Warsaw. Warsaw Summer Jazz Days 2022 – WHERE, WHEN, PROGRAM
Makaya McCraven, James Brandon Lewis, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Christian McBride, Stanley Clarke and Steve Coleman. The program of this year’s Warsaw Summer Jazz Days is full of American stars. It consists of 15 concerts spread over seven days. As the organizer says, it may be until the last festival in this format. – The good times are over, subsidies are cut – he explains.
The Warsaw Summer Jazz Days festival celebrates its 30th birthday this year. Arenami was the first to announce the Akwarium and Sala Kongresowa clubs. Today to history. The aquarium does not exist (at its site), Kongresowa is in a never-ending renovation (last concert happened there in 2014). But the most important Warsaw jazz festival continues. This year, his club prologue will be held on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at the Pardon club, To Tu. They will play in turn: Szamburski / Nowacka / Zemler Tropical Soldiers in Paradise and Jachna / Mazurkiewicz / Buhl. But the principle of participation in the school will be hosted by the Barn from Thursday.
Jazz for dancing and a leading figure in the new wave
It will start with Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, a band that proves that jazz can be music for dancing. The hammonjista’s band became famous after the concert for KEX, a radio station from his native Seattle. Since 2018, that recording has been played 11 million times, and Lammar, with a mix of jazz, soul, funk, rhythm and blues, has become an attraction of several-year festivals, not only jazz.
He will be followed by the formation of the trumpeter Theo Crocker. – his last albums are concrete, I wonder how much concert it will be, how long it will be. Certainly his name is a jazz title, he is already a significant figure on the American market. But it will be a prelude to the events of this evening – announces Mariusz Adamiak, head of the Warsaw Summer Jazz Days. The “main course” according to him, Makaya McCraven, will be a drummer, producer, one of the leaders of new jazz with the stage and the stage. – To a virtuoso without divisions into genres. Everyone, including others, boasts to have fun at the same time, also with rock or alternative music. He is known for mixing a lot in the line-ups, experimenting, I am curious how he will share his share – says Adamiak.
They have places in encyclopedias
Friday will be very busy. The outstanding pianist Kris Davis will perform on the Stodoła stage. We will come with the project “Ribbons about diatomach”, for which in 2019 he was showered with awards, incl. jazz album of the year by the New York Times and the NPR radio critics’ ranking.
The saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, probably the better tenor player from overseas, is no less appreciated. – Arrives at installation site: Aruan with piano, Brad Jones on double bass, Chad Taylor on drums. James Brandon Lewis is the essence of postcoltrane playing. As if I were to put one sentence in an encyclopedia to illustrate about contemporary jazz, and that I would be delighted with my choice.
In a book on the history of jazz, Christian McBride would certainly have his place, replacing a figure respected in the American environment. – As soon as you want to have access to this possibility, we knew that we wanted this big star with the boss – you want it now. Instead of a biography, you can simply quote a list of characters from: Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, Diana Krall, Sting … This is only a small part of it, and his colleagues can still envy him. Maybe except for Stanely Clark, who will check in later in Warsaw.
A bass player that nobody jumped
– The best, best foundation in the world, there is no other like it, no one can jump him. There are others – very good and even saints – but he is the best – argues Adamiak. – I have performed his concerts many times, I remember the performance at the Return To forever performance (in my place of residence) in the Congress Hall. So that one more thing was in my life when I found out that it happened after the musician’s solo, while it still seems. Clarke is a real institution today: 50 years for now, four courses, Grammy awards on the shelf, hundreds of recorded albums, thousands of played concerts, and a constant passion for work and playing. His concert is a series of widows that will be remembered for a long time.
Saturday will also offer a chance to listen to one of the figures of the resilient British scene – Saxo Saxo Idris Rahman and his Considered Patient. – Musicians rotate around different bands, sometimes I have the impression that there are fewer musicians than the band, but the specificity of this market is probably – the organizer jokes. But the uprising does not take offense, because the audience wants to enjoy the Islands. Rahman will be an additional unchecked name on the list.
You will not bend him from the history of Poland
Ravi Coltrane was supposed to headline the final day of WSJD and was even announced in the first version of the show. But with the composition of the curriculum you had to be sick. Steve Coleman will play with his flagship band Five Elements. Mariusz argues that a change for good.
– Coleman is my personal favorite. He performed at the first Warsaw Summer Jazz Days at the Capitol cinema. It was my discovery, because then whoever knew him – he recalls. – wondering who is it that can settle intellectual jazz among musicians. Many will say Vijay Iyer, but Steve Coleman is a real human. Let me give you an example: during a conversation on the bus that was taking him from the airport, he went to the Polish interview. It turned out that he knew the dates of all partitions. He is fascinated by history, but also politics, he has knowledge of astronomy – says my interviewee. Of course, Coleman does not come to a lecture on the history of Poland, and also to play the saxophone, as well as more of those who are a bit more privy to jazz nuances, because it is saxophone music.
Cécile McLorin Salvant, the only singer in this year’s set. – After the death of Betty Davis in the event of a vocal odor. It has changed in recent years, be it Jazzmeia Horn, Mélanie De Biasio or just Cécile McLorin Salvant. I am expecting a very interesting concert – notes Adamiak. The winners of the competition of the National Institute of Music and Dance for the “Jazz phonographic debut” will also present themselves at the weekend. Artur Małecki & The Creature will play on Saturday, and Ziółek Kwartet will play on Sunday.
The last festival that big? “There are no miracles”
The founder and boss of Warsaw Summer Jazz Days reveals that it may be the last festival with the rich. He translates to diminishing subsidies and a consequent lack of funding for culture from big business.
– There are no miracles, public subsidies are heavily cut – they admit. – I have come across many times that I was meeting with high-quality shelves in one evening too much, that I was gathering twice to play more. I assumed that it is worth familiarizing the students with the value of 8. 8. 8. 8. Workshops, because this is another value. I can already see that the coming years will be thinner, it is already so, that they will start now, and now, probably more from Europe. It is worth recalling this year’s festival because in this form it can take care of not – it comes in handy.
Warsaw Summer Jazz Days 2022 – PROGRAM:
July 4 at 20.30, Padon, To Tu – Szamburski / Nowacka / Zemler July 5, hours. 20.30, Pardon To, Tu – Tropical Soldiers in Paradise on July 6, hours. 20.30, Pardon, To Tu – Jachna / Mazurkiewicz / Buhl July 7, hours. 19, Barn: Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, Theo Croker, Makaya McCraven July 8, hours. 19, Stodoła: Kris Davis, James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Christian McBride and Inside StraightJuly 9, at. 19, Stodoła: ILL Considered, Stanley Clarke, Artur Małecki & The Creature July 10, hours. 19, The Barn: Steve Coleman and the Five Elements, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Ziółek Quartet
Concerts in Pardon, To Tu (Politechnika metro station) are free. Tickets to the Barn (Pole Mokotowskie metro station) from 150 to 220 zlotys.
Photo Source: mat. organizer