Jazz guitarist & composer.
Just would like to invite you to my solo, improvised set. I have not played this kind of solo recital in Warsaw for quite a long time. Fortunately Skład Butelek (really cool place in WAW, a bit underground thing, think you’ll love it) invited me to play. So if you’re in Warsaw and in you like free improv music, please come and listen.
26.01, 20:30 Marcin Olak solo,
Skład Butelek, ul. 11. Listopada 22, Warszawa.
Tickets: PLN 20
Just a moment ago we’ve left the studio. Anna Gadt – voice, Annemie Osborne – cello, Patryk Zakrocki – viola. And me on guitars. We’ve played some improvised chamber music. Just wanted to capture the moment of our meeting, I hope we’ll be able to share it with you soon!
I’d like to invite you to a very special concert. On December 9th Marcin Olak Trio will play in a studio. We want to record my new compositions, but we want to make this session available to our fans. I think this is a pretty unique situation when listeners can be with us in the studio and witness the recording. We have not done anything like that yet, so we are already looking forward to a new experience.
I’ll share stage with great musicians: Krzysztof Szmańda on drums, Maciek Szczyciński on bass.
Marcin Olak Trio na Quality Jazz Live
Quality Studio, Konwiktorska 7, Warszawa
9.12.2018 (Sunday), 19:00, tickets: 30 PLN
reservations damian@qualitystudio.pl.
Doors open at 19:00, we start at 19:30.
During the rehearsal and during the Imagine Nation concert at the Jazz Jamboree festival we were accompanied by Krzysztof Machowina, a great photographer and a great pal. Krzysztof agreed to have some of his photos posted on my site – here they are, enjoy!
Continue reading “Imagine Nation – pics or it didn’t happen!”
OK, we did it. Imagine Nation just played at 60. edition of Jazz Jamboree Festival. I’m happy, that I could share this experience with great artists and wonderful people – Anna Gadt, Liberty Ellman, Ksawery Wójciński, Hubert Zemler – thank you! And we’re happy we could share stage with such a great artists as James Brandon Lewis, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Bad Plus and Idris Acamoor & The Pyramids.
And you know what? We’ll be back!
Maciej Lewenstein, an indefatigable researcher of the Polish jazz and avant-garde scene (and by the way an outstanding physicist – but that’s a completely different story) reviewed our album, recorded with Patryk Zakrocki and Agusti Fernandez. Spontaneous Chamber Music vol. 2 gained recognition in the eyes – or rather in the ears – of the reviewer. The entire text – yes, it’s in English – is posted below, and more reviews by Maciej can be found on his Facebook. It’s worth taking a look there, because it is a great guide to the contemporary jazz and avant garde music scene!
Continue reading “Spontaneous Chamber Music reviewed again!”
In May, during the Night Of The Museums (a very special night, when all museums in Poland are opened all night), Spontaneous Chamber Music – Patryk Zakrocki and me – played in the Upper Silesian Jews House of Remembrance in Gliwice. This is a wonderful, magical place, located in old Jewish funeral home. And that was when this short film was made. We talk about our impressions, about memory, about music. And we play with birds.
Look, listen.
In October, during the Jazz Jamboree festival, I’ll present my new project. I am so happy – I’ll play at the iconic festival and I will play with great musicians!
Imagine Nation is a completely new thing, with a completely new repertoire. We’ll play my compositions – but this time I allowed myself for a few experiments. I am playing a bit with the jazz idiom. Songs are quite precisely written down, but some parts are open. In a way I try to maintain control and loose it and the same time – these songs can be played in a strictly jazz way, but the performers can also go free. The scores are sometimes precise, but sometimes they become something like a slightly sketched scenario, just setting the order of the events.
To perform this experiment I invited great musicians, outstanding improvisers and wonderful people: Hubert Zemler on drums and objects and Ksawery Wójciński. I will play guitars (real and imagined ones), and at the premiere we will be joined by Liberty Ellman, an excellent guitarist known for solo projects or cooperation with Henry Threadgill.
Marcin Olak Imagine Nation feat. Liberty Ellman – 26.10 @ Jazz Jamboree, Stodola Club, Warsaw.
“Spontaneous Chamber Music vol. 2”, the album, which I recorded with Patryk Zakrocki and Agustí Fernández, is a week’s album on Jazzarium.pl. By the way they’ve reviewed our CD – in Polish, but you can always try Google translate, it’s so beautifully wrong.
And this is how Piotr Wojdat writes about our album: From the very beginning until the end of the second volume of “Spontaneous Chamber Music” we can hear that Zakrocki, Olak and Fernandez come into artistic interactions that result in the truly beautiful music.
The entire review can be found here.
Zakrocki and Olak seem to have a symbiotic relationship, which is reflected in their telepathic conversations as a duo. Their non-conformist approach to improvisation is fresh and inspiring. Overall this is a very interesting and rich album, full of exciting moments and relaxed interludes, keeping the listener on his toes for the entire duration. This music is unique and shows a completely different avant-garde concept, which allows for calmness and contemplation to replace anger and aggression, which often turns avant-garde music into and unlistenable cacophony.
That’s what Adam Baruch has written about our new album, Spontaneous Chamber Music vol. 2. We are even more happy, because it’s the first review!
You can read this text – and many more – on Polish-Jazz.blogspot.com. Yes, it’s in English. Enjoy!
You can buy our album on Listen! Foundation’s Bandcamp.