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
Before the summer the "Muzykoterapia" series ended but there's new hope for experimental, avant-guarde, improvised and interdisciplinar music art in Krakow. "Bezdroża" project (quite a poetic word that looses its charm in litteral translation - "Roadlessness") aims to create a platform of communication, a gathering space for performers, composers, improvisers and (definitely not least) the audience.
Free Improvisation is a kind of music that one can try to describe in so many theoretical ways and yet it lives by the extremities and any theory whatsoever will fail to describe it. It's not about technique but it hardly can be played without posessing some sort of technique. Anything is possible, acceptable (traditional aesthetics are suspended) but it doesn't mean everything works. Everything is apparent, chaos mimics structure, structure mimics chaos. It's a performance that loves a strong personality yet hates any kind of musical egoism or showmanship. It can take any shape, like water, but needs some kind of support, a form to be filled to achieve that. It can be extremely emotional or intellectual or somehow neither - pure zen emptyiness. It can be intimate, minimalistic and fragile, can be violent and expansive. Finally it's a natural phenomenon that only happens once, is a kind of art totally immersed in the moment and space, and whatever (genius or mediocre) result came out - it's never to be achieved again, lost forever in the memory.
Zero Centigrade :
Tonino Taiuti - acoustic guitar & composition
Vincenzo De Luce - trumpet
AudioTong 2011
While it's great to get to have yet another album by one of my favourites (like Vandermark or Trzaska or Brotzmann just to name some examples) some of the most inspiring listening experiences for me lately came in the form of total surprise, music delivered by artists whom I know nothing about and as I've been introduced to them it's the goal of this blog to introduce them to you.
It would be great to listen to music without having any kind of expectations. I've recenlty been proven wrong assuming Piec'ART is exclusively a mainstream jazz venue (I guess it's still mostly mainstream but it's a big difference). I recently reviewed inspiring performance by JazzTrio Trabant and Adrian Myhr's coming back to Piec'ART was a big reason that I wanted to be there again. Still, I assumed it could very well be another modern-jazz-post-bop piano trio (something I tend to dislike strongly) but I was proven wrong again. And I love surprises like that.
First good omen was when Vojtech Prochazka, while introducing the band, said that it would be a concert of 'improvised music'. Second good omen happened when instead of taking a seat he bent over the piano looking inside and started playing on piano strings with mallets. In fact it's hard to think about this performance as a piano trio as during the extended improvisation that filled the first set (around 40 minutes) Vojtech barely touches the keyboard, instead he plays on strings with drumsticks, mallets, metal objects, ducktape, bare hands. The piano sounds like harp, toy, marimba, machine .... the spirit of John Cage was definitely somewhere near the place. The trio engages in dialogue that is beyond any genre of music, beyond most traditional views on what is called music actually. Evoking eerie moods with unusual sounds, minimal, barely audible hushes, scraping the strings and drums, bowing the plates. With incredible focus and attention to detail. Abstract yet cohere, going into the rabbit hole, right into the logic of madness, where texture, structure, harmony, note, lenghth, tempo become all non-sense terms.
The entire performance (including the second set improvisation - another 40 minutes) was also absolutely egoless, almost no soloing (in sense of making a single statement that proves the musicall prowess on the instrument) - instead a playing that follows the feeling of the moment, the natural (and irrational) flow of the music, without any clear leading part (or, if anything, one provided more often by the bass, not the piano). All three musicians display considerable skills playing both conventional and (for the most part) unconventional ways. Dark, mysterious, full of rising tension, focused performance demanding a focused listening but absolutely rewarding.
With music as intriguing and deserving as much attention as any, much more popular, names in the field of improvised music it seemed wrong that such concert was appreciated by the audience only slightly larger that the number of the musicians on the stage. I strongly hope those musicians will get the recognition they deserve.
ps 1. After the break Vojtech talked again bit more (although I think the audience present had already understood that) that, nonetheless they're playing in a 'jazz club' their music is not jazz at all and it's much better to call it 'just music', a fitting term indeed.
ps 2. Whilre writing the post I'm listening to the "Amoeba's Dance" cd by this trio and I have to admit I feel bit cheated as it is exactly what I feared the concert would be - a piano trio recording (no extended improvisation, no sonic experiments, no prepared piano). In fact it was called by the group 'their best shot so far at playing jazz music' and while it's not bad at all (brings back some compositions by Herbie Nichols, a great cover of Ornette's "Una Muy Bonita" tune and couple of nice originals) the music is not nearly as compelling, gripping and thrilling as the live performance they've just delivered. Which makes me hope that they will record an improvised session soon.
I've expressed my appreciation of Rafal Mazur's playing a couple of times lately (as he has played in Bomba on the occasion of both previous concerts) so let me just say that he was his usual great - deep sound, blurried lines, focused and attentively listening, never forcing himself on the front, comfortable at providing background that would put the spotlight on his partner, though not afraid to introduce new , surprising suggestions and slighly changing the direction of the music.
The collaboration with Keir Neuringer, once a student in Krakow, started in 1999 and lasted and developed through years, resulting last year in their first cd ("Unison Lines" on Not Two). I thoroughly enjoed the music on the cd so I was looking forward to this evening which was to be the first time I'd see Keir on stage.
After the concert by Mihaly Dresch Quartet was cancelled, this one started the series of interesting concert events that have to take place in next 2 months at Alchemia. Rob Brown & Daniel Levin played together a series of improvised duos which is only a simply and easy to put description of a creative act that is far from simply and easy.
No sense in trying to descript the particular phrases, parts or pieces as this was music of constant change, where one keeps the other alert and ready, constantly on the toes. Music could go from hushed to ecstatic, from beautifully fluent lines (Rob Brown's agility and mastery of the instrument's language is impressive) to dotted pizzicato sounds (so is Daniel Levin's). They could go low and high, moving forward, far outside, deep inside but never back. Constant interaction and fearless creation.
I must say that I was most impressed by Levin's playing (first time I saw him on stage) who becomes completely united with the cello, whether he's shredding the strings with the bow or plaing gently, whether he's taking the bass role, or singing like a violin (espiecially once he goes completely acoustic in the 2nd set), or just tapping the body of the instrument with his fingers. While he's assuming the more accompanying role quite often, he plays also a few unaccompanied solos that are really mindblowing. Raw, passionate, rich and immaginative. He's the fire in this mixture, he has this mad look, completely gone inside the world of sound, while Rob face is more focused, his playing is more intellectual maybe. Obviously all simplyfications as there are no easy rules nor possible ways to put words around it.
Together they create music that is intense and passionate, that, following all the possibilites given and created is incredibly demanding, almost exhausting, but also very satisfying.
The concert was/is also a part of small tour that promotes their duo released late last year by Not Two - "Natural Disorder" and this title fits great their music, there's natural flow to their playing that is so energetic and limitless that it is very much like lookig for an order in the nature's caos or disordering the nature's order.
Joelle Leandre - double bass; Sussana Gartmayer - alto saxophone, bass clarinet; Boris Hauf - tenor saxophone, clarinet; Lorenz Raab - trumpet; Bert Mutter - trombone; Burkhard Stangl - electric guitar; Thomas Wally - violin; Elaine Koene - viola; Melissa Coleman-Zielasko - cello; Kevin Norton - vibes, percussion
Trio
Joelle Leandre - double bass
John Tilbury - piano
Kevin Norton - vibes, percussion
Leo Records 2011
It's a silly thing really, but I'm always excited when I get to have the first cd of the new year, and this is the first 2011 released record I listened to. And I can begin by saying that this double cd, part of celebration of Joelle's 60th birthday, is a great start to, hopefully, another year full of new and exciting music
Ian Smith - trumpet
Ricardo Tejero - tenor sax, slide flute
Katarzyna Kuchnicka - trombone
guest: Adam Golicki - drums (2nd set only)
Eszeweria 27.01.2010
Although they all met each other playing in London Improvisers Orchestra, The Trumps are an international band - with Ricardo coming originally from Portugal and Katarzyna from Poland. Free improv - connecting people :)
With an unusal line-up they obviously bring an uncommon palette of sounds to the table. First long piece is mellow, merging all three horns together, sometimes, especially when extended techniques are involved and sonic experiments, making it hard to distinguish one from another. Nice flow of ideas, sounds coming from the distance, from some hidden space, players complementing one another. The new, or at least not so common in so often dead-serious free-improv music, is the sense of humour. At their most searching, probing strange sound territory, the trio sounds light, cartoonish even. Quite often when hearing a spirited sound-games I think of some Tom & Jerry fight sound fxs, swishes, swooshes, clicks and clacks and all kinds of those, the toyish sound of slide flute enhances that entertaining effect. (as John Cage said once - laughter is preferrable to tears; and it's funny looking around at the faces, audience members hiding their smile, not sure whethere it is ok to laugh or maybe this is supposed to be taken seriously)
The second track of the first set was supposed to be "short and loud", but, after initial fanfaric shouts, it turns deeply harmonic and melodic. Nice touch before the short pause.
The second set adds a drummer to the mix (snare drum, hi-hat, cowbell, couple of plates) and it changes drastically the sound texture of the music, allowing for some more conventional, more "jazz" playing with trombone providing often the bone bass structure to the proceedings - sometimes with a robust, expansive shouts of the New Orleans traditional jazz (joined once by great, joyfull solo statement by Ian Smith). The music has more traditional, but no less inspiring feel to it and all players can establish more clearly their solo personality - with a jazz solo by Ricardo being my personal favourite - at one point he introduces a charming melody (during the concert I was sure it was a Monk's tune but now my mind is playing tricks on me and I can't find it) - and he plays it with gently, warm timbre, slowly building up, breaking loose, finishing up with muscular and vibrating tone.
That was a good, imaginative, and surprisingly accessible free-improv, played in front of 20 something strong audience, in a small room of Eszeweria. Maybe not an earth-shattering, mind-blowing or awe-inspiring but this was a very solid improvising performance - an achievement that could get easily undervalued. While I definitely invite you to look up and see those musicians if you have a chance, the most important thing I want to say is - there's no music like live music. Get up and go see some concerts this weekend! I know I'm going to :)
Oirtrio:
Frank Gratkowski - alto saxophone, clarinets
Sebastian Gramms - double bass, bows
Tatsuya Nakatani - percussion, bowed gongs
Not Two 2010
(yet another review rewritten for You in english, to justify the presence of the cd in subject on my 2010 favourites list (originally written in polish on magnetoffon.info). This was the first written text after a long pause so I think the english version is now much better then the original one. I promise that next review will be posted soon and will a fresh one)
"Kanata" is a cd that offers a handfull of challenges/surprises. Firstly, of a philological nature. If I managed to guess it right (thanks to aunt wikipedia and uncle google) the name of the group comes from spanish 'oir' which "means "to listen" (and it's a big "If" since the graphics and the track titles point towards japanese, the title of the cd - "Kanata" means in japanese "far away" or "beyond"). You can have fun with trying to find the meaning of track titles, I was lucky only in some cases.
Than you have the instrumental line-up. It seems to be a typical, free jazz pianoless trio with sax (clarinet) - bass - drums. But it's deceiving - where else have You seen a similar description - Sebastian Gramms plays double bass and bows (quite unusal naming 'bow' an instrument) and Tatsuya Nakatani percussion and bowed gongs which is also more specific that your usual 'drums'.
And finally, the sounds You can hear. Music (as generic and of little precision a term it is) on this cd was recorded live, divided into 7 tracks but in fact there are only 2 improvisations, first one, around 35 mins, spanning tracks 1 to 5 and the second, tracks 6 and 7, about 10 and something mins. And by the begining of the second track You can put aside all those notions about music like melody, harmony, rhythm, phrase, note. While all those appear, none of them is what You expect it to be. You have to just listen ('oir') to the activity of the sounds and let Yourself go.
You will hear whispers, clicks, bangs, cries, singings of birds and stomps of little feet, all kind of sounds. Forget about what You know about music, even the one of free improv kind, this one manages to create a world that is unique and that have little to do with whatever music might have been played before or after. Impressive task on its own, but, while the sounds are going and coming from all directions, the sense of unity, of focus is immense and makes it not only a curiosity or musical experiment but a piece of real, if unreal, beauty.
This is a sonic adventure, music from other world, from the outside, from far beyond ("kanata" indeed). It's like listening to great poetry in the language You don't understand, where You can recognize some structures, phrases, sounds reappearing in order, rhymes and rhythms, but You still have no idea what does it say. The instruments loose their characteristics sound (it really is sometimes to tell which sound is coming from which player), everything goes into micro scale and You have to find a magnifying glass to see those microtonalities, microstructures, micromelodies. No sense in analyzing the tracks or the playing (although it's hard no to think about what kind of metallic objects is Tatsuya moving on the drumhead, I don't think he's ever concerned really with something as trivial as playing rhythm on drums).
You will need a lot of focus, You will need to clear Your mind (the drones of bowed gongs help a lot). And You will be taken into another world. And while it won't be anything like the world You know, it is quite amazing.
ps1. Hard not to notice the amazing sound quality, You can hear each physical aspect of this metaphysical playing, objects moving on plastic, metal, wood or through the thin air, strings being plucked, keys tapped, fingers moving. Like a magnifying glass indeed.
VARPAI André Pabarciute - voice Mark Tokar - double bass Klaus Kugel - percussions
Nemu Records 2010
I grabbed this one after the Zimpel/Tokar/Kugel/Kusiolek concert during the Silent Movie Festival. And definitely find no reason to regret this decision, even if I'm not such a big fan of vocals in improvised music.
This is musical journey into the centre of the earth. Peaceful, meditative, with lots of extended techniques, little 'melody' but all sound, very organic and natural. Stripping the instruments (including the voice) of all expected notions of how it "should" be used. The silence and the resonance of the long-gone sounds are here as important as the sounds themselves.
Now this came to my attention at the very last moment (thank Facebook for invitations :) and while both Michal and Tomasz are active on local improvisor's stage in Krakow and I knew their playing, Ray Dickaty was a new name, quick look around the web and I was already curious about hearing improvise a guy who played with a rock band – Spiritualized, and visit to his myspace page reaffirmed my decision to go to the place.
Ray plays tenor, Michal is on electric guitar with an array of strange or common objects (plastick sticks, metal plate, electric razor, comb) and Tomasz, apart from regular drums set, a table full of metal bowls (looking Ikea) and enamel pots (from Olkusz) that played with drumsticks sounds a bit like marimba maybe. They start and guitar puts in the rhythmic drive with fingers drumming the bass strings, then moving to more spare notes, disjointed, abstract. The music gets a nice forward drive provided by Tomasz or Michal, sometimes both, with rock dynamic and its immediacy sometimes coming forward. Great group interplay, sometimes playing some kind of musical catch and run, at other moments longing howls short sound outbursts on saxophone over drone background provided by electric noises on strings. Group moving swiftly between hushed and overblown, melodic labirynths and some simple two or three notes motives, tribal or rock drumming and rhythm-less sounds with pulse all over the place, like dots and lines on some abstract painting. Never staying too long in one place, creating a series of miniatures, divided into pieces (1 st set, 4 improvs), or linking them one to another with some sudden turns and twists (2 nd set, 1 suite-like improv). With saxophone quite often in the background and Michal on guitar taking the lead part (finding some great sounds with the guitar on his lap, and metal plate over the strings, drumming on it with fingers, plastick sticks or razor machine). Overall great concert and it's inspiring to see so many places and musicians locally engaged in free improvisation music.
Hopefully the place will stay open for this kind of performance since it was the first (or one of the firsts) events of this kind in there.
The line-up, as usual in those kind of situations, was different than announced - with 2 computers, electric guitar, electro-acoustic guitar (played mostly as a bass, or in electro-acoustic way - using the feedback from speakers) and saxophone (alto and soprano).
Free improvised sessions with ad hoc line-up are a risky business. There's no procedure to make this music work, sometimes it does, quite often it doesn't. When it does, it's wonderfully unpredictable, hypnotic, adventurous. When it doesn't the same musical elements seem random, repetitive, flat and even boring.
I'm not a big fan of electronics, or noise elements, so my perception of this performance (and it is as much 'performance art' as 'music concert') could be bit prejudiced.
1st part, with two improvs was pretty much the example of music not working, electronic drones and quirky rhythmic scratches overwhelming the overall sound, not leaving enough space for the 'live' instruments, and not elastic enough to react in real-time to their playing.
2nd part, one long improv, on the other hand was really good, with more spare use of electronics, great playing by Dymny on guitar (using all kind of different objects on the strings), otherwise very zen - with all the sounds creating a cloudy sphere, loosing their characteristics, dense, shapeless, colorless magma or amalgam of shades. This sort of performance when you have a strong feeling that something actually happened, though you're not sure what exactly.
Free improv music kind of looses its (very unclear and unspecific) identity when it's written about so I won't linger on this session anymore, thanks a lot to Kawiarnia Naukowa (stage for young alternative rock, punk, electronica in Krakow) for giving a place to young improvisers to gain their experience in live confrontations. Keep it up!
