Riverloam Trio at Krakow Jewish Festival (02.07)

My appreciation to Mikolaj Trzaska's music is confirmed in many posts in the blog's archive so I'll try keep this one simple. Especially since you can see the concert via festival's web tv yourself.

I remember this trio playing in Alchemia two years ago, they were named Ha Tichona trio back the, which means "inner ear" in hebrew. It is a recurrent term that appears as the name of another band (Inner Ear Quartet with Steve Swell, Tim Daisy and Per-Ake Holmlander) and in many conversations with Mikolaj:

I'm a saxophone player, I'm not a composer, but I'd call myself rather a „music maker”, I make music, I dabble in sewing pieces of music together. I don't compose, meaning I rarely sit down and write. I build the music up, it results from my work, my practice, from my inner hearing. I make music that I can hear is inside me. I try to capture it, I try to translate it and voice it out. I'm trying to do it so that this inner portrait of music I have, It would be presented in the most accurate way there is. I mean so there would be no cunningness, no artificial nicety in it, but the music I play would mirror perfectly my thoughts and my emotions.

John Butcher & Mark Sanders - Daylighy [Emanem]

John Butcher - tenor & soprano saxophones
Mark Sanders - percussion


Emanem 2012

I have mentioned on many occasions that sax - drums duos are among my favourites, the most basic vehicle for the punch and kick - melody and rhythm, seemingly limited measures for unlimited purposes. You'll be hard put to look for any basic rhythm and melody on the recording did by two mainstays of british free improv scene - John Butcher and Mark Sanders.

Kris Wanders Outfit - In Remembrance of the Human Race

Kris Wanders - tenor sax
Johannes Bauer - trombone
Peter Jacquemyn - double bass
Mark Sanders - drums

Not Two 2011

Take Kris Wanders who bends the saxophone notes every possible wa, consequently squeezing every ounce of furious sonic frictions with tons of distortion and vibrato, he's furious, his playing is almost pure instinct. Unstoppable power of nature. 

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

Ha Tichona Trio (Trzaska / Brice / Sanders) at Alchemia (24.05)

by Krzysztof Penarski

 It's hard to say what makes the free improvisation a successful one, what notes make the difference between poor, good or great. Yet sometimes everything seems just right.

It was the first day of this trio's tour and one could see the excitement those musicians felt about the opportunity to play together. And it did transfer into the music, and it was passed to the audience. I really don't know what to begin with. Mikolaj sound on alto is mesmerizing, even at most lyrical ther's the inner tension in the timbre, you could hide entire planets in there, even at his most expansive and screaming, there's something intimate and emotional to what he plays. Olie Brice had a keen ear, able to find notes that were both logical and surprising. And Mark Sanders absolutely brilliant, dense and light at the same time, embedding the sax and bas with polirhythmic clouds of of sounds (lot of plates) that were both rhythmic and melodic, his attention to details unbelievable.

But everyone who knows those musicians know that they can play. Good improvisation needs to be a whole that is more than the sum of its parts, and that was the case. The reactions immediate enough that it was close to telepathy, following instantly the instrument that would assume the leading part (usually the alto, but still that was a very democratic development). The ability to sustain a long, free-form narration, make the development seem natural and organic, through builds and breaks, duo and solo sections. Through moments of pure screaming wild expression and hushed whispers, echoes of swing and soul or abstract jumps and coulurful, textural plays. Until the serene and beautiful encore that seemed like a gospel hymn, with gentle melody (slow, full of air tone on bass clarinet, great harmony chords laid down on bass) and fragile and delicate accents on the plates. With the audience in complete silence and the trio frozen on the stage after the music was over, hanging on to the last echoes of the last sounds, making sure there was no more coming before breaking into the applause.

I know that this texts seems a lot like a repetition of jazz / improvised music cliches. But frankly I don't know what else can I write, the energy, the passion (I challenge anyone for a duel who insists that free improvisation is merely an intellectual workout), the musicianship, the heart, soul and mind being all united in the moment - it was all there. The first set blew me away, the second one kept me in the stratosphere - one of the very best concerts I've seen this year. 

If this trio is playing anywhere near you in the next days of the tour - don't miss it.


Ha Tichona Trio:
Mikolaj Trzaska - alto sax, bass clarinet, duduk
Olie Brice - double bass
Mark Sanders - drums

Alchemia. Krakow. 24.05