Resonance finale at Manghha - Krakow Autumn Jazz 24.11

It's been 6 years since Resonance was born on Alchemia's stage. Born first as an idea by Krakow Autumn Jazz Festival's director, then on the paper as Ken Vandermark would prepare the music for the artists he and Marek have invited, but truly brought into existence during a week of daily rehearsals and improvised concerts in the evening. 

The group is now the only orchestra Vandermark leads. Territory Band would focus on more experimental forms and fully improvisational Chicago Tentet (where Ken is almost often named the co-leader along Peter Brotzmann and Mats Gustafsson), Resonance, in my ears, was a truly jazz orchestra with a big sound, gritty grooves and plenty od Mingus, Evans or even Ellington, even if Vandermark's vision is fully dedicated to the presence of improvised music.

Krakow Concert Schedule 18-24.11 / Resonance at Krakow Autumn Jazz

The main story of the next week is you get into a six-night marathon of improvised music with some of the most creative musicians of the genre.

Resonance was created 5 years as a special project commissioned by the Krakow Autumn Jazz Festival and brought together musicians from Poland, Ukraine, Sweden and States (Chicago and New York). One week of performances and rehearersals (documented on the Resonance 10cd boxset released by the Not Two Records) has transformed this group of musicians into a band which have continoued to evolve.

This will be their third residency in Krakow and, as both previous ones, it promises a whole world of music to Krakow audience. The setlist below might help you to choose the nights according to your preferences but it seems like to miss any of this is a capital crime if you're into improvised music.

8th Krakow Autmn Jazz Festival starts on 8.10!!!

Last couple of posts I've been inviting you to various places for a variety of great short and long jazz festivals. I'ts high time to invite you to Krakow to follow the 8th Krakow Jazz Autumn Festival.

During 8 years with Krakow Jazz Autumn the audience had a chance to seen some unforgettable concerts and a number of brilliant artists, both young cats as well as famed veterans of the stage, some of whom become a frequent visitors in the cellar's of Alchemia club. Many of the concerts have been recorded and released by the Not Two records.

Faithful readers of the blog will remember that the whole blogging thing started during the 2010 Autumn Jazz Festival, as I decided to post daily about a week with the Barry Guy New Orchestra.

8th Krakow Jazz Autumn sports a very coincise yet a reach and intensely-packed program with two week-long events at its core. 

Couple of years back (5 if I'm not mistaken) a Festival introduced a special formula - a big group would rehearse during the day, musicians would play improvised concerts in small combos in the evenings, with one final orchestra performance on the final night. 

The success of the formula produced more events of a sort in the following years, including the above mentioned series with Barry Guy and his New Orchestra. A member of which is one fellow named Mats Gustafsson. 

To start off with a big bang, the 8th festival will gather together the Nu Ensemble a band under Gustafsson's direction, that includes such giants of modern improvisation as Augusti Fernandez, Joe McPhee, Peter Evans and Paal Nilssen-Love to name just a few, a band that will be reunited on one stage for the first time after 8 years! The details of the week's program are already available on the festival's site and I will include them in the weekly concert's schedule.

The project that 5 years introduced the festival's formula was Resonance that gathers musicians from Ukraine, Poland, Sweden and States (Chicago and New York) under the direction of Ken Vandermark. The band thus born performed and recorded more material over the next years, including an appearance on the Chicago Jazz Festival that resulted in the "Kafka in Flight" release. The band's return to Krakow in November constitues the second main event of this year's festival.

The two weeks are to be considered the main musical courses for the hungy ears. For the appetizers and the dessert there are three additional concerts (Matthew Shipp / Mat Walerian M-Theory Project; Gaia Mattiuzzi & Francesco Cusa; Clayton Thomas / Christian Marien / Gerard Lebik trio).

You can obviously count on Jazz Alchemist blog being there to keep nagging at you so you'd come down to Krakow, Alchemia's cellar, You won't be dissapointed.

 

Ken Vandermark Resonance - Kafka in Flight [Not Two]

 

Resonance :

Magnus Broo - trumpet
Michael Zerang - drums
Ken Vandermark - tenor saxophone, Bb clarinet
Mikolaj Trzaska - alto saxophone, bass clarinet
Mark Tokar - double bass
Dave Rempis - alto & tenor saxophone
Steve Swell - trombone
Per-Ake Holmlander - tuba
Tim Daisy - drums
Waclaw Zimpel - Bb & bass clarinet, tarogato

Not Two 2011

This one I've been long waiting for. I had the privilege to witness the process of coming together of the first edition of this project. In 2007 Marek Winiarski and Ken Vandermark invited musicians from all over the world to Krakow, they would practice for an entire week every morning, play improvised sets of music every evening and finally perform as an orchestra on the last evening of the week (all of this material has been released - saturday concert in Lviv on LP, evening concerts and final concert in Krakow in a fantastic 10-cds "Resonance" box).

Two years later Resonance happens again, with the same musicians (one exception - Waclaw Zimpel takes over the place of Yuriy Yaremchuk), the same time of the year (main project of the Autumn Jazz Festival), the same place ("Alchemia" club which hosts the festival). But with only two days to practice (with first one being almost entirely lost because of flight delays). Because of that Ken has to change to concepiton behind this band. It is still big ensemble, so it draws on his experience of playing in and writing for Chicago Tentet and Territory Band, but, what is a clear difference, this is a jazz band and it relies on scored material. Only the organization of this material has to be different.