5th JAZZTOPAD FESTIVAL NEW YORK

Jazztopad Festival in cooperation with The Adam Mickiewicz Institute and The Polish Cultural Institute New York present

The Jazztopad Festival, a leading event of its kind in Poland…”
– NATE CHINEN, THE NEW YORK TIMES

“…Jazztopad stands as an internationally renowned festival with a clearly defined ethos, one that combines a strong respect for the traditions and roots of the music with a progressive vision that provides a platform for the contemporary and innovative.”
– IAN PATTERSON, ALL ABOUT JAZZ.COM

SEPTEMBER 24–26, 2019
5th JAZZTOPAD FESTIVAL NEW YORK

SEPTEMBER 24, TUESDAY
Soup & Sound
AGA DERLAK QUINTET
SEPTEMBER 25, WEDNESDAY
Dizzy’s Club, Jazz at Lincoln Center

AMIR ELSAFFAR, KSAWERY WÓJCINSKI, WACLAW
ZIMPEL, LUTOSLAWSKI QUARTET – US PREMIERE
WACLAW ZIMPEL SOLO

SEPTEMBER 26, THURSDAY
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center

Jazztopad Festival in cooperation with The Adam Mickiewicz Institute and The Polish Cultural Institute New York invite you to the 5th edition of Wroclaw’s Jazztopad Festival that will bring again leading Polish jazz artists to New York this fall.

The American edition of Jazztopad Festival is above all an opportunity to discover the most important artists from the Polish contemporary jazz scene which has been a strongly recognizable brand in the world, both in terms of quality of festivals and the craft of artists.

Jazztopad’s most distinctive feature is its commitment to commissioning new music and presenting special projects tailored for the festival. The festival has been exploring sounds coming from the regions not frequently associated with jazz (Korea, Turkey, Japan and India), presents house concerts and educational projects with film screenings and live improvisation.

Some of the major names commissioned by Jazztopad were: Charles Lloyd, Wayne Shorter, Amir ElSaffar, Kenny Wheeler, Vijay Iyer, Benoit Delbecq, Terje Rypdal, Jason Moran, John Surman, William Parker and more. The festival artistically led by Piotr Turkiewicz, had some of its commissions released on prestigious ECM, Blue Note and AUM labels.

As the only Polish festival, Jazztopad has built relationships with the most important jazz centres in the world, supporting the promotion of Polish improvised music and cultural exchange for many years. So far, Jazztopad events have been held in the US, Canada, Japan, Turkey, South Korea, Mexico and Israel. The festival has worked with such partners as: Jarasum International Jazz Festival, Tokyo Jazz Festival, Akbank Jazz Festival and in the last five years – with TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival in Canada; Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Jazz Gallery, Jazz Standard, Joe’s Pub and National Sawdust in New York; The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington and Hyde Park Jazz Festival in Chicago.

Once again, a special presentation of Jazztopad Festival featuring Polish artists will take place in the United States and Canada, in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York. Until now, the festival has presented such artists and bands around the world as: Marcin Wasilewski Trio, Marcin Masecki, Maciej Obara Quartet, Piotr Damasiewicz Quintet, Piotr Orzechowski, Kuba Wiecek Trio, Wójcinski / Szmanda Quartet and Lutoslawski Quartet.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

The music of the Aga Derlak Quintet (line-up: Aga Derlak – piano, Alonzo Demetrius – trumpet, Luke Norris – tenor saxophone, Aaron American Holthus – double bass, Connor Kent – drums) is the result of the experience of combining two cultures, Polish and, which sometimes complement each other, and sometimes contradict. The band has courage and crazy passion combined with Polish lyricism and melancholy. The leader is a young pianist and composer Aga Derlak. Since 2013, she has also performed in her own Aga Derlak Trio, with which in 2016 she won the most important Polish music award – Fryderyk in the category “Phonographic Debut of the Year” category (for the disc First Thought).

Jazztopad will present the American premiere of Ahwaal, a piece by Amir ElSaffar composed for Lutoslawski Quartet, Waclaw Zimpel and Ksawery Wójcinski. The composer will also take part in the concert and will perform the trumpet part, the santura part, as well as the vocal part. The piece commissioned by Jazztopad Festival had its premiere during Jazztopad 2018. The concept of ahwaal is an important idea of Sufism meaning “states of consciousness” and describing the path of humans towards divinity. Individual states, stages of this path, appear and disappear quickly like lightning. The composition has a meditative character, it consists of both scored and improvised fragments. It refers to the traditional Arabic maqam melody, with subtle inspirations by Beethoven’s late quartets. The premiere of Ahwaal will be preceded by a solo performance by Waclaw Zimpel.

Amir ElSaffar is a classically trained trumpeter who develops jazz language, combining it with the aesthetics derived from traditional music of the Middle East – the Iraqi maqam. The musician publishes his albums (six out of eight original albums)
in the catalog of Pi Recordings, one of the most interesting record labels of the 21st century connected with jazz music. Amir ElSaffar explored maqam after graduation, during a five-year search for the masters of this genre. During this time, he also learned to play santura and speak the Arabic language, which he uses in vocal parts in his works. He is the winner of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and fellow of this year’s scholarship of United States Artists – a prestigious non-governmental organization supporting various fields of art. He has collaborated with such artists as Cecil Taylor, Nasheet Waits, Rudresh Mahanthappa, and John Escreet.

Waclaw Zimpel is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer who, inspired by jazz, electronics, minimalism and music of the world, creates his own completely new musical language. He continues his impressive solo career and at the same time is involved in the Saagara project, successfully combining stylistics seemingly incompatible: Western jazz and Hindu raga. Zimpel also appears with the LAM trio, filling the gap between minimalism and trance. He collaborates with Kuba Ziolek, with whom he has performed at the Rocket Recordings 20 festival in London.

Ksawery Wójcinski is a double bass player active in both jazz, avant-garde and Polish ethnic music. He has collaborated with such artists as Uri Caine, Charles Gayle, Michael Zerang, Hamid Drake, Nicole Mitchell and Marco Eneidi. He currently performs with the Wójcinski / Szmanda Quartet.

Lutoslawski Quartet (line-up: Robert Kwiatkowski – 1st violin, Marcin Markowicz – 2nd violin, Artur Rozmyslowicz – viola, Maciej Mlodawski – cello) is a resident ensemble of the National Forum of Music in Wroclaw and one of the leading string quartets in Poland. It has performed with outstanding classical and jazz musicians such as: Garrick Ohlsson, Piotr Anderszewski, Kevin Kenner, Bruno Canino, Eugen Indjic, Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor, Uri Caine, Benoît Delbecq, Vijay Iyer and Charles Lloyd; it has also collaborated with the Paris IRCAM. Lutoslawski Quartet has for Naxos, DUX, CD Accord and the NFM. It focuses on the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, devoting much attention to the popularization of Polish works.

The 5th Jazztopad Festival New York is organized by: National Forum of Music in Wroclaw in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York.

From the Polish Cultural Institute.