Paweł Kaczmarczyk Directions in Music with Jorgos Skolias - Ray Charles at Harris Piano Jazz Bar (04.05)

Directions in Music project led by Paweł Kamczarczyk pays hommage to the pianist's leaders and among previous editions were to be heard innovative arrangaments of music by Eric Dolphy, Sam Rivers, Freddie Hubbard and many more. The concert in Harris las friday was dedicated to Ray Charles, quite a change as we move away from jazz legends to a legend of pop culture, yet no one would debate its connection to jazz world (apart from r'n'b & pop chart hits Ray played some jazz as well in fact).

The main artistic risk and general question in projects like that is how to approach the original music and Pawel Kaczmarczyk takes an adventurous approach to Ray's songs. The originals are completely restuructured and reorganized on all levels of harmony, rhythm, melody's cadence. Bluesy and smooth "Georgia on my mind" might be the closest to the original. Other songs are filled with sudden twists and surprising ideas. "I can't stop loving you" circles in contrasts as the funky groove intro stops suddenly before a ballad verse. There's also expanded keyobard solo and Pawel's joy of music is infective as he seems like a kid playing a video game when he toys with cosmic sounds, fat beats and spacious echoes. There's hypnotic, extended, impressionistic solo on a ripetitive bass patern "Here we go again" that. "Hit the road Jack" focuses on walking piano labirynth-like line and galloping d'n'bass drum rolls. "Hallelujah I love her so" starts with gospel intro but then hits a hard-bop brakes with a salsa twist in the middle. Ambitious and fun, and Paweł Kaczmarczyk also found the right guys to play the material with - Jorgos Skolias is a singer with warm voice and very personal expression, Dawid Fortuna is one the best groovers right now, he's way of playing is only deceivingly simple, he can hit it hard or lay it smooth and light, Maciej Adamczak anchors the music with ease, mantaining order when young guns are hitting it off.

Adventurous and entertaining. A croud pleaser? Jazz for masses? If so, who cares, I want more. This was a lot of fun, check some samples from the previous concert below and see for yourself.

Jorgos Skolias - voice
Paweł Kaczmarczyk - piano
Maciej Adamczak - double bass
Dawid Fortuna - drums

Harris Piano Jazz Bar. Kraków. 04.05.2012

Jorgos Skolias & Bronek Duzy at Harris (07.05)

I don't venture too often to Harris Piano Jazz Bar which is usually a mainstream (jazz, blues, fusion) venue. But on the other hand there's little or nothing mainstream about this duo - voice and trombone, nor in the instruemental setting, nor in the material and the execution.

Jorgos Skolias and Bronislawa Duzy (with the help of Jorgos's son Antonis on the drums in the 2nd set) create a musical that is mutli-ethnic, multi-lingual (as Jorgos sings mixing polish, english, suahili or greek) yet universal in its nature. Whether it's dynamic take on Jimi Henrix's "Foxy Lady" or emotional folk-like song "Imema" the music created by this duo is deep and coulurfull. Both Jorgos and Bronislaw use two microphones -one with natural sound, the other with an electronic feedback effect on it, but it doesn't take away the fact that their are bare and exposed and every little detail of their playing is audible. Bronislaw use extensively harmonic sound on trombone (thus stating both the melodic and harmonic base of the song) and Jorgos treats his voice in a very instrumental way, takes extensive solos (quite often humorous), experiments with his timbre, with folk, roots vocal techniques (ethno scat if you'd like to find a catchy name for it). 

In the meantime Jorgos keeps the dialogue with the audience vivid and joyful, which only makes the music more accessible and enjoyable, while mantaining a spiritual ethos of those songs. I've seen this duo a couple of times and while I'd like to hear more new material, they are quite unique, creating a musical message on their own. Recommended

Jorgos Skolias - voice, small percussion objects

Bronislaw Duzy - trombone

Antonis Skolias - drums

Harris Piano Jazz Bar. Krakow. 07.05.2011