Some ramblings 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. Stay tuned.
Jazz Alchemist
Ken Vandermark - reeds
Kent Kessler - double bass
Hamid Drake - drums
Not Two 2012
DKV trio's concert in the course of 2012 Autumn Jazz Festival was a night to remember for many reasons. The trio played up to the promise and delivered. The concert itself, a result of a decade - long logistical struggle to bring together the three at one place and time, was also the release date campaign to a 7cds boxset called "Past Present" that would gather a several of the famed DKV performances done near the end / beginning of each year in Chicago and Milwaukee.
The bar was set up incredibly high at the first set of the evening by the Hera. Still DKV is like an dream team trio, I've heard legends about their concert 10 years ago in Katowice and Marek Winiarski from Not Two tried ever so hard to bring them in to Krakow in the last years but it proved to be impossible because of the musicians schedule - they've among the busiest people in the world. And it finally happened.
And boy it was worth waiting for. The trio grooved with grittines, swinging soulfully and passionately. Just unresistable ride, joyfull and fun. When they get lyrical it's smooth and lushfull, when they hit it hard it's an instant knock-out, when they want to be rough or abstract, they just do, without ever loosing the grip of the story, all even the most abstract dots connect with each other in a perfect way. There's elegance and energy that rarely meet together, the swag and substance, the heavy groove dances lightly on its toes and the trio is just on fire and your foot is toetapping without a stop.
As good as it gets. Smokin' hot jazz.
2nd set:
DKV
Ken Vandermark - tenor sax, clarinet
Kent Kessler - double bass
Hamid Drake - drums
This was for me, and possibly many others, the most awaited evening of this year's festival. Hera is possible one of the strongest units on the scene and it still evolving band, constantly in search of new and exciting. I invite you to check on the blog the review of their 2nd cd "Where My Complete Beloved Is" as well as the interview with the band's leader Waclaw Zimpel. The quartet met with Hamid Drake in Lublin a year and a half ago, the double bill evening ended in a the wonderfully groovy jam session and they immediately hit it off and the idea to work together in the future was born on the spot.
The Krakow concert is the day that this idea came to reality and the band presented a new series of compositions that show the continuous development of the musical vision. Trance, hypnotic, the music would shine with the rhythmi propulsation provided by the double drums sets behind, with the polyphonic melodies presented by the double front line, with the stead bass groove, with sharp guitar sound and the drones of hurdy gurdy.
Hera
There was something absolutely magical about the performance, complete and total experience of sound, rhythm, melody. Omnipresent, the music would take you in wholly, showing you the paradise world of universal love. I honestly lack word to describe the passionate feeling that the music gave me. Hats off especially to Maciej Cierlinski who just added an entire new universe to the band's music (also the craziest solo of the night, if Jimi Hendrix have played hurdy gurdy, that's how it would sound). It was also the first time I've heard them with Raphael Roginski and his unique sound would enhance so fabulously the constant melodious flow.
To have listened to this band was like to jump into a river, and just keep floating, keep admiring the constance of change around you, and it felt so safe and natural to meet all this with an openess of mind and heart. In the words of Joe McPhee: "fucking amazing".
Peter Brotzmann came back to Krakow for the second evening of the festival and he brought two bands with himself - a turkish collective KonstruKt (something new) and The Damage is Done (something old).
KonstruKt is probably a fairly obscure group but they caught mine attention with three recent collaborations - Marshall Allen, Evan Parker (a live cd from Akbank Festival which I wrote about here) and, last but not least, Peter Brotzmann. The line-up for the evening was alto saxophone, bass guitar, drums and old-school korg synth and some other retro keyboards.
The sax gave a signal with a fiery, frenetic phrase and the band started brewing - dense and intense, with powerhouse drumming, sci-fi keys and some fastwalking basslines. An updated, free and wild view on the fusion easthetics where (finally) the general sound of the group is more important the solo pyrotechnics. Once the Peter joined and added his own tsunami stamp on the music the band really got it going on. There was the right kick (and the left punch) - boiling and turmoiling.
For the 2nd set showed up the quartet of Peter, Joe McPhee, Kent Kessler and Michael Zerang, which took the name of the Damage is Done. Which is the title of the double cd released on Not Two and recorded couple of years back in Alchemia. The concert which, I remember it vividly, got me so pumped up that I stayed up till 4 pm, writing one of my first reviews ever (curious polish reades can find it Diapazon).
They had me then, and the still do. Four incredible musicians and minds playing music on the spot, putting to the test all the sensibility and emotional power they can muster. Brotzmann tornadoes on the saxophone, no prisoners allowed or utters cry of despair, McPhee balances the sound with the depth of blues and Kessler and Zerang create a myriad of textures and grooves to push the music forward, unstoppable. Energetic till the point you want to jump up high in the air or lyrical and tear-breaking. To watch this quartet is to follow a heroic battle scene, where there are no prisoners allowed.
1st set:
KonstruKt:
Korhan Futacı - alto sax, flute
Umut Çağlar - electric organ, synth
Özün Usta - electric bass, gongs, djembe
Korhan Argüden - drums
Peter Brotzmann - tenor saxophone, tarogato
2nd set:
The Damage Is Done:
Peter Brotzmann - tenor sax, tarogato, clarinet
Joe McPhee - tenor sax, pocket trumpet
Kent Kessler - double bass
Michael Zerang
Luc Houtkamp - tenor saxophone
Kent Kessler - double bass
Michael Zerang
Entropy Stereo 1999
While free-jazz may seem to be all about surprise, even the most radical fans have a list of favourite musicians and it's easier to stick with the safe choices - players that You know can deliver what You want to hear. But then one uses the oldest method available to jazz fans if they want to hear more of their favourite thing - checking out some guys who are playing with guys who played with THE guy on Your list. Like in: I don' know this band but there's a musician who did something together with this guy who played with Miles Davis. What sometimes can be a misleading marketing trick (happens also in jazz world) does quite often work as the most effective method of finding new names and great music that could otherwise go unnoticed.
What I really want to say is that I've never heard about Luc Houtkamp before, but when one plays with Kent Kessler and Michael Zerang, and You can find Ken Vandermark's liner notes inside*, it's good enough recommendation for me.
