Mikolaj Trzaska, Rafal Mazur, Mark Sanders at Klub Bomba (24.02)

Mikolaj Trzaska, Mark Sanders

Last year's concert by Trzaska / Brice / Sanders trio called Ha Tichona (which is hebrew for inner ear) was one of the most exciting events I have attended. The trio toured briefly last week in Poland but for the last concert in Krakow Rafal Mazur filled the bass spot.

Such a meeting couldn't prove nothing short of utterly exciting. Even as I had high hopes the band still amazed with the its power, syncronicity, adventurous mindset, intensity level. They played one long set filled with true musical fire. Breaking storm, tornado, magmatic amalgam of sound and space. Fury of immagination. There were moments of patient silences, resounding gongs, and whispers, but most of the time this was a blow out, intense and fiery. Fire music. Fantastic.

Couple of years back I have seen Mikolaj with Mark and Peter Fris Nielsen, after the last year concert with Olie Brice I remember Rafal Mazur (in the audience) saying he would want to play with such drummer. And he got his wish granted, my wish is that the three get to meet and play again.

Rafal Mazur

photos by Krzysztof Penarski


Mikolaj Trzaska - alto saxophone, bass clarinet
Rafal Mazur - acoustic bass guitar
Mark Sanders - drums

Klub Bomba. Krakow. 24.02.2012

Crank Sturgeon at Bomba (17.09)

If there's a method to madness Crank Sturgeon have found it. I admit I never heard of this artist prior to the yesterday's concert but I'm sure as heck never going to forget him ever since.

You wouldn't believe how loud can a scotch tape be, or how deep a bass sound can a cotton string produce, or the sound marker makes when used to draw faces on the newspaper, or this very newspaper being torn apart.

With a contact mike used as a magnifying glass Crank Sturgeon multiplies all the small, inaudible noises that surround us and turns it into an ongoing feast of ear-piercing cascades of noises and cracks. You know the feeling of a really bad hangover? Or immagine yourself wearing the doctor's stethoscope and being able to listen to what's happening inside the matter of things. 

Ksawery Wójciński / Klaus Kugel / Paweł Postaremczak Trio at Bomba (30.06)

photo from the concert in Performer club at
 Żyrardów (1.07) by Pawel Owczarczyk

Bomba continues it glorious quest in giving young musicians an opportunity and space to play in front of the Krakow's audience - and no matter how unconventional and provisory this space is, this continous effort deserves a big round of applause.

Both Ksawery Wojcinski and Pawel Postareczak are playing in the Hera quartet and, stunned with Waclaw Zimpel's leadership, I feel I underestimated their contributions to the groups first release (self-titled "Hera" cd) while both players impressed me immensely on stage during the Lublin Jazz Festival, especially Ksawery Wojcinski who became my personal hero of the day. Klaus Kugel, I can only guess got introduced to them thanks to his playing with Waclaw Zimpel's Undivided, played already with Ksawery on a great "Nuntium" cd released this year by Multikulti (I plan to get back to write more about it soon).

The trio starts with a slow, pensieve tune, slowly exploring its melodical variations, getting more intense, spiritual, building the dramatic tension with low vibrating cries of the tenor, tearing the bass strings and storming through the drum kit, full of passion, a musical battle or exorcism that suddenly ends with a gentle coda.

Kugel's style of playing is very unique in a way he manages to balance a very powerfull and heavy attack on the kit with melodic sensibility and attention to details. He's like the weather shaman, quite capable of bringing a cooling breeze or a gentle rain but thriving bringing down a furious storm & thunders, his ability to sustain those culminations is uncanny.  Pawel Postaremczak instruments choice indicates Coltrane as a strong influence and his playing strives for emotional intensity that characterized Trane but he chooses rather to stay in the middle register of the horn, digging deep into the melodic possibilites of the theme rather than expanding the harmony through running scales, and when goes into the altissimo it makes it even more dramatic and powerfull.

The second piece starts with a delicate legato solo on the bass, that creates a stable motiv with the high notes, accented subtly by the mallets, bells and bowed plates, creating an oniric atmosphere to build on. To uplift the mood, stretch the dynamics, create a dramatic tension. Ksawery, who only consolidates the impression he made in Lublin, plays a great solo, rhythmically driven, plucking energetically the strings while mantaining the both the groove and the melody, moving his body unconsciously and it's absolutely inspiring to see how completely immersed in the moment he is, how committed he is to the music - his passion is almost palpable and his energy contagious. His deep woody tone and his earthy rhythm and energy-oriented playing reminds of William Parker and of Joe Fonda.  After Wojcinski's solo the band continous to create another story - with Postaremczak taking on the soprano, adding a brighter tone and more knotty lines while mantaining the energy level. The last piece is more peacefull, starts like a meditative chant, slowly burning inside.

A great concert and the clear passion and fire makes up for the audio flaws (with a space this little it was easy to predict that Kugel's drumming may be overpowering every now and then). The performance was registered with mobile recorders and I hope the tour they're playing the next few days will give enough high quality material (as far as the audio goes, I don't have any doubts about the music's quality) to create their debut cd.

Ksawery Wojcinski - double bass
Klaus Kugel - drums and percussion
Pawel Postaremczak - tenor and soprano saxophone

klub Bomba. Krakow. 30.06.2011

Keir Neuringer & Rafal Mazur - Jazz at Bomba vol. 3 (28.04)

Jazz at Klub Bomba series continues. 

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.

Ilia Belorukov, Rafal Mazur, Mieczyslaw Gorka at Bomba (14.04)

The concert was entitled 'Jazz at Bomba vol. 2" and it looks as promising a series as any (first volume would be Mikolaj Trzaska and Rafal Mazur duo I wrote about here).  I had many occassions to see Rafal and Mieczyslaw play together (usually in the Ensemble 56 trio) but I have never heard before of Ilia Belorukov and I was very curious to see him play.

The music of this concert should be placed somewhere in the middle between free jazz and free improv. Rafal plays dark and deep, creating a presence of a black hole kind of gravity, moving freely between abstract plucks and heavy walks on the bass. Mieczyslaw plays melodically, but he's at his best when things get cooking and he can lay down some more solid groove. When this happens he gives the rhythmic structure, Rafal gives the substance to it and Ilia, well, he is the salt and pepper.

He's playing is versatile and sophisticated. Fluent lines but played with the distorted tone, scattered. Absolutely fluent in the art of extended techniques he plays with the ability and sureness that is far beyond his age, and yet with the radical attitude, boldness that is more typical to his age (he's 24 but looks much younger). He dismantles the saxophone and plays without the mouthpiece (whistling duel with Gorka) or utilize just the neck (ghostly, weird and eerie sound). He makes single notes shimmer. The chemistry is apparent, the energy is clear.

There's an apparent surge of great musicians from eastern Europe gaining wider recognition (just check the names on the new Leo Records release) and polish jazz scene is somehow serving as the bridge (Mark
Tokar's case would be a good example). Among those I say to you :Ilia Belorukov is the name to watch. I hope to hear much more from him in the nearest future.

Ilia Belorukov - alto sax

Rafal Mazur - acoustic  bass guitar

Mieczyslaw Gorka - drums, percussion

Klub Bomba; Krakow; 14.04