Every summer Warsaw blooms with festivals, giving various opportunities to see good, live music for free. But somehow this year I missed most of them! The line-up of Warsaw Summer Jazz Days wasn't so impressive as last time and partly collided with my sailing trip, so regretably I didn't catch any of the shows. I was back just to see the final of Jazz na Starówce festival with
Lars Danielsson trio, but they didn't impress me much. So, at the end of August I felt deeply disappointed with my 'concert life' so far this year and was really looking forward to hearing some exciting music live.
Fortunately September came to the rescue and delivered more than enough opportunities, mainly in the field of ethnic or world music. It all started for me with the
Golem concert at Singer's Warsaw festival. I didn't know any of their music, but the band was really fun to watch. Lively musicians (especially male vocalist with his drunken-like moves and crazy mimicry) played the klezmer tunes with lots of energy and top-knotch skill (tasty violin-trombone interplay). If you like the Radical Jewish Culture series on the
Tzadik label you should check them out. All the more that their last album 'Fresh Off Boat' is streamable at last.fm!!
The same day was a starting point for Culture Crossover festival, but I didn't get there until the fourth day, just in time to see
Kapela Ze Wsi Warszawa (or
Warsaw Village Band). Their live shows are amazing: the songs are played in kind of extended versions and with much more power than on the records. This one wasn't an exception, the music had a hypnotic, almost ritual-like feel to it and I had a great time. Another artist that night was
Dazkarieh from Lisbona/Portugal, playing eclectic mix of world music with almost rock aproach to some of the ethnic instruments. At first I thought that they're nice, but a bit blank compared to Kapela, but the ending of their show was spectacular. Long improvisations by each of musicians and a vocalist, with all the people standing and claping in enchantment. Overall it was good, but if they had put more emphasis on deconstructing the tradition all over the concert it would have been great.
A couple of days later I came back to see
Amazones - a group of female drummers (ok, there was one guy among them) from Guinea. Very energetic show, with lots of poly-rhythmic percussion, wild dances and African singing. But after some time the songs sounded very much alike and the band started to put more emphasis on the party, encouraging people to clap their hands (in my opinion it really doesn't suit to such rhythmically complex music) and even dancing together on the stage in the grand-finale. Certainly not the best show I've seen, but nevertheless I had a good time.
The day before the last I went to see
Vicente Amigo and the concert left me speechless from enchantment. I mean... wow... even now I don't really know what to say, except that it was probably the best concert I've seen this year. His take on flamenco slightly leans towards world-fusion in the vein of
Paco de Lucia, but he plays with so much passion, keeping the traditional spirit alive and well. His band was also perfect with great vocalist, dancer and the rest of musicians... I was just sitting there, closing my eyes and absorbing the music with my mind and body, under such impression, that don't be surprised if my charts get flamenco-all-over in the coming weeks.
And the final of the festival saw
Angelite & Moscow Art Trio with Huun-Huur-Tu combining forces on one stage. Good show but I was still flamenco obsessed so I didn't enjoy it as much as I could. But to be honest, comparisons are inappropriate here, because this concert was in the first place a meeting of different artists, trying to find a common musical language. They were playing in various line-ups, mainly creating complex and contemplative vocal/sound layers. Sometimes they did find a common ground and it was great, but sometimes I got the feeling that there was no synergy between them. So my impressions were mixed at the final day, but overall the festival was great and I really look forward to the next edition!!
Vicente Amigo
Entre Dos Aguas (Instrumental) (Rumba)