Matylda Gerber will not be solely a saxophonist, composer, member of the bands Ślina and sneaky jesus, co-organiser of the Wrocław Improvised Orchestra, winner of awards from Jazz Discussion board journal and the Jazz Affiliation Melomani… she’s additionally a scientist and practitioner, specialising in instinct and its position in determination making. Interview characteristic by Krzysztof Komorek for Donos kulturalny, as a part of Large Steps / #womentothefore 2024, a joint initiative by eight European jazz publications.

While you kind Matylda Gerber‘s title right into a search engine, you’ll be shocked by the somewhat various outcomes. The shock will likely be even better when it seems that all of them concern the identical individual.

Gerber graduated with a grasp’s diploma in finance and psychology, and went on to acquire a doctorate in social sciences from the Warsaw College of Economics, one in every of Poland’s most prestigious universities. Her space of curiosity is instinct and its position in decision-making.

This can be a somewhat unobvious matter of scientific analysis, however one that’s utilized in many fields around the globe. In the midst of her profession, Gerber has, amongst different issues, participated in analysis into the work of police division crime analysts, docs, entrepreneurs and inventory market traders. A abstract of her actions on this subject to this point is the e-book ‘Instinct: a Information for These Who Like to Ponder.’

At this level we would ask ourselves, why music, for somebody who’s so profitable in one other subject?

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“I by no means went to music college, however I had piano classes from childhood. I even took composition classes. The saxophone, alternatively, solely got here alongside once I was 18.” Regardless of changing into concerned in ensembles over time, music remained within the background for a very long time.

“The breakthrough got here throughout a time once I was finding out in London, which, on a creative degree, introduced an exploration of the wealthy music scene there, participation in jam periods and a collaboration with Sarathy Korwar. At one level I discovered that I used to be getting a lot constructive suggestions on my taking part in that I couldn’t recover from it. After returning to Poland, I made a decision that I needed to develop this. I turned extra conscious of this musical starvation that was in me.” A big stimulus got here when she was invited to carry out on the opening live performance of the Jazztopad pageant in Wrocław.

In the present day, her fundamental musical exercise is in two bands: Ślina (English: saliva) and sneaky jesus. The improvising quartet Ślina, aside from their very own exercise, additionally information and performs with Mikołaj Trzaska, an iconic determine of the Polish and European improvised scene. The entire story of this collaboration started with Gerber’s search to purchase a baritone saxophone – particularly a used one, with a greater sound. This isn’t a straightforward process, and there’s normally a queue of individuals seeking to purchase one. The sale of the instrument by Trzaska in 2018 was no completely different, however a private dialog and an ‘audition’ of kinds meant that the baritone went to Gerber.

“I had beforehand examined different saxophones, however I didn’t like their sound. Right here, I instantly felt it was what I used to be on the lookout for. And I benefit from the sound on a regular basis.” Trzaska was curious to see how the instrument would end up. He preferred Ślina’s music a lot that he recommended he assist the band launch an album. The opportunity of joint concert events and a proposal for joint recordings quickly adopted. In 2024, we will count on at the very least one launch beneath the title Ślina Trzaska, as a number of hours of recorded materials are already ready within the wings.

Trzaska remembers: “Once I first met Matylda, I used to be shocked that she picked up the instrument and instantly began taking part in it very loudly, with an open, robust sound. We now have a bit in frequent, within the sense that Matylda, like me, took up the saxophone at a reasonably mature age and started to discover it with an already grown-up thoughts. I’m delighted with how she is creating, how she is taking part in increasingly more apparently and higher and higher. After all, she’s nonetheless looking for her language, and creating her time. However she has an consciousness of the way it works. She is ready to uncover new issues throughout concert events, throughout the inventive course of. She will not be afraid of the saxophone. She performs tenor, alto and baritone. She is aware of what she is speaking about by way of music and why she is telling it on this explicit manner. And in her case, one feels that she is telling a narrative about herself by way of music. She will play, however she will be able to additionally pay attention to what’s occurring round her on stage. She makes use of her modes of expression in a different way in every band, and has a present for locating easy melodies and constructing on them. Then again, she additionally has endurance, and the flexibility to stick with that first sound that comes alongside. In her, we discover each aggression and tenderness, and their power is within the sincerity of her message.”

Ślina is a band targeted on improvisation, however Gerber additionally wanted different challenges – therefore her becoming a member of sneaky jesus. Breaking her exercise into two bands is a aware and thought of determination. “I at all times thought it might be cool to work with a band the place I might compose. We performed jam periods collectively and it turned out that we understood one another properly. The 2 bands are complementary for me.”

sneaky jesus already has two albums in its discography, each launched on the London-based Shapes of Rhythm label. The band amazes and delights with the lightness and freedom with which it strikes between conventions and kinds. That is music that breathes freshness. The variety of the musical narrative, the fluidity of the transition from delicacy to frenzy, from melodiousness to heavy and noisy rhythms, is fascinating.

Gerber’s musical actions are additional complemented by the Wrocław Improvised Orchestra, a platform bringing collectively artists representing varied musical genres who share an curiosity in improvisation. The orchestra meets recurrently for rehearsals and organises cyclical concert events, throughout which bands carry out in randomly organised line-ups. The orchestra additionally performs concert events beneath its personal title with a full line-up of a dozen or so musicians. In the course of the Jazztopad pageant in 2023, Gerber additionally led a kids and youth jazz band. One other necessary expertise was her participation in two periods of the Worldwide Jazz Platform, working workshops in Łódź and Oslo.

All this has been recognised by the jazz group with two vital, prestigious awards granted to Gerber in 2023. Within the critics’ ballot performed by Jazz Discussion board journal, she received the New Hope class, and was honoured with the identical title on the Jazz Melomani Affiliation Gala.

This text is printed concurrently within the following European magazines, as a part of an operation to focus on younger jazz and blues feminine musicians: Citizen Jazz (France), JazzMania (Belgium), Jazz’halo (Belgium), London Jazz Information (UK), Jazz-Enjoyable (Germany), Giornale della musica (Italia), In&Out Jazz (Spain) and Donos Kulturalny (Poland).

LINKS:

Matylda Gerber’s web site

Ślina on Fb / on Bandcamp

sneaky jesus on Facebook / Bandcamp

Wrocław Improvised Orchestra on video