Imagine Nation @ Podlasie Jazz Festival!

Here we go again! On October 19. we’ll play on Podlasie Jazz Festiwal. I decided to play Imagine Nation there – tunes I’ve written for last year’s Jazz Jamboree. Those themes were originally written for quintet, with voice and another guitar. This time I’ve made trio arrangements, hope you’ll like them. I’ll play with great musicians and friends, Wojtek Pulcyn on bass and Sebastian Frankiewicz on drums. Come and check it up!

Marcin Olak Imagine Nation na Podlasie Jazz Festiwal

Cartoonized

Spontaneous Chamber Music – Patryk Zakrocki & me – just have played at Skład Butelek (WAW, PL). We’ve been lucky to have Basia Żach, great graphic artist, listening to our performance. That’s how she sees us.

Better check up her Instagram, it’s worth it!

Spontaneous Chamber Music. Patryk Zakrocki i Marcin Olak. (c) Basia Żach
Spontaneous Chamber Music. Patryk Zakrocki i Marcin Olak. Rysowała Basia Żach.

Solo

Just would like to invite you to my solo improvised set. I have not played this thing 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

Gadt/Osborne/Zakrocki/Olak

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!

Gadt/Osborne/Zakrocki/Olak, Quality Studio, 17.12.2018
Gadt/Osborne/Zakrocki/Olak, Quality Studio, 17.12.2018

Marcin Olak Trio – Quality Jazz Live

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
Marcin Olak Trio. fot. K. Machowina

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.

Spontaneous Chamber Music reviewed again!

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!”

Imagine Nation!

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.

Sztukmistrz – try to pronounce it!

This Thursday – 14.06 – I will be Maciej Krawiec’s guest at RadioJAZZ. Maciej’s original show is an “Sztukmistrz ‘ – it means something like master of arts, mountebank, magician – it’s worth listening to, even without me. And on Thursday, we’ll talk about books and music. We’ll play some tunes from the latest Spontaneous Chamber Music release, and a few other albums, certainly interesting and not obvious ones.

RadioJAZZ is an internet platform, you can listen to us through their website: www.radiojazz.fm. Enjoy!

Edit: The interview is now available as podcast. Well… yes, it’s in Polish.But we also play some music, and that’s pretty international, isn’t it?