RAFA – RGG & Trevor Watts and the fathers of improvisation

One of the most original bands on the Polish and probably European jazz scene, RGG trio, apart from its own artistic activity, has for years been known for inviting musicians from all over the world, from different generations, to collaborate.

In 2016, they stood on the same stage with Evan Parker, an artist who do not need to be introduced. The document of their joint music-making is the album „Live @ Alchemia. A year later they were joined on the stages of the Silesian Jazz Festival by musicians of the young generation of improvisers, the excellent Finnish trumpeter Ververi Pohjola and probably the most important jazz trombonist of his generation, the Swiss Samuel Blaser (City Of Gardens – Listen Foundation! 2018).

In the following year, this time at the invitation of the famous Jazz Jantar Festival in Gdańsk and the Żak club, Łukasz Ojdana, Maciej Garbowski and Krzysztof Gradziuk invited one of the jazz icons of the Old Continent, playing the alto saxophone and soprano Trevor Watts.

During the meeting, on the margins of the first one in their careers, the musicians agreed to play fully improvised music for the Gdańsk audience, free from any earlier even sketch suggestions for composition. As a result of their joint music-making, an extensive suite was created, only for the needs of the record edition and for the convenience of the listeners, divided into successive parts.

Just like the above mentioned albums, this one was released by the Warsaw-based Fundacja Słuchaj! and it’s probably not an abuse that it fits into a cycle that could be unofficially called RGGG and invites jazz stars. Before you 35 in the Foundation’s catalogue is an album entitled „RAFA”.