„Play your music for me,” said Ravi Coltrane to the Polish participants of the SIM workshop years ago. What does your music mean? The one you love, wants to play, whose secrets you study carefully, the one with whose sounds you grew up as a child and who was the first to awaken your imagination, or maybe music, by the power of tradition, historically perceiving things, is considered to be our source? Where to reach in order to meet the criterion of „ourness” and how to decide which is more ours and which is less. Jazz from across the ocean or folk, who did not see any ocean.
Probably each of the participants of those workshops understood things differently. Irek Wojtczak decided to reach for Polish folk music, which he was interested in earlier than Ravi Coltrane asked. So not rock covers, not admired and fascinating jazz, but the Łęczyca nerd, shown by Tadeusz Kubiak, then an old folk musician was chosen by Irek as the source. Then, apart from Irk’s fascination and inquisitiveness in studying folk music under the supervision of a mentor, there was a whole coincidence of happy circumstances, which today result in the fact that we can enjoy a concert recording of the Irk quintet, in which American musicians from the studio album were replaced by the Polish band, with Tomek Dąbrowski, Piotr Mania, Adamam Żuchowski and Kuba Staruszkiewicz.
That concert, almost three years ago, was attended by very few listeners, but those who arrived had the opportunity to take part in a very special event. Sometimes it happens so that the music from the stage is inspired, that the musicians are blown by the wind in their backs and rise high, higher than they thought. I guess that was the case at the time. Now the recording of this concert is in your hands thanks to the Listen Foundation!
