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Krakow Jazz Week
(Cricoteka, Krakow, Poland. 9 -15 October 2023. Report by Ralf Dombrowski *)
Krakow Jazz Week is about to get greater, in accordance with its Director Tomasz Handzlik. “This yr, for the primary time, we’ve got mixed Seifert Jazz Days and Jazz Juniors underneath one identify. Subsequent yr, the Seifert Competitors, the world’s solely competitors for jazz violin, jazz viola and jazz cello, might be added,. There’s additionally the concept to combine a couple of different, smaller occasions that exist already within the metropolis, and progressively carry them underneath the Krakow Jazz Week banner.” There are attainable synergy advantages to be gained right here: a model with a much bigger attain may, for instance, journey past the town limits, tour Poland, and presumably even go elsewhere in Europe.
There are a couple of different issues that might be value placing proper, and it will be comparatively easy to do. Absolutely fledged musicians actually really feel a tad odd once they discover themselves having to carry out underneath the famend however initially youth-oriented banner “Jazz Juniors”. Krakow Jazz week is one among Poland’s best-known festivals, and this autumn it was going down for the forty seventh time underneath the auspices of the Metropolis Council. However when a pianist comparable to Florian Weber or a drummer comparable to Fabian Arbenz discover themselves caught underneath the designation of “Juniors” one thing is …frankly… not fairly proper. That stated, the method of updating has been began, the brand new identify which has been unveiled has already proved its value, and the mixed pageant was very properly acquired by the viewers in Krakow.
So, this yr, the primary half of the Krakow Jazz Week was referred to as “Seifert Jazz Days”, paying homage to the violin legend Zbigniew Seifert (1946-1979) who died far too younger. It did him justice in many alternative methods: the quartet of alto saxophonist Maciej Obara, for instance, included a few of Seifert’s compositions of their programme, and carried out them with actual goal, particularly within the florid and energetic improvisations of the bandleader. Reverse him, pianist Dominic Wania responded with astonishingly compelling abstraction; the combination labored properly in that it mixed opposites. The trio Sonorismo led by drummer Krzysztof Gradziuk, however, fared much less properly. There was one thing of a mismatch reasonably than inspiration within the mixture of Fender Rhodes performed in a restrained method by Lukasz Ojdana, alongside saxophone outbursts from Pauli Lyytinen, who was utilizing the language of free jazz in a reasonably formal means.
One real spotlight of the Krakow Jazz Week, nevertheless, was the collaboration between violinist Mateusz Smoczynski and trumpeter Markus Stockhausen. Their quintet additionally included pianist Kristian Randalu, bassist Chris Jennings and drummer Bodek Janke. They performed plenty of their very own music, typically atmospheric and expansive, at others concentrated and targeted on improvisation, That labored properly, with contrasts of power and ecstasy, and in a means that was each thrilling and demanding. The counterpart to this was the trio of saxophonist Matthieu Bordenave in a double invoice with the Jarrett-esque expressive pianist Franciszek Raczkowski within the second half of the pageant on the Jazz Juniors. This, too, was an ensemble rooted enjoying with actual dedication and interlocking abstraction, most notably within the presence of pianist Florian Weber who typically gave us the analytical but enraptured, and in doing so proving the best counterweight to Bordenave whose emotionally finely balanced strains would have sailed by means of any take a look at of mental rigour.
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Entrance and centre of the Jazz Juniors programme nevertheless– it had been constructed for the fifth and final time this yr by saxophonist Adam Pieronczyk – was the competitors itself. Six bands, all of them glorious with no weak hyperlink – had been vying for the highest spot and the prize cash. Ultimately, the comparatively traditional-sounding trio led by pianist Mateusz Kaszuba took third place, adopted by the quartet Know Materials with trombonist Maciej Prokopowicz as chief. Their programme conveyed loads of references to the worldwide fashionable scene (one thinks of Ambrose Akinmusire), and that band may need been on target for victory.
Nonetheless, it was the bizarre and conceptually thrilling duo of the Ukrainian singer Kateryna Kravchenko with Luxembourg vibraphonist Arthur Clees who carried away the highest prize. Of their suspended animation of poetry set to music and the pair interacting with their improvisations, they created magical areas. Their music may by turns have density, appeal, persona, and but there was a virtuoso facet too. Their efficiency additionally made one look ahead with optimism to subsequent yr: the winners of the competitors are invited again to carry out once more one yr after profitable, to let folks see and listen to how their artistry has developed. And once they return ,one yr on, the pageant itself could have modified and progressed too: Kravchenko Clees will expertise the Seifert Competitors in its sixth version, newly put in underneath the umbrella of Krakow Jazz Week.
(*) That is an English model by Sebastian of Ralf Dombrowski’s authentic German report, revealed in JazzZeitung – LINK
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