JAZZ – the Light Side of the Force

[ Wenancjusz Ochmann talks to Marian Oslislo, Grzegorz Kuciera, Krzysztof Kuciera and Stanisław Przybyła, photos by adrian larisz ]

The JAZ Zabrze Music Association has existed for...?
Marian Oslislo: For about twenty years, and formally since 1998, when on 1st of April it was formed in Foxtrot pub – a place important for the city and for Silesia. A lot of people came on that day to the pub and everyone thought it was a joke. But this joke has been going on for eighteen years, and despite different fluctuations and adversities, we still go on. There is a symptomatic thing – in the latest poster promoting this year’s Zabrze JAZ Festival, the number eighteen contains the infinitive sign.

Even before JAZ had formally come into being you had already been organizing festivals. What are your origins?
Grzegorz Kuciera: You can say that our ‘cradle’ was the Community Centre in Kończyce District.
Marian Oslislo: It all started from the district festivals organized here by the Kończyce District Council, Kończyce had one of the first councils in the city and it organized annual festivities. After two or three such events, we thought that it would be worthwhile inviting other people. And we invited the Daily Jazz Combo and Ewa Uryga.
Stanislaw Przybyła: And the Antykwariat band...

Marian Oslislo: It was then, that in the fields of Kończyce syncopated music could be heard for the first time. Funny enough, we knew very little of how to make music.
I thought Ewa Uryga would come with her own stage equipment. She came to the concert, and there was nothing. Ewa Uryga says, “what do you mean you have no equipment?” Back then she played with Krzysztof Lewandowski, and he clutches his head in disbelief and asks, “Why did you talk to her?... She is a ’bat’! You should have talked to us”. But, of course, it was our fault, it was the time when many things weren’t easily available – it was 1994. Everyone had to travel with their own gear.
But fortunately, the Antykwariat band played before, so we dashed off to them, they came back with their equipment, and we used this pieces of junk, amateur equipment actually, to make the music sound for the first time.
After then it was just getting better and better ...

The initial name of the festival was JAZZ NIGHT, then JAZZ BLUES FUSION. Were the changes only in the name or also in the formula?

Marian Oslislo: The first name was JAZZ NIGHT – because it was at night, and then the Jazz Blues Fusion.
Gregorz Kuciera: Blues certainly has not been cut out, it has always been there.
Marian Oslislo: Blues is fundamental.
Grzegorz Kuciera: That’s true, everything is based on blues and this year we have two strong blues accents. We start with blues in Kończyce [Marek Makaron Trio – ed] and finish with American blues [Frank Morey & His Band – ed]. And because the fundamental principle of operation for our association is improvisation, in every field [laughter], we came up with the name of Improvised Music Festival.

This year you finish with American blues – in the history of the festival there were many performers from abroad. Is there anyone you consider especially memorable?
Grzegorz Kuciera: For me it was the drummer from Fuasi & Ansemble, a Hindu in a turban, a very interesting person – [Nirankar Khalsa - ed]. Actually, it was one of the most important concerts for me, so it got stuck in my memory.
Marian Oslislo: And at five o’clock in the morning when the miners were going to work they saw a man in a turban walking to his hotel in Biskupice on the rails. When the miners saw him... [laughter]. But I remember one concert in particular. But maybe Stas can tell us about it, because I was on the stage then and I was very nervous. Tell us about Salif Keita...
Stanisław Przybyła: For the 15th anniversary we decided to come up with something spectacular. And we did. [laughter]. We invited Salif Keita the musician known in the whole world, and in Poland, of course. The concert was so heavily anticipated that people, despite the fact that the performance was delayed by over two hours, didn’t get out of the hall, nor got up from their seats. The tension built up so high that the audience finally went wild, especially after Salif’s dancers appeared on the stage.
Grzegorz Kuciera: But experts, musicians, and those for whom this music is life still remember this event – I have friends from Łódź, who came especially for him, and who confirm that it was a phenomenal concert. Anyway, for me, what this band did was a masterpiece. We generally have great fun at the concerts which we organize. Krzysiu can tell us more about it as he once even performed with an international  band…
Krzysztof Kuciera: It was very spontaneous – the band played sensationally well, enthusiastically, I got carried away... And I became the seventh member of the team... [laughter]
Marian Oslislo: The festival often ends up with everybody having fun in front of the stage. I remember once we all took off our jackets and danced in the rain...
Krzysztof Kuciera: We also had great fun when Mateusz Pospieszalski’s band played [Hot Asterix & Mateusz Pospieszalski – ed].
Grzegorz Kuciera: I also remember how, after the show, Kormorany played by the fire till the morning.

The festival is associated with international stars and well-known Polish musicians. How do you choose the artists?
Marian Oslislo: We have the formula to show people who have not made the papers yet. Most festivals in Poland usually feature the top of Polish jazz, and that is great. We show the less-known people as well as “the locals”.
Krzysztof Kuciera: But quite often, those musicians become stars in the future, and return to the festivals as stars.
Marian Oslislo: This is exactly what I’d like to say – Maciek Obara’s concert was such an unusual thing, a musical shock actually. It must have been his first performance for such an audience and I remember that when he got on the stage with his trio and started to play, everybody, even the most sophisticated listeners were stunned and we knew that we were witnessing something really big. The concert was absolutely brilliant and could have taken place anywhere, on any stage. That was special also because we do not offer astronomical pays, just regular, modest rates, but everybody comes to the festival with pleasure, especially young artists come here for the opportunity to compare themselves with others. What also matters, is this atmosphere of Kończyce open air concert - people come and mix, open themselves, sometimes whole families come. Those people listen to such music once a year, but I am convinced that everybody needs this kind of catharsis. We also do this so that people could turn to the Light Side…

As you said, a lot of artists made spectacular careers after their participation in this festival.
Grzegorz Kuciera: I think it is very important, when it comes to this festival, that several times we have managed to be one step ahead. Motion Trio, Kapela ze Wsi Warszawa...These are the bigger examples, but there are more such musicians who reappeared later…
Marian Oslislo: You may remember them – they used to call themselves PARNAS quartet (Piotr Wyleżoł, Tomasz Grzegorski...) today it’s Nigel Kennedy’s band. It was a brilliant concert, they got an award at Jazz Juniors and almost straight away they played at our festival. They even didn’t have a photo. We always print programmes and I remember meeting them in front of the dormitory of the Music Academy in Katowice. ‘Have you got a picture?’, I ask, ‘what picture?’. So I say ‘just stand there quickly’ and click…

The festival is more than just a local event…
Marian Oslislo: We want it to be local, but sometimes we fail to keep it like that… [laughter]. We expand much further. There was a festival in 2004 or 2005 when we played in eight cities in Silesia. It was organised together with ARS CAMERALIS as part of the North Rhine-Westphalia: Bytom, Mikołów, Ruda Śląska, Świętochłowice...

After concerts there is usually a lively jam session. As far as I know, most of them took place in the jazz club located near the Nowy Theatre in Zabrze. JAZ is not only a festival but there are also lot of club concerts.

Marian Oslislo: There have always been two entities. The club and the festival, and they complemented each other. The club was a place where music was created non-stop, during two years, I am pretty sure, there were over two hundred concerts.
Grzegorz Kuciera: I counted it – ninety-eight in one year.
Marian Oslislo: It was incredible. There were weeks when the concerts were played every day. It was, actually, the first club in Silesia, a place in new Poland, after 1989, which promoted live music. Incredible things happened there.
Krzysztof Kuciera: Come what may, on Thursday you had to be in the club.
Marian Oslislo: There are some tapes from those concerts that have survived. Quite well recorded, and really worth releasing. There are a lot of them, the concerts were absolutely unique.
Grzegorz Kuciera: A few days ago I could see Mikołaj Trzaska on TV, giving awards at Gdynia Film Festival. Mikołaj Trzaska was a regular at the club. Generally, when you look at Polish jazz, you see that each of those musicians was in the club. They were almost regular members: Jacek Olter, Tymon Tymański, Tomasz Gwinciński, Jerzy Mazzoll...
Marian Oslislo: or the people from Mózg in Bydgoszcz [a famous club and an association – ed], the avant-garde, new movement in jazz… The club in Zabrze was actually a place where they were active.

Marian has recently said that records are coming to an end and the Internet is beginning. JAZ has its internet site – what plans do you have for it?
Stanisław Przybyła: After a few years we have managed to make a new website. I think it will be livelier that the previous one. You can find the basic information about our organisation and its history. We will try to present as many historical materials as possible from those festivals that are behind us, but which we would like to return to, watch the photos or listen to some recording samples. You will find video and music files there, and I hope all the CDs we have made.
Grzegorz Kuciera: We have cooperated in releasing four CDs.
Stanisław Przybyła: We would like to promote that, especially because the CDs cannot be bought from any shop.

I hope the website will be such a place…
Marian Oslislo: but also the place of discussion. We have a few association members who like writing and do it very well, they like to share their ideas.
Grzegorz Kuciera: This is very important, there are four of us here…
Krzysztof Kuciera: ...but there are much more of us.

So JAZ festival is a holiday of music that attracts and draws together its associates from Poland and abroad…
Krzysztof Kuciera: we know that there is a big prize awaiting at the end.

In a form of?
Krzysztof Kuciera: An excellently organised festival.

Do you infect with jazz?
Marian Oslislo: We do. We don’t mind other styles and types of music but we want to promote the Light Side of the Force and share it with everybody.

Jazzowa Asocjacja Zabrze is one of the most active musical associations existing and operating in Silesia. It’s a grassroots initiative of self-governing fans of ‘music without borders’. Its most important achievement is the JAZ Improvised Music Festival, which has been organised for 18 years. The aim of the festival is to present the latest trends in music, along with jazz artists there perform classical and contemporary musicians, folk/world music artists as well as musicians playing rock, experimental or electronic music. Young artists only entering the world of music as well as experienced masters perform at the festival. The Association also produces CDs and publications concerning the broadly defined musical culture. More at www.jaz.zabrze.pl