I still struggle to recover my hard disk data (well, actually I took the occasion to do some catching-up with a couple of tv series and the week was pretty busy concert-wise) no new plalist today is ready, but let us celebrate the birthday of the one of the aristocrats of jazz history - Duke Ellington, the bandleader, the composer, the songwriter, the pianist. Maestro.
It was a very intense week concert-wise. Due to the 1. and 3. may festivities, most people in Krakow are planning now a long careless weekend outside the city. The tourists though that are coming for the very same time to Krakow might consider those events a worthy wat to spend the evening:
29.04 Larz Reller Band at Alchemia
A kind of eastern europe folk-funk band that, I've never heard of them but the video below promises quite a positive vibe.
30.04 Catholic Spray, Kaseciarz and Gghost Townn at Piekny Pies
An evening that will be filled with fuzzy guitar riffs, lo-fi garage sounds and rock'n'roll.
01.05 Mike Parker's Unified Theory at Piec'ART
A piano-less dynamic quintet that closes the gap between bop, funky, hip and free.
04.05 and 05.05 Chatarra Crew at Piec'ART
An international trio with Vincent Domenech on alto saxophone (Spain), Riedo Okuda on piano (Japan) and Antti Virtarant on double bass (Finland). The chamber music is freely improvised and draws on the qualities of both american and european traditions of improvisation.
Orioxy:
Yael Miller - vocals
Julie Campiche - harp
Manu Hagmann - double bass
Roland Merlinc - drums
Unit Records 2012
Orioxy played a very inspiring set couple of weeks ago in Krakow at Piec'ART club. In the centre of the musical picture there are two women and their artistic connection, the base of the quite particular instrumental line-up where voice and harp lead the way.
Yael Miller's voice is strong, clear, both sharp and sensual. Some of the song lyrics are written in hebrew which adds more layers to the ethereal, slightly exotic and mystic feel of the music. Julie's Hampiche harp is the cornertsone of the poetic, slighty dark and yet dreamy sound. The two are supported by irresistibly simple, earthy drum and bass grooves.
The group combines influences of classical, jazz, ethnic and rock but there's really much more to it than genre crossing. The Orioxy's music contrasts the heavenly and earthy, the delicate lightness and poetic shadow and finds a way to balance those elements together.
Each song has its own original story to tell, there's bit of theatrical drama to some of them but it is delivered with true passion and conviction. Orioxy's sound may intrigue at first, but it strikes, haunts and charms you at the same time soon enough.
The whole cd is available via band's soundcloud so trying to write anything more seems pretty much redundant. Without further ado let me just recommend the listen which hopefully you'll enjoy as much as I do :
Here's the second chapter of the interview with young polish trumpet player Tomasz Dabrowski.
(What
is differences between musical scene in Denmark and Poland you can
observe?)
Denmark
has good balance. There's a strong mainstream circle as well as free.
In Poland only now we're it starts to level. I don't know about
classical music, but as far as jazz is concerned, mainstream
jazz was dominating. What is called avant-guarde by many
people was for present for a long time but always stood aside. But
now it's coming to the light, I'm under impression that we're
witnessing a big change, started around the last two years. So much
more is happening, new musicians, projects, more concerts, festivals.
Also on the international level, we're not scheduled
anymore, there are no borders, you can play with whoever you want.
(You're
about the to play concert with Pheeroan AkLaff...)
a photo from that event can be seen above
I
know! I can't wait (laughter)
I'm
myself very curious about it because I don't know what we're going to
play, but I'm very happy about who I'm going to play wiht.
The
story behing this is concert is very simple, Pardon To Tu's manager
told me some time ago there's something special about to happen, but
would give no details yet. He's the one who invited me to
participate, I'll only get to mett Pheeroan tomorrow. We'll se what
will happen.
(Is
there someone you'd particularly want to play with?)
I'm
thinking more and more about a steady unit. It's not that I've played
and recorded with everyone I'd want to. It's not about that. I've
recorded recently a couple of cds that should be released soon. Those
sessions were carefully planned, I wrote the material, it was all
fixed.
But
it's very different when you can play with your buddies. And I miss
that. Having a working band, being able to really work together. So
it would not be just about one cd, one tour. But about steady
project, where you really want to play with the others, and it's a
real work, you're trying to achive something mover, when the band
takes it's own shape, its unique sound.
TOM
trio for me is such a band right now and I want to continue it. We
played recently in Kopenahgen during the winter jazz festiva and I'm
still living off the energy that concert gave me.
There's
also this band, it's ours, not mine, there's no leader, it's called
HUNGER PANGS. It's Marek Kadziela on guitar, Kasper Tom Christiansen
on drums and I'm playing horns and micoKorg. Our cd „Meet Meat”
will be released soon. Working in a band when every musician lives in
a different place is not the easiest thing to do. But we manage our
expectations and play just a couple of concerts a year. Marek lives
in Poland for 1,5 year now, he's very active. Kasper leads his own
projects in Denmark and Germany, I'm pretty busy as well with the new
projects and cd releases coming soon. Still, Hunger Pangs is one of
the best bands I'm playing with, there's no other gorup like it in
the country, maybe just a couple in the whole Europe.
(You
referred to the recording sessions you organised in New York, what
have this experience taught you?)
I
learned responsibility in playing. No matter the situation, you sit
in, you play, you take complete and absolute responsibility for it.
Each rehearsal you're there 100%.
I
had luck to meet people well versed not only in jaz tradition but the
classical, european tradition as well. Full professional in till the
most minimal details. I was the leader, the musicians knew what I
wanted to achieve, they know how to deliver it, mantainig their own
individuality.
It
was a very positive kick, a sign I should go further the path I've
chosen. I've heard many compliments, from Kris (Davies), from Tyshaun
(Sorey), about my playing, about the compositions. It was all very
uplifting.
It's
not that, here, in Poland, I'm criticized. But our idea of education,
from the very beginning, is such that people are more eager to
reprimand you rather than tell you're good at something.
(the
debut „Tom Trio” cd is generally well received though..)
It's
true. All the reviews I know are very positive. Good things are said
about the individual expression, group interplay as well as the
compositions itself. The biggest interest in the album is present
here, in Poland, which pleases me very much, I was afraid that
becasue it was release by a foreign label it would go by unnoticed by
the polish audience. ILK Records is definitely not a mojr label with
the distribution that brings the music to any grocery supermarket.
Now it's available via Multikulti, in Emik network, main web stores
Merlin and Serpent but as well via my own site, with authograph [:)].
ILK
is a special label that works in a very cool way, it's a collective
of circa 20 musicians, not just anybody can release a cd there. But
if they all accept it, the music must be really ok.
Due to the hard disk malfunction the radio playlist I put together for today can't be uploaded so instead I propose you a brief youtube very mixed-mix for a day.
Firstly - let me invite you again to the concert events of the week (previous post gives more details) and thus let's hear some more from the artists who will perform in Krakow in the next few days.
Secondly - big happy jazzy brithday wishes to three extraordinary bass players all born on 22.04 - Charles Mingus, Paul Chambers and Barry Guy.
Enjoy and stay tuned. Next chapter of the interview with Tomasz Dabrowski will be posted on Wednesday.
A very busy week in Krakow (non that the previous one was lazy, OffPlus Camera filled pretty well the schedule). I propose for your consideration:
21.04 Dialog with freelance artists at Hurtownia Ruchu.
Let me repeat the invitations for today meeting with Manuela Tessa, Dominika Knapik and Vasco Trilla. (details in the previous post). The meeting in itself is a chance to meet two of the performers who will appear a day after on the event:
22.04 Free The Dance at Alchemia
Another chapter in the series of performances where spirit of improvisation connects the arts of dance and music.
Paulina Owczarek, Michal Dymny, Vasco Trilla - musicians
Alchemia propose also a series of very intriguing alternative-music concerts:
23.04 Hugo Race Fatalists at Alchemia
A fellow spirit of Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds, Hugo Race's songs present a similar emotional poignance.
24.04 Hang Em High at Alchemia
Hang Em High's music is a mixture of hard, southern rock, instrumental jazz, punk and possible much more. Given the instrumentation the band's sound reminds you of Morphine group, might be good to see if the group lives up to its potential.
25.04
25.04 Drekoty at Alchemia
Polish indie group that mixtures a variety of styles, the videos below should say more than my words:
25.04 in fact proposes a huge dilemma as some other events can catch your attention
25.04 Ben Caplan at Piękny Pies
A long-bearded bard, one might hear echoes of grunge and folk and blues, Ben is a great lyricist and charismatic singer, I must admit I'm very impressed with the songs I caught in the web.
25.04 Niechec at Klub Re
Niechęć is one of those bands whose music exists on the fringes of alternative, electro, indie and jazz scenes and their provocative album title "Śmierć w miękkim futerku" ("Death in a soft fur") adds yet another layer to their musical vision.
26.04 Maciej Obara International Quartet at Manghha
Maciej Obara is one of the premier voices of young generation on jazz scene in Poland. The concert is a part of Festiwa Starzy i czyli Jazz w Krakowie. His bandmates for the project are Dominik Wania on piano, Ole Morten Vaagan - double bass and Gard Nilssen - drums.
As a matter of fact the festival starts a day before with a concert from Norwegian band Picket Corner, unfortunately I wasn't able to find and samples for the band and, to be completely honest, I've already feel like we don't need anymore choices for the 25.04
26.04 Mischief Theatre in Krakow (Improv Event at PAKA Festival - Rotunda)
27.04 NeoQuartet playing Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Hamza El Din at Cheder Cafe
A string quartet performing works by the master of contemporary minimalism. The concert is part MuLaKuŻ (Muzyczne Laboratorium Kultury Żydowskiej - Musical Laboratory of Jewish Culture). The program will contain:
Terry Riley – Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector (1981)
Hamza El Din – Escalay (Water Wheel) (1989)
Steve Reich – Different Trains for a string quartet and a tape (1988)
I'm happy to say I'll join Malgorzata Haduch, the organizer of Free The Dance series, to conduct a short meeting / discussion with the artists involved in the next performance.
Please feel free to come and participate
Day : 21.04
Time :19:00
Place: Hurtownia Ruchu. Kraków ulica Kącik 9
Even if it were the one reason only I just have to put the this one on the blog I praised the previous sextet's release "Cut a Caper" as one of the best albums of 2011. The musicians must have liked the review as it's summary fragment is cited inside the cover of the "Live @ the Ironworks Vancouver". I must admit I felt really proud to see my words printed out. And I feel even prouder having listened to the music they accompany as this is a worthy follow up to the "Cut a Caper" which is a much more important reason to write about this.
Trumpet player Tomasz Dabrowski is one of the most prominent new faces of polish jazz. I had already the pleasure to write about his TOM Trio cd, more cds are soon to be released (including New York sessions with Tyshaun Sorey, Kris Davies, Andrew Drury).
I had a brief chat with Tomek in Krakow few weeks ago as he was about to get on the train to Warsaw to play with the Pheeroan AkLaff. The interview will be posted in three chapters in the next two weeks on the blog.
Here's the first part, a biographical insight into the beginning of Tomasz's musical journey:
"I'm
sure everyone has a different story to tell. In my case, my parents
have still the VHS-camera recording, it's christmas time and I'm
singing some songs by the christmas tree. My folks decided I have a
knack for it. Even today, my aunt, and she's around
70 now, always tells me how she
remembers me singing to the broom's stick some children songs. As my
parents saw it they decided to buy me a keyboard. I'm the first
musician in the family, that was their image of how it should begin –
keyoard, you know, it has some potential for the future, maybe you'll
play in the wedding band, you can show off at holidays to the family,
this kind of utility music. And that's how I begun to learn, mostly
classical music.
There
was this moment, it's really a bad story, there was this disc, or
cassette tape rather „Sax & Sex” by Robert Chojnacki with
Piasek [sort of smooth jazz / pop music star very popular in the
90s]. I listened to it and I then I knew I want to play saxophone, no
way around it. I wasn't the perfect age, 13 years old, it was really
a last call to join music school, much smaller children would be
already playing well. Ilawa, where I attended the music school, it a
small city, around 30 thousand citizens, it is known for a trad jazz
festival Złota Tarka („Golden Grater”). They've just initiated a
special program which allowed to me enlist. So i did so, I went to
thse school and it turned out there's no vacancies left to lear sax,
they told me so and asked „how about the trumpet?”. And I wasn't
even sure what it was exactly, some people don't know the difference
between trumpet and trombone – bone „elephant” sound and that's
it.
But I went to the rehearsal led by the teacher Bogdan Olkowski, he played the insteument and I thought to myself it's not that bad, I could be ok with it. I wasn't really serious about it. A guy this age would rather play some football outside. It turned out it's a damn tough instrument to learn, you need to practice everyday, be carefull about what you do, control so many aspects at once. Only today I realise all that, especially since I started to teach as well. I have young students, 8-10 years old but I had a 70 years old senior as well. Everyone starts at the first base.
First
reaction one has when he takes the trumpet and tries to play it, you
know, cheeks like Dizzy Gillespie, no sound at all and the though
appears „God, it's so hard”. It has to be explained that it's not
that hard, there are these myths about how physical the instrument
is, it is not easy, but you don't loose
your conscience after 30 seconds. Although a sweaty shirt after the
concert is a normal thing.
I
started to play with youth orchestra from Iława, quite a known big
band, one of the most acclaimed in Poland. We travelled a lot and
Olkowski, for which I'm eternally gratefull, would always say to me
„you should do something more about it, you have knack for it”.
Unfortuantely I didn't have much musical knowledge, there was nobody
who could teach me more. Event though there are many musicians, jazz
or otherwise, who are from Ilawa – double
bass player Michal Jaros, Marcin Ulanowski who plays the
groove ,rock kind of thins. But I couldn't find anyone who could show
me „do this”, you can do it that way”, „practice that thing”.
The
one person who would play me music would be Hipolit
Szalkiewicz – the teacher responsible for the basic music teachings
– literature, dictations, practices, classical etudes and so on,
all that staff that everyone needs to pass through in the music
school. But once the class was over, mr Hipolit would call me „Hey
Tomek, wait here a second, listen to this” and he would play me
maybe some dixieland jazz that I really liked. I didn't know how to
apprach it, but I frequented the jazz festival in the city and that's
also when I went to my first jam session.
After
that Henryk Majewski visited Ilawa and he rehearsed me but that was a
complete bust, I didn't know a first thing about playing jazz, jazz
chords? Progressions? I had not theoretical preparation whatsoever.
Two years after I applied to the jazz school on Bednarska
street in Warsaw and I got in, I still don't really know how,
I wasn't a good player, had a lot of technical issues and in fact the
first three years I spend trying to correct these, which was very
frustrating.
I was
a very active environment, people making their own bands, inviting
you to play with them, that's how you learn even more, but I had to
decline becuase there was no point to it.
Yet
after a while I was able to join them, even made own bands, got some
individual and team prizes on a couple of contests.
And
then the current chapter of my life begins, I moved to Denmark, all
that's happening now started then."
Good to have you back on the blog (block?) for the new weekly portion of music.
We begin with the jazz calendar - best jazzy birthday wishes to the fabulous bass player Richard Davis, played on numerous sessions with many jazz greats but I chose for the playlist two classic albums, one of which is an undisputed masterpice, the other a creative peak of one of the most underrated artists in jazz history. Both albums were relased within a week (!) by the Blue Note Records and they are
Andrew Hill - Point of Departure (with Eric Dolphy, Kenny Dorham, Joe Henderson, Tony Williams and Davis)
and
Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch (with Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson and Tony and Davis again)
Andrew Hill - Flight 19
Andrew Hill - Spectrum
Eric Dolphy - Something Sweet, Something Tender
Gebhard Ullmann BASSX3 - Berlin is Full of Lonely People (Part One)
Gebhard Ullmann BASSX3 - Transatlantic (Part Two)
Gebhard Ullmann BASSX3 - The Thing
John Butcher & Mark Sanders - Flicker
Veryan Weston, Ingrid Laubrock - Courtesy of None
MMM Quartet - Part Two
(sorry for the late post but I got stuck at the Off Plus Camera, some great movies there; btw. "Quartet" by Dustin Hoffmann is a must - see)
The first event I'd like to bring your attention to this week howwever is not a live music confert:
Off Plus Camera Festival- international independent film festival that actually started on 12.04 and will last through the whole week till 21.04.
Check the festival program, the movies are presented in the various spaces in Krakow.
Vocal Jazz
Piec' ART is the place to go if you want to listen to some vocal jazz this week with double-night stands by Malgorzata Moskiewicz Quartet (13-14), Kasia Blat New Quintet (15-16) and Angelica Matveeva with Fabio Giacchino's Trio (17-18).
15.04 Radiolux at Literki
Radiolux is a multimedia improvisation project that combines acoustic and electronic instruments, field recordings, visual presentations, objects and so on.
the band ismarek brandt (triphaze) playing electronics, synth, spatial drum, and fx, fabian niermannplaying saxophon, and prepared clarinet and inka perl moving and creating objects and pictures to live visuals.
16.04 Baaba + Gaba + Bunio at Klub RE - Piastour
For something completely different.
After the crazy tribute to Iron Maiden, Baaba and Gaba Kulka recorded a series of polish rockabilly songs of 60's and 70's. The material will be released on vinyl, the whole production process before was analaogue as well (lamps, tapes and stuff). Can't get more hip and oldschool than that. Fun guaranteed.
On 21.04, day before the next Free The Dance performance in Alchemia there will be a meeting with the freelancers - artists - peferormers I'll be directing (I'll try to post more details asap).
