Szczecin Jazz

Szczecin Jazz is usually a completely public festival, but this year the north-western Polish city hosted a four-day conference insert, courtesy of the World Jazz Network, and including a gala performance of awards given by the 60-years-old Jazz Forum magazine, the Polish equivalent of Jazzwise. This happened at the bright white Filharmonia, the city’s shining concert hall, with its distinctive architectural carapace making the building look like it could be wheeled off to another location in times of emergency.

The artist prizewinners happened to provide a micro-overview of several Polish jazz scenes, from electrified pulsing back to classic songcraft. The Marcin Wasilewski Trio began as mainstream early-achievers, with their history of working with the revered trumpeter Tomasz Stańko. Since his demise, these players now boast a significant presence themselves, though often working in a subdued, introverted fashion. Then there were awards for individual elders: Maciej Sikała (tenor saxophone) and Grzegorz Nagórski (trombone) delivering their appealing mainline sound, but soon getting harder, taking off with individual solos, slick and assured.

At the other end of the scale is the EABS (Electro-Acoustic Beat Sessions) crew, a youngish assemblage from Wrocław, who combine improvisation and groove, featuring trumpet, tenor saxophone, keyboards, electric bass and drums, plus a barrelful of effects. A steppin’ funk propulsion is powered by springy drum cross-cuts, with tenorman Olaf Węgier also using a small keyboard, to aid with the dubby space-blossoms, and Kuba Kurek releasing powder-pockets of bright trumpet-scribing.

Singer Aga Zaryan began her set with just upright bass accompaniment, for ‘Loverman’, exposed and stark, with a drummer added for the second song, Wasilewski returning on piano. Zaryan held a steely focus, with her slow mulling over words. The horns also returned, turning this into a full complement for the closing stretch.

Two nights later there was another surprise highlight in the shape of trumpeter Piotr Wojtasik, who pretty much sold out the grand Teatr Polski. Wojtasik’s quintet were deliberately garbed in low-key gear, ranged across the stage in a concentrated, deeply serious configuration. They created a subtle, morose style, loaded with intensely expressive solo statements, alongside theme formations of steadily rising poignancy.

Singer Anna Maria Jopek arrives from a non-jazz background, bringing a vocal style that seeped melancholic cabaret deepness, the polar opposite of the chirpy goodtime jazz chanteuse. This was a gothic wasteland of underplayed drama. For a non-Pole, observing, the teaming of this pair had a particular resonance in the entertainment world, and when they kissed each other at the end, an audible gasp ran through the audience, a frisson of vicarious excitement.