By Sammy Stein
Polish artist Piotr Damasiewicz has released ‘Świtanie’ with the
‘Into the Roots’ band.
To appreciate this music, it helps to understand Piotr’s background and
view on things temporal and ethereal. He is a composer, trumpeter,
multi-instrumentalist, educator, traveler, and curator of international
music platforms. He studied double bass, piano, and classical singing –
including Gregorian chant – choral and chamber conducting, arrangement and
composition as well as trumpet. His travels have led him to take influences
from the many places he has visited.
Damasiewicz has represented Poland on four international music platforms:
Take Five Europe, Jazz Plays Europe Laboratory, Art Meetings, and Melting
Pot Laboratory (Jazztopad). In the last two, as a leader, composer, and
instrumentalist, he developed the idea of open improvisation in contact
with other fields of art. His works include ‘Hadrons’ for string quintet
and jazz band commissioned by the Jazztopad festival, ‘Suite 29’ written
for the World Jazz Days for Polish Radio Program Two, ‘Composition’ for 27
improvisers as part of the final Melting Pot (Jazztopad) platform in
Wrocław and the composition ‘Some Kind Of Greek Story’ based on Delphic
maxims, commissioned by Casa de Musica in Porto. He also creates theatre
and film music.
The list of collaborators Damasiewicz has worked with includes saxophonists
David Murray, Lotte Anker, and Jason Carter, pianist Jason Moran, trumpeter
Tomasz Stanko, vocalist Phil Minton, drummer Paal Nilsen Love, and many
more.
The Into The Roots Band comprise Piotr Damasiewicz on trumpet, organ, voice
and percussion, Zbigniew Kozera on bass and guimbri (similar to a bass
lute), Pawet Szpura on drums, Michat Zat on shawm (wooden double-reeded
baritone instrument), wooden transverse flute and hammered dulcimer,
Katarzyna Karpowica on Koto (a Japanese zither-like instrument), Alicja and
Kamila Krzeszowiak on voice, Pauline Kazmierczak on voice and violin,
Krzysztof Ryt on five-string viola and Marek Ryt on bagpipes, fife and
French horn. The sound that the band creates is as multicultural as the
instrumentation promises.
‘Nasa Krowka’ is a wonderful escapade of enchanting music that manages to
fuse an Irish timbre with Eastern vocals and a gentle leaning of the melody
that leans towards European folk music.
‘Swit’ is fuller in its arrangement with the constant presence of the
strung and percussive elements. It is a track that builds like a storm
until the music falls as a torrent of sound across the listener, enveloping
them in sonic waves, relentless in its insistence – topped by the entry of
the reeds and voice. The ensemble embarks on an improvised section, the
voice adding musical elements just as an instrument and the reeds and
percussion driving forceful rhythm patterns into the listener’s ears,
willing or not.
‘W. ogrodzie rozo’ (Rose Garden) is a gentle, multi-layered number with
duality in the vocal lines and the accompaniment, while the atmospheric
‘Kumiko’ opens with gentle, almost tentative lines before a glorious
fanfare of trumpet and occasional insertion of calling voice, which rises
and falls, the eeriness created reminiscent of Eastern religious mysteries.
Across the top comes the trumpet again in glorious voice, its melody
reflected and passed back changed in vocal tones.
‘Kolisecko mojo’ (My Wheelchair) opens with organ and vocals, the gorgeous
harshness of the vocal harshness contrasting beautifully with the organ
lines before strings set up a walking gait, across which the vocals and
other instruments perform intricate patterns that change and seemingly
stalk the vocal lines, passing across notes just after the vocalist
delivers them. The trumpet adds an airy flourish and voices its brassy
tones before the vocal storyteller finishes gently – the meaning felt in the
music even if the listener cannot understand the language.
‘Nagare’ opens with a keening trumpet and percussive element under vocal
intonations and trumpet insertions. Possibly the freest track on the album
in terms of expressive improvisation. At times the vocalist sounds like a
Sumo wrestler as he calls and shouts. Under the melodic at times, and
not-so-melodic at others, the trumpet, the percussion, and strings offer
gentle contrast in tone, lines, and rhythm. A wonderful number that works
its way into a full-throated harmonic structure in the final third.
‘Now’ finishes the album and is a beautiful slow burner of a track,
building from a gentle introduction to a well-filled and textured number
with interesting rhythm patterns, gapped and held rhythms, which keep the
interest, and devilishly delicious trumpet insertions.
This album is a revelation. The music draws on many roots – from Latin to
Eastern, Celtic, European, and traditional jazz. Each listen reveals a new
thread or line found by purposeful and intent listening. There is a sense
of composition in terms of patterns and styling but also a good dose of
free playing. Not a word I use often but this is attractive music – in the
way it draws on many elements and develops them simultaneously, cohesively,
and intriguingly. The band members listen to each other and respond
incredibly intuitively. The trumpet lines are breathtaking at times in
their intensity and the language used here calls to different ethnicities.
In this music, there is natural expression alongside composed and cleverly
arranged episodes. It feels like it comes together easily but arranging for
the different keys, tones, and subtleties of such an array of instruments
must be a challenge – but here it works in beautiful ways.
Many of Piotr’s musical ideas originate in places he has travelled to, but
also from his journeys, as he puts it ‘into himself and into sound’. He has
travelled a great deal. Here the music reflects that, it is as if the many
places he has found inspiration have each contributed a part to the music.
So the combination of different languages – from jazz, ethnic music, and
modern music to improvised and experimental elements comes together in a
conversation that makes sense. Absolutely music for the curious listener.