ImproGraphic at Alchemia (12.09)

Piotr Damasiewicz is a young polish trumpet player whose interest in music is to bring mathemathical methodical approach of some of the modern music toward the unpredictability of free jazz improvisation (for more of that, check his ambitious debut album "Hadrons").

Concert in Alchemia was a part of a short tour with his new quartet starring Gerad Lebik, Jakub Mielcarek and Gabriel Ferrandini, the tour is to result in a cd realese.

Mazolewski Bund Band and Jewish Surf at Cheder Cafe (02.12)

Just a quick post about a concert that took place last friday (I'm kind of busy with a new job but I hope to get back to more steady writing soon enough).  The concert took place in Cafe Cheder on Kazimierz, was a part of the MuLaKuŻ cycle (a musical laboratory of jewish culture), a double header for the special occasion which was a release of the cd compilation documenting the cycle.

Dennis Gonzalez & Wojtek Mazolewski Double Trio at Literki (22.11)

I love trios, but a double trio doubles the fun, even more to love. Unfortunately Jerzy Rogiewicz's drums set was absent (best wishes to get healthy) but a quintet with two basses is still a neat treat. Let me skipp the beginning and go straight to the third set of the evening when the two bands joined forces.

They hit the stage hard with a powerfully struck note and leave space for the first solo by Marek Pospieszalski on tenor, ferocious playing, fiery, passionate, on edge. Pospieszalski's quickly becoming one of the premier saxophone forces of polish scene, and while he's playing at times is still a bit cocky, he has chops, he has immagination and youthfull energy, and what he plays belies his young age. 

The double bass duo works some wonders, Mazolewski counters Aaron's strong walking with long arco notes, or joins him in creating a dense net. Stefan Gonzalez's drumming is just insane. Ritually, tribally powerfull, speedy as in hardcore metal, he means business. Dennis's trumpet is his usual clear and sweet joy.

The next pieces show what Dennis is  known for, compositions filled with infectious grooves, bass lines that make your foot tap, your head sway rhythmically, your face smile. Music where african, latin, american roots live together. Music that is clearly enjoed to play (guys can't stop smiling on stage) and to listen to (the audience's applauding each solo). 

Dennis Gonzalez's music, while never loosing its spiritual depth and adventurous edge, is accessible, communicative, vibrantly live, entertaining even. It's an experience one truly enjoys to share, proven by the young crowd filling the place and enthusiastically reacting to the music. Near the end of the encore, with just a steady base laid on the bass, everyone joins a joyfull feast of rhythmic clapping. Beautifull music for body and soul.
Can't wait to hear the results of the studio session in Radio Gdańsk from yesterday, with the complete double trio.

ps.

once again best wishes of coming back to health to Jerzy Rogiewicz (drummer in Wojtek Mazolewski's trio) who couldn't play his part because of a car accident. He's ok though. 

Dennis Gonzalez - trumpet, cornet, pocket trumpet

Aaron Gonzalez - double bass

Stefan Gonzalez - drums

Wojtek Mazolewski - double bass

Marek Pospieszalski - tenor sax, basset horn

Literki. Krakow. 22.11.2011

Rafal Mazur / Marek Pospieszalski / Qba Janicki at Alchemia (22.06)

I praised all three members of this trio on numerous occasions. Yesterday's concert is yet another occasion to do that so here it goes:

I never can really tell what makes the free improvised music performance successfull. There's so many variables, so many factors, so many elements to be balanced. If writing about any kind of music is difficult, it is even more so in a case of music performance that comes from willing to escape any kind of musical barriers, stylistic norms and confines.

With fragile textures woven in the air (ostinato walks on the bass, melodic clouds of percussion sounds, circular labirynths of lines on the saxophone) or heavy and slow drones. Hard and edgy or soft and barely audibly. This music escapes any kind of generalisation, any kind of catchy 'one-line' summary. 

I always admired Janicki's killer punk-rock instincts but he shows himself to be not only a very versatile drummer but also a creative geek, using a laptop and some kind of touchpad device to create drones, loops, process the live sound. Sometimes he adds a completely different sound (piano clusters, thumb piano, gongs), sometimes his loops add a rhythmic structure, otherwise they provide meditative background. With Qba Janicki splitting in half his duties between the laptop and the drums set the group shifts swiftly through  the series of close interactions, to the point in which is hard to say that the electronic transformations are just the bridging interludes and they become equally important part of the performance.

Marek Pospieszalski is a very promising saxophone player, his sound indebted to Coltrane, but also influenced by Evan Parker, very keen to use extended techniques (especially agile with the circular breathing technique) creating myriads of sounds, intervowen lines, following the partners closely. I look forward to see him develop more personal attitude towards the instrument, maybe take also more commanding lead on the stage, not only to follow graciously, but to push the others out of their comfort zone. Nonetheless it's a pleasure to see him playing and I expect a lot more coming our way from this young player soon.

Rafal Mazur, due to his busy schedule in Krakow, is probably the most popular musician on this blog. Wise Man among the youngsters, never pushing himself to the front, rather trying to push his partners into the new regions (be it with a heavy walking line, delay effects, or bowing the strings to create a resonating sound that slowly dies in the air).

Focused performance, bringing the listeners into an outer space - not only because of some humorous sci-fi or game-boy sounds coming from the laptop - but rather becuase of the ethereal quality of the music, that bends the space and makes the time go in circles instead of a straight line. In fact a illusive repetition helps this group control the flow in a natural and semless way. The spontaneous creation was being enjoyed to the point that the musicians got lost near the end, not sure how (not wanting?) to end the track - possibly the only moment where they wandered to far and crossed the line between transcendent and monotonous (but it all ends well with a nice drumrolling crescendo).

I'm trying hard here with all this writing above to disprove the initial point of being there no sense in writing about freely improvised music. Not sure which way it went, all I know, and I recommend this solution to you with all the might of my hear and mind - there's all sense in seeing performances like this live. If those guys are playing near you - make sure to be there. If they're not, maybe they're others who do. Improvised music is always best served live.

photos by Krzysztof Penarski

Rafal Mazur - acoustic bass guitar
Marek Pospieszalski - tenor saxophone
Qba Janicki - drums, electronics

Alchemia. Krakow. 22.06.2011

Pawel Kaczmarczyk Ethno Sextet at Alchemia (15.06)

Paweł Kaczmarczyk is a representant of a very prolific generation of piano players in Poland (Marcin Wasilewski, Leszek Mozdzer, Slawek Jaskulke come to mind) and a sign of appreciation towards his music is the fact that his latest cd ("Complexity in Simplicity"; 2009) was released by an internationally recognised ACT label. 

Although his piano playing and the compositions are firmly based in hard-bop/post-bop roots, he's actively searching to expand his musical vocabulary, on a hunt for new inspirations (one of only few musicians I know that often can be spotted in the audience, especially when it comes to more mainstream side of jazz) and expanding his Audiofeeling Band (a piano trio) into the ethno - sextet gave him exactly the opportunity to do that - add a new perspective, an extra layer to his pieces as well as engage in more freely improvised dialogues, exploring the reign of world music.