Warsaw Improvisers Orchestra - CSW 14.03.2015 (2016)

Warsaw Improvisers Orchestra

Ray Dickaty - conductor
Patryk Zakrocki - violin, viola, conductor

Olgierd Dokalski - trumpet

Marcin Albert Steczkowski - cornet

Jan Małkowski - alto saxophone

Maciej Rodakowski - tenor saxophone

Mateusz Franczak - tenor saxophone

Piotr Mełech - Bb & bass clarinet

Zbigniew Chojnacki - accordion

Jacek Mazurkiewicz - bass

Ksawery Wójciński - bass

Michał Kasperek - drums

Dominik Mokrzewski - drums

and others

CSW 14.03.2015

FSR 2017/10

By Piotr Wojdat

Mimo, że twórcą i główną siłą napędową Warsaw Improvisers Orchestra jest saksofonista Ray Dickaty, to nie z jego powodu pojawia się w tym miejscu recenzja albumu tego imponującego liczebnie stołecznego kolektywu. "CSW 14.03.2015" to ważna płyta z co najmniej dwóch powodów: grają na niej czołowi jazzowi improwizatorzy, eksperymentatorzy i artyści, którzy w taki czy inny sposób związani są z warszawska sceną i nierzadko spotykali się ze sobą na różnego rodzaju impro mitingach i quasi rezydencji w klubie Chmury. Z tego poniekąd wynika drugi powód pozwalający myśleć o tej płycie jako o istotnej dla słuchacza - ten album jest jak lokalny dokument muzyczny. Szczęśliwie przedstawia on scenę warszawską w korzystnym świetle, ale też pokazuje, czym żył jazzowy underground w ostatnich latach.

Ideą Warsaw Improvisers Orchestra jest granie muzyki możliwie spontanicznej. Takiej, która wypływa z serca, a nie z głowy. Dopuszczane są co prawda odpowiednie wzajemne nakierowania, podpowiedzi, ale pomysłem Raya Dickaty’ego było wydobycie w tym przypadku z 29-osobowego zespołu jak najwięcej jakości muzycznej. Swobodna improwizacja w ramach orkiestry to nie jest rzecz jasna temat nowy, ale uchwycić taki moment, jakim był koncert kolektywu w warszawskim Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej z 2015 roku, czyli w dwa lata po powstaniu Warsaw Improvisers Orchestra, to pomysł, który przyniósł dobre rezultaty.

Na zawartość tego albumu składają się trzy kompozycje i każda nawiązuje tytułem do poprzedniej, razem tworząc zdanie "This That and the Other…". Mamy zatem do czynienia z utworami, które mogą funkcjonować jako odrębne kompozycje, ale przede wszystkim tworzą jedną całość. Są rezultatem konceptu Dickaty’ego na muzykę spontaniczną. Jazz jest jednym z jej składników. Wokalizy, elektronika, nawiązania do muzyki współczesnej to również istotne elementy stanowiące o jej wartości.

Daktari - Lost Tawns (2014)

Daktari  

Olgierd Dokalski - trumpet
Mateusz Franczak - tenor saxophone
Miron Grzegorkiewicz - guitars
Maciej Szczepański - bass
Robert Alabrudziński - drums

Lost Tawns (2014)



By Dirk Blasejezak

I am really happy about this album! After my review of "I travel within my dreams with a German passport" (see http://polish-jazz.blogspot.de/2013/08/daktari-i-travel-within-my-dreams-with.html) I was very curious to see how this promising band would go on. And it's really going well! They're not simply making another album, but instead go a step further and continue their development.

First thing to mention, of course, is that there is only room for one guitar in this formation. However, the absence of the second electric guitar does not limit the creative energy of the now five musicians. At a first listen this development is obvious through the significantly more relaxed way of playing. No strenuous solos or difficult passages that are supposed to show how good the musicians are. Instead, all five play in an unagitated manner along their tracks (still showing their great skills though). Right from the start the solo entry by Olgierd Dokalski lets you question if this is indeed a young newcomer band. To start off with such a hard-boiled and cool, yet free and soulful trumpet solo, makes one wonder! And this is actually inherent in all solos: no uncontrolled ecstasy, instead everybody always knows what he wants to tell and where the whole is going.

And this is indeed necessary, becaus compositionally too the new album of Daktari is much more mature than its predecessor! Was it in the latter sometimes necessary to compensate for lack of compositional creativity or maybe experience through a wilder play, the five pieces on this album here speak for themselves. This too is one reason why the individual musicians can play so much more relaxed. Additionally on this album the rhythm section (to which I would explicitly count Miron Grzegorkiewicz) has a much stronger influence on the whole. This can be heard in many very groovy passages – something the last album only rarely had to offer – and maybe the way Daktari could go in the future. 

So all in all this is by far their best album yet and a true recommendation. And although I doubt that it's possible to continue developing at this pace, I'm still very curious to see how their next album will be!

Daktari - I Travel Within My Dreams With A German Passport (2013) ****

Daktari (band)

Olgierd Dokalski - trumpet
Mateusz Franczak - tenor saxophone
Tomi Simatupang - guitar
Miron Grzegorkiewicz - guitar
Maciej Szczepański - bass
Robert Alabrudziński - drums

I Travel Within My Dreams With A German Passport (2013)

By Dirk Blasejezak

The good news first: the Polish-German relations won’t be negatively affected by this album. When I heard the title of the record for the first time, I was actually concerned that the whole thing would be a nightmare. After all, I suspect that still many Polish feel at least uneasy about us Germans. But this album might suggest that there is maybe less bias among the younger Polish population.

The next irritation I had when looking at the cover: The album shows a passport of the former GDR - I assume that the musicians will get much trouble on every border they come to in their dreams...

And there’s something more German about the album, as it was recorded at the Butterama Recording Center in Berlin in November 2012. Shortly after that sessions Daktari had an interesting appearance at the Berlin Jazz Festival, where I saw them for the first time.

But then there is an inconsistency - Rutger Hauer is Dutch, but during his career he had to play for a number of times the blond and blue-eyed German so we can probably count him in as well...

What I musically noticed at the first glance were the two guitars. I usually don’t like the sound of jazz guitar in particular, so I was pretty skeptical at first with even two guitars here. But it works, and actually pretty good! The reason is probably that the guitars are in most jazz recordings mixed very soft and clear, but not here. Furthermore they do not try to get in the foreground too much, but rather create a whimsical background. A jiggling frame - partially inclined or even strenuous, but enthralling. Along with the drums and the bass this creates the framework in which trumpet and saxophone can let off steam. Interestingly, it is not only the lead instruments that unfold freely, but the whole band is in a permanent joint improvisation, which can not be described as free jazz though. The interaction works on a level that you would not expect from musicians of this young age!

Adding to that the record offers some very nice riffs that almost invite to hum, a thing that one rarely encounters in contemporary jazz. Some harmonies I would rather expect in pop or rock music (e.g. "Eine kleine Weltschmerz"). Particularly nice melodies you find in the first song (“Little Hollow”) and in the title track, which is found in two versions on the disk. I particularly like the first version of "I travel within my dreams with a German passport", since it provides something special: There are various electronic sounds included, that give the music a lot of momentum and dynamics. Just compare this version with the alternative take of this song or with the other songs on the record to see how well electronics can fit to jazz. Maybe this might be a way for Daktari, I can only recommend it to them, as they have a good attitude towards it. A bit surprising for me is the fact that the trumpet and the saxophone are on that version clear - you can say acoustically too. Certainly, they form an interesting counterpoint to the distorted instruments and the synthetic supplements, but I’d have liked some more experimentation here a lot. But I know as well as anyone else interested in that field of jazz, were the musicians try to integrate electronica into classic jazz, how hard that is and how narrow the ridge is where the musician (and producers) stroll along - they could have, just for "safety reasons", called this version the alternative take then.

But also in this respect I find this album more than pleasant! Perhaps because the musicians are still very young and approach the subject impartially, you find no reservation. One senses that it can work out if young people blend the music of their time with jazz. Exactly this kind of albums make me feel confident that jazz has a future - a future where we will not only have to listen to the standards from the American Songbook over and over again or watch musicians in a wild cacophony (as much as I like that too though).

This record is fun, it is exciting without being exhausting and it is catchy without becoming boring at any time. Definitely a recommendation!

(Editor) In case you want to buy this record please write at: daktaripl@gmail.com

The promo video for this record (also from an East German film):

Daktari - This Is A Last Song About Jews, vol. 1 (Multikulti, 2011)

Daktari
Olgierd Dokalski - trumpet
Mateusz Franczak - tenor saxophone
Miron Grzegorkiewicz - guitar
Maciej Szczepański - bass
Robert Alabrudziński - drums

Multikulti, 2011

This is a debut album of band named Daktari led by young trumpeter Olgierd Dokalski accompanied by Mateusz Franczak on tenor saxophone, Miron Grzegorkiewicz on guitar, Maciej Szczepański on bass and Robert Alabrudziński on drums. One must admit that they are talented instrumentalists and bright future probably lays ahead of them. On this record they showed courage, free spirit and dedication to avantgarde music. I very much appreciate it!

However as far as music is concerned it has all typical advantages and disadvantages of debut recordings. It definitely sounds attractive, it's energetic and spontaneous. Moreover it is coherent showing that Dokalski has had clear artistic vision for Daktari: it's music is comfortably meandering between modern klezmer, noise, rock and indie pop aesthetics. It therefore may sound very attractive especially for less experienced ears of popular music lovers. I believe this may be one of the reasons why this CD got almost unanimously (for rare exception check this one by Bartek Adamczak) positive reviews all over Polish musical blogosphere. But although I share many authors sympathy for this recording I want to stress that from jazz point of view, jazz understood as improvised and free music, this recording is promising yet far from being mature, advanced or complete.

It shares all sins of recent disc ("Ghostwriter's Joke") by famous Contemporary Noise Sextet to which it is very, very similar. All that separates Daktari from CNS is its Tzadik-like Jewish-like component which is unfortunately rather duplicate and so often used all around Poland that it may be called anything but fresh and creative. In fact if I assessed Dakatari so high at the beginning of this text it's for those moments which are probably the least appreciated by artists themselves since those moments are well too rare and first of all too short. These are unhurried, unconstrained, unbound dialouges between instruments, especially between Dokalski trumpet and Grzegorkiewicz guitar, aptly counterpointed by infra-red Szczepański bass (check "Greetings From Ashood" the best track on this album). Were it not for these splendid moments I would call Daktari CNS-clone and advise to skip it...

Please listen to second track from this album titled "Zanussi":

Author of text: Maciej Nowotny

http://kochamjazz.blox.pl/html