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
Berjozkele:
Ola Bilińska - vocal, OP1 synth, electric guitar, vibes, Moogerfooger delay
Michał Moniuszko - double bass
Kacper Szroeder - trumpet, flugelhorn, bielarussian dulcimer
Mikołaj Trzaska - bass clarinet
Raphael Rogiński - electric guitar
The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute 2014
I have recently written shortly about Berjozkele's concert during the Jewish Culture Festival and I promised to write more about the group and their music, available on cd thanks to the support of Jewish Historical Institute. Bilinska's project is in fact of great etnographic, historical interest, in many ways a dive into the past. The album is a collection of yiddish songs of yonder times, before the tragic disappearance of jewish culture in Europe. Thankfully, it's not only a recollection of a lost culture but a modern interpretation of it, an example of its recent revitalization. The presence of Raphael Roginski and Mikołaj Trzaska on the record is somehow symbolic, given the two are greatly responsible for the phenomenon of polish new jewish music.
Berjozkele's music, however, is not only a journey into the past. All the songs are connected by the common theme of night and dream. It's a collection of lullabies, songs that dwell in-between the light of the day and the pitch dark of the night. On the border, following the fine line between real and surreal, tragic and comic, a dream and a nightmare.
The time is running in a fast forward mode, but before I jump to Warsaw Summer Jazz Days festival I have to bring back some music from the last week and a half in Krakow.
Krakow Jewish Culture Festival is a beautiful, massive event, with a grande finale at Szeroka Street, with the daily, majestic concerts at Tempel Synagogue and the handfull of workshops, lectures ecc to go around. Which may be I found two concerts in particular of great value. Both took place in the small and cosy Cheder Cafe which allowed for more intimate musical experience.
And it's hard to be more musically intimate than during the festival's first live concert by an artist from Berlin - ORI. Alone on the small stage, barefoot, probably to get more real feel of the space, with just a mike a small sampler and a keyboard.
Ori's music is an atmospheric mixture of minimal electronica with trippy beats and charming voice. Delicate and intimate, soulfull and nostalgic. Taking inspiration in both folk pop ballad and neo soul music, Ori often loops his own voice in order to create intricately layered arrangements, sings with a lot of feedback to give even more otherworldly quality to his music which seems fit somewhere between the melancholic songs of Bon Iver and ethereal quality of songs by Sigur Ros.
Hypnotizing performance by the songwriter which you should most definitely check out.
Berjozkele is a project led by Olga Bilinska (vocals, piano, loops), with Michał Moniuszko on double bass, Kacper Szroeder on trumpet and dulcimer and Raphael Roginski on guitar. They play and sing jidysz lullabies, surreal tales of dreams and mysteries. The music is esoteric, it had the me the feeling the Grimm's fables have - that of magical space full of wonder but where terror and sadness lingers in the shadow.
It was truly the music of the night, a mesmerizing performance by the band.
(I'll try to write more soon about them and their debut cd released december last year)
That's the band it all begun with. "Shofar" (Kilogram Records 2007) was a deep dive into heritage that seemed to be completely lost at the moment. A journey to the past in order to understand's one identity and roots. It turned out that that music, it's feeling lives deep inside the three musicians and many others that followed on trying to explore the tradition of hasidic music with the contemporary context. (the topic appears few times in the interview with Mikolaj Trzaska)
Raphael Roginski has appeared quite a few times on the blog already and the reason for this is quite simple, I believe he's one of the most original artists around, his guitar playing sound is completely unique and he's quite a multi-tasker leading a handful a different project. Named, with a reason, the animator of the revival of jewish music in Poland in recent years. A trend which treads its beginnings to the release of "Shofar" cd in 2007 - a trio with Mikolaj Trzaska and Macio Moretti playing together music that Roginski found in the archives of ethnomusicologist Moshe Beregovsky. It so happens that, after quite a long hiatus, two of Roginski's bands released new music in 2013 so I decided to gather them together.
Cukunft (yiddish for "Future") is quite a band of madmen on stage (you most definitely need to see, whilte it's still on the web, their concert with Maria Raducanu that took place on Krakow Jewish Festival 2013) - it's punk-rock energy and crazy circus madness applied by two raving clarinets, guitar and drums.
It's high time to end the holiday break on jazz alchemist blog and "Seven Lines" is perfect album to do that, for many reasons. the most important being this is possibly some of the most beautiful music released in 2013 (and 'tis the season for the list of various kinds). There's a proven recipe to make great records - just release great concerts, when they happen, and "Seven Lines" is a chance, for those few who were lucky to be there, to get back to the fond memories of one evening in October 2012, at Manggha Museum in Krakow, where IT happened. I wrote ecstatic words afterwards, and today I stand by them with even more conviction:
guests:
Ola Bilinska - backing vocal; Michal Gorczynski - bass clarinet, saxophone; Piotr Zabrodzki - moog, synth, frozen finger organ; Hubert Zemler - percussions
Lado ABC 2013
Even to the ones familiar with Raphael Roginski's musical output Wovoka's debut cd must come as a surprise. Roginski is a center figure of modern jewish music in Poland, reinventing the tradition and its expression with bands like Shofar, Cukunft, Alte Zachen, Yemen.
The band is named after the religious leader of Norther Paiute tribe, founder of Ghost Dance movement, also known as Jack Wilson. "Trees Against the Sky" is a tribute to the musical traditions of North America, lost in the river of time.
It would be hard to immagine the modern polish scene without Raphael Roginski and the entire plethora of his projects, idealized to bring back jewish culture, modern and vital, to a country where it used to thrive and where it disappeared completely after the tragedy of World War II. Roginski's vision of jewish music is modern and rebellious and Cukunft is the perfect vehicle to make it a reality - powerfull, tribal drumming, poignant guitar tones and absolutely furious clarinets chasing one another - that's Cukunft, in short.
For the concert at the festival Cukunft (expanded to a quintet with Piotr Domagalski on bass) invited a Ramanian vocalist Maria Raducanu, to sing with them. We are children of the borderline, said Festival's director Janusz Makuch, introducing the performance. And that's where the meetings happen, and where cultures influence each other, and we all can appreciate our differences, and be surprised of how much in common we have.
The music on the cd was first presented as a special project, part of the Vth Tzadik Poznan Festival. As most of the material is taken directly from the live recording (with just one track from a session recorded the following day) I'll remind the review I wrote after that evening:
A special project of the festival ws presented on the final evening - a band created on the occasion of the festival , to present music of the Yemenite Jews. Reconstruction from archival notations of songs 5000 years old.
Mikolaj Trzaska is one of the main heroes of this blog. The Shofar trio with Trzaska, Roginski and Moretti goes on tour to USA. Check the press info and schedule to see if you can catch them. Don't miss out!
The trio have just released their second cd, hopefully I'll be able to write more about it soon. Instead of a radio playlist I link down the pre-release presentation of the album (available for only a couple of days more).
March 2, 2013, 8 pm 28th Jewish Music Festival Berkeley, CA 7 pm Pre-concert talk with Ruth Ellen Gruber
March 3, 2013, 8 pm - 2 sets Blue Monk Portland, OR
Shofar presents an improvisational twist on traditional Hasidic melodies, through the wild minds of three leading Polish musicians Raphael Roginski, Mikolaj Trzaska and Macio Moretti. The impulse to pursue this area of interest was a discovery of a collection of Hasidic songs by Moshe Beregovski (1892-1961) who, beginning in the 1920s, researched and wrote about Jewish music. The concept behind this project is to carry on the Jewish musical traditions, while also searching for a common denominator shared by Hasidic music and free jazz. The trio's repertoire includes nigunim, or religious songs meant to induce a state of religious ecstasy, freylakhs of a more dancelike nature, as well as pieces derived from Jewish liturgy. Unchanged in form, this material unlocks the whole broad spectrum of Hasidic music and culture. As composers and performers, Raphael Roginski has focussed on jazz-influenced improvisation and folk music; Mikolaj Trzaska explores new wave, free jazz, modern rock and poetry; and Macio Moretti covers grind/punk, twisted country and western, improv, psychedelic and pseudojazz. Shofar concerts are presented by David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, Chutzpah! Festival, Jewish Music Festival in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute New York. Concerts in Berkeley co-presented with the Polish Cultural Institute New York and co-sponsored by the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture, in association with the Israel Center in San Francisco, the Consulate of Israel, and the Consulate of Poland in Los Angeles. Additional Shofar concerts are presented by Protest Series at Heaven Gallery, Hungry Brain, the Royal Room, Earshot Jazz, bluewhale and the Blue Monk in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute New York. Concert in Los Angeles is presented in collaboration with the KulturePlus Productions.
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".
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.
Meadow Quartet is young polish group from Gdansk, recently awarded in the acclaimed Polish Radio's Folk Festival - New Tradition. The group explores the worlds of jewish and chamber music.
Mournfull and mysterious moods. Spiced with spontaneity of balkan rhythms, elegancy of a parisian tango, raw passion of a gypsy music. Carefully narrated stories as their music has this cinematic feeling to it (can't help but to think of Yann Tiersenn). Following the steps of famed Cracow Klezmer Band that has several releases on Tzadik label. And that could be very well the most negative comment about this group - it's been done before them, probably better. On the other hand - it shouldn't really stop you from enjoying the music.
Some nice, passionate solos (my special appreciation for Piotr Skowronki on accordion) added even more to the sense of dramaturgy . Not exactly my cup of tea but still a very convincing statement about the folk tradition, if not particularly original.
I invite you to check the bands website http://meadowquartet.com where you can find some good-quality samples of their music.
Meadow Quartet:
Marcin Malinowski - clarinet
Michal Piwowarczyk - viola
Piotr Skowronski - accordion
Jaroslaw Stokowski - bass
Courtyard of the Museom of the Archeology. Poznan. 24.07.2011
A special project, a band created on the occasion of the festival and a special program - music of the Jews from Yemen. Reconstruction from archival notations of tunes 5000 years old.
Anyone who saw Zerang on stage, a man of a respectable stature, knows he can seem to float over the ground when he starts playing. Light and finesse, so natural, like a heart-beat, and so agile in all kinds of ethnic variety of hypnotic rhythms.
Raphael Roginski's style of guitar playing is unique, his chords providing a rich texture and rhythmic support but it's his sound, so much his own that impacts any group he plays in.
And finally Zimpel and Robinson on the front-line, exchanging passionate if gentle solos, spiralling lines back and forth. Zimpel's becoming a master on his own, Robinson, an elder wiseman among the young ones patiently speaking his words.
Yet the music is so much more than just a sum of descriptable ingredients. Sense of communication, sense of unity and finally sense of complete alienation from the temporal reality - which makes the music thousands years old feel completely universal, above the time reality, so much in-the-moment.
Music that was pure and simple, music that brought peace to the mind and soothed the soul.
For those who hadn't had the chance to be there (as I understand truly how insufficient the above attempt at description is) there's a word of consolation: the concert was registered for a planned release on Multikulti (a selection from the concert and a studio session - a good sign since a couple of missed cues on the theme execution were of no real importance during the concert and could prove much more damaging on the cd).
Courtyard of the Museom of the Archeology. Poznan. 24.07.2011
ps. Since most of the musicians taking part in the festival were present in Poznan for a couple of days before the festival started each night, at least since Wednesday, was an occasion for a jam-session with local musicians (Hera Quartet) joining forces with the visiting Klaus Kugel, Bobby Few, Perry Robinson, Michael Zerang and Raphael Roginski. Some very exciting music played on those long nights (as I was leaving Dragon klub at 3:00 am so I could catch the train back to Krakow I had a strong feeling that the night there was not over). On that note, Perry Robinson might be a 'elder wiseman' of the lot but he can still kick some ... in the jams!
A young band that could easily fit into the New York 90's downtown scene and record for Knitting Factory label. With tight rock rhythms, heavy bass riffs and dynamic melodies. Kind of a new Hasidic New Wave yet more rock oriented and updated by the influences of the modern indie and alternative rock scene.
Good energy level and fine musicianship (great melodic interplay between trumpet and sax; some noisy guitar solos with a nice experimental edge) yet I felt dissapointed when each time they really got the things going heavy instead of switching into the hypnotic full-crazy mode they would stop abruptly in the middle of the line. I guess the strategy is to mantain the compact rock-song form but I'd like them to get loose and play possible longer takes than more tracks (especially since the short solos by Olgierd Dokalski hinted at something more extended and exciting). A solid concert though I felt that there's was potential for more.
Daktari :
Olgierd Dokalski - trumpet
Mateusz Franczak - tenor saxophone
Miron Grzegorkiewicz - guitar
Maciej Szczepanski - bass guitar
Robert Alabrudzinski - drums
Klub Meskalina. Poznan. 23.07.2011
2. Żydowski Surf (Jewish Surf)
Raphael Roginski, already the leader of Shofar (with Trzaska and Moretti on drums) and Cukunft, created this band to play 'jewish surf religious music' and that promises fun.
And fun it is indeed as he brings to this quartet Macio Moretti and Bartlomiej Tycinski from the absolutely brilliant and absolutely non-serious Mitch & Mitch group, while Ola Rzepka (playng with The Complainer & The Complainers among others) provides some steady rock beat.
To those who know the polish scene it's enough to say : immagine mixing together the Mitch & Mitch (fun and retro feeling mixed with joyfull punk attitude) and Shofar (Raphael Roginski's guitar is unmistakable). Otherwise I'll try to put it like this: if Beach Boys were a guitar group born in a punk era and playing klezmer music they might have sounded like this quartet. Or maybe the unfortunately short clip below will render a slight idea of how much fun this concert was.
Cukunft is a polish group which, until yesterday, I had a pleasure of only hearing once, couple of years back, performing as a trio. Now they perform as a quartet led by Raphael Roginski on guitar, with Pawel Szpura on drums, Michal Gorczynski and Pawel Szamburski on clarinets (the first doubling on tenor, the latter on bass clarinet). The band's name means "future" in yidish and they are playing a mix of traditional jewish tunes and compositions by Raphael based on klezmer scale.
While the music is very traditional, the playing is definitely not, the band spicing the klezmer music with some rock tinges, punk attitude, free-jazz blowing improvisation and to simple put it a lot of madness. Hypnotic tunes are driven by powerful yet very imaginative drumming by Pawel Szpura. Great unisono lines by clarinets. Raphael is definitely one of the most original guitar players I've seen, capable of both lyrical understatement (preparing the strings with pieces of paper) and hard rock powerful chords or soloing, also some noise feedback playing. Two-clarinets frontline is very expressive and energetic, too bad it would sometimes get lost because of no amplification (especially the bass clarinet would suffer).
All music is getting frenzy, crazy and whole lotta fun. Shame there was no dancing floor. While I'm not really sure if there were any originals among the songs played that night, two citations included in two very groovy improvisations were great - riff lines from "Paint it, black" by Rolling Stones and "Break on through" by The Doors. Amazingly hypnotic and energetic.
The title of the Madman of the evening goes to Michal Gorczynski who plays sometimes jumping into the air, sometimes on his knees, dismantling the instruments and playing (like in 'having fun') with all the different parts of them (example: whistling into the bottom end of saxophone).
No point in writing anything more since You can heard some tracks on band's myspace page and their latest double-cd release comes easily recommended - recorded live is it is quite honest to the band's playing in front of the audience, when energy and passion, and fun come first before the perfect execution of material (although there are some lyrical and quite melancholic songs in the repertoire too).
Couple of things to say about the Bomba place - too bad the (quite tiny, but that's not the problem) stage is placed right next to the entrance. Since the concerts was free (which is definitely great in itself) this caused a presence of a lot of people casually walking in and out or chatting by the bar and disturbing the audience (filling all the space available) and getting really annoying sometimes (especially during the quiteter passages). Still it's nice to have new place where one can see some good concerts so I guess one shouldn't complain too much about it, at least for now.
