Wolfgang Reisinger, David Boykin Trio, Igor Boxx - III Lublin Jazz Festival day 3

Wolfgang Reisiger Solo

 In the mystic and spiritual aura of a church Wolfgang Reisiger from Vienna played a solo concert on drums - definitely not an easy feat. Starting with rattling noise of shells and theatric gesture he'd invite us to a specific world where rhythm should be melody. Acoustic resonance would be accompanied by electronic enviroment, (sometimes and odd beat, sometimes electronic  sci-fi sounds, sometimes ambient texture) and an electronic drum (which would sound like anything the artist needed it to be, in the most surprising, and to my ears, effective moment - like a piano - interesting to see a drumstick hit the drum and hear a piano key, somehow bends your mind nicely). The attention to detail was commendable, brushes in the air, palms, mallets and so on. But I failed to get the big picture of this solo statement as the music would wander a bit at times. Also it was definitely to long - I can't imagine any solo drum set to be able to attract the undivided attention for a 70+ minutes continous play. Definitely an exaggeration, overachievement and I think it would be a much more succesfull try on the drums recital if cut down by a half.

Wolfgang Reisiger - drums, percussion, laptop
Holy Trininty Church; Lublin; 17.04

David Boykin Trio
The second concert was of the day was David Boykin Trio - a representant of the rich Chicago jazz scene, presented by Wojciech Juszczak (director of the Made in Chicago festival that takes place every year in Poznan). In short it was nice. Strong compositions including post-bop influences, hip-hop, lightly and nicely grooving. David Boykin is versatile on the sax, his playing based in the Coltrane tradition, modal, sometimes venturing to more free ways of saxophone expression. The rhythm section tight and somehow over-conservative I guess, giving the strong platform for the leading instrument but not adding anything extra to the mix, just going through the riffs. I'd love to see them go wilder (as they prove in the final freer moments that they can), I think especially about the drummer whose just lacks dynamic touch, nice and solid, complementing well the sound of the trio, but I'd like something more surprising. 

Two hip-hop songs showcase a flowing stream of worlds (nice rhyming structures although it was too hard for me to follow the lyrics closely) and add a modern, funky aura. But otherwise, while it's all cool and enjoyable, you get the feeling that it was too laid-back also.

David Boykin - tenor sax, rap
Josh Abrams - double bass
Marcus Evans - drums

Warsztaty Kultury; Lublin; 17.04

Igor Boxx

Igor Boxx is a half a of a very succesfull Skalpel duo, electronic masters who with their debut cd would sample classic polish jazz recordings and they are under the wings of prestigious Ninja Tune label. Mazzoll did play a huge part in the revolutionary yass move in the 90s that stirred nicely the stagnated polish jazz scene of the era. So, while not a big fan of electronic music, I still was interested to see this one. But I was hugely dissapointed, loud and fast techno-driven beats, sometimes danceable, usually dull, left me completely indifferent. Almost no solo space for Mazzoll (the one he got was the most interesting moment of the concert by far). Maybe I don't know much about music and this was actually great but not for me. Fact is the only thing that kept me seated were great visualisations - very original, apocalyptic and scary cartoons about World War II.

Igorr Boxx - electronics, turntable
Magierski - laptop, keys
Mazzoll - clarinet, bass clarinet
Vj Spectribe - visuals

Warsztaty Kultury; Lublin; 17.04