Jerzy Kaczmarek Quartet - Wilcze Sidła "Tribute to Jazz Club Rura"
To get a taste of the jazz presented by Jerzy Kaczmarek's quartet, one must go back to the early 1980s and the times of the legendary Rura club in Wrocław. It was there that the band Wilcze Sidła, the original formation of pianist Jerzy "Wilk" Kaczmarek, was formed as part of what was probably a permanent residency but also an obvious sentiment.
At that time, the leader was already an important artist in the Wrocław jazz scene with a prestigious laureate of the International Jazz Pianists Competition in Kalisz. Jerzy "Wilk" Kaczmarek, a graduate of the Academy of Music in Wrocław (as well as the Wrocław University of Technology), was also a prize-winner at the International Jazz Festival in San Sebastian (1985), winner of the Grand Prix for his composition "Green Barman" at the International Competition for Jazz Composition in Monaco (1986). For almost three decades he was a musician of the Alex Band orchestra, but also co-founder and pianist of such bands as Hokus, Katia Roman & Co", Jazz Vox, Market, Wilcze Sidła, Gain, Wrocław Band. He has worked with Ewa Bem, Zbigniew Namysłowski's Air Condition and Andrzej Zaucha. With the Alex Band in the years (1981-2015) he gave concerts and recorded for national and international radio and television stations. He has written music for theatrical productions and music recorded by the Wrocław Band for the Wrocław Radio Station.
His legendary quartet Wilcze Sidła at the time featured bassist Marek Błaszczyk, drummer Jacek Ratajczyk and alto saxophonist Władysław Kwaśnicki. Unfortunately, there is no phonographic documentation of those club concerts, but what remains are the artistic concepts and excellent compositions, which today are played with the "new" quartet of Jerzy Kaczmarek as authentic jazz standards. The album "Wilcze Sidła", dedicated to the cult club Rura in Wrocław, is now an interesting realisation of ideas from years ago and the use of compositions and moods that certainly accompanied the concerts of the quartet of Jerzy "Wilk" Kaczmarek in those, probably the most interesting years, of the cult club. The hero of the new session, pianist and composer Jerzy "Wilk " Kaczmarek has now invited young musicians to join the band. Interestingly, at the time when Kaczmarek's original quartet was admired, these musicians were not yet in the world.
Today, saxophonist Tomasz Wendt is a young, distinguished lecturer at the Academy of Music in Wrocław and a musician who has worked with many outstanding artists, such as Grzegorz Nagórski, Piotr Wojtasik, Mateusz Smoczyński, Joachim Mencel, Michał Miśkiewicz, Rafał Sarnecki, Artur Lesicki, Kuba Stankiewicz, Mariusz Bogdanowicz, Taco Hemingway, Grubson, Urszula Dudziak, Eric Allen, Dean Brown, Karen Caroll . Bassist Grzegorz Piasecki, also a lecturer at the Academy of Music in Wrocław, has been involved in the Wrocław artistic community for years, recording and performing with Piotr Wojtasik, Leszek Możdżer, Marc Bernstein, Artur Tuźnik, Piotr Damasiewicz, Tomasz Wendt, Marek Kądzielą. He has won numerous awards and distinctions at prestigious Polish and international jazz festivals, including the 2017 Fryderyk Award for Jazz Phonographic Debut, the album Behind The Strings by the Tomasz Wendt & Atom String Quartet trio.
On the other hand, percussionist Piotr Zarecki, a graduate of the Wrocław Academy of Music and its lecturer, realises himself to the fullest by collaborating with outstanding Polish and foreign jazz leaders. One such important project is certainly the album made with the veteran of Wrocław jazz, Jerzy "Wilk" Kaczmarek. This extremely engaging set (mainly J. Kaczmarek's compositions) weaves the subtleties of jazz into the style and mood of a club standard. A perfect and engaging performance, the sound of conservative jazz here becomes a beautiful synthesis and 'tribute' to the wonderful moments at Club Rura with the quartet Wilcze Sidła in the lead role.
Dionizy Piatkowski
With Dżez Lżej. Invites Adam Domagała, vol. 2.
15 November 2021
I'm too young to remember the jams and concerts at Wrocław's Rura (the first one, from the late 1970s and early 1980s), so I missed out on the famous supremacy of Jerzy Kaczmarek and his quartet Wilcze Sidła.
Then Jurek went to sea for years, his legend grew willy-nilly in Wrocław, until finally, when I was an adult, I asked him to play a concert myself. Between you and me, I don't know what great piano used to stand in Rura, but what I remember from an evening at the Vertigo Jazz Club & Restaurant is that, as the organiser, I didn't live up to the artist's demands on the quality of the instrument. In my old age I myself left Wrocław and missed a concert at yet another venue - occasionally turned into a jazz club - during which the - yes! yes! - the debut album of the "wolf". This time Jurek could not complain about an out of tune instrument, as he was given a technological marvel - a Yamaha AvantGrand hybrid piano, which simply cannot be physically tuned, and whose digital sound cannot be distinguished from the acoustic one by the most sophisticated ear.
If I hadn't known that this was a contemporary edition of Wolf Sides (all the sidemen - Tomasz Wendt, Grzegorz Piasecki and Piotrek Zarecki - could have been Jurek's sons), I would have thought I was listening to lost recordings of Charlie Haden's Quartet West or The Cookers, which is rather good evidence of the level of training and musical sensitivity of the Wrocław-based musicians - it also testifies to their attachment to an ethos which is also close to me, and which assumes that as long as something is done very well (or even better), and it is done with full conviction, the so-called "originality" is only a pleasant, but not a bad thing. originality is only a pleasant, but not necessary, addition. Anyway... after all, these are all (with one exception) original compositions by "the wolf", so - even if kept in a safe, melodic, mainstream convention, somewhat even secondary to American, brilliant patterns - this is his body & soul, this is his, the wolf's music.
Adam Domagała
Yes, it was for us, the Wrocław jazz musicians, the centre of the world. At that time, at the turn of the seventh and eighth decades of the last century, the centre, the navel of our world at that time. In Warsaw there was the Jazz Jamboree festival, in Wrocław the Jazz nad Odrą. Initially, the big festivals were catered for by the student community and its clubs. However, our first real jazz club was the RURA club in Wrocław.
Yes, it was for us, the Wrocław jazz musicians, the centre of the world. At that time, at the turn of the seventh and eighth decades of the last century, the centre, the navel of our world at that time. In Warsaw there was the Jazz Jamboree festival, in Wrocław the Jazz nad Odrą. Initially, the big festivals were catered for by the student community and its clubs. However, our first real jazz club was the RURA club in Wrocław. The magnet was above all the beautiful music. Concerts were held here every evening all year round, and during the day there were meetings of Wrocław's artistic bohemians. Visual artists, actors, humanists, poets, musicians and all kinds of rebellious youngsters. All fascinated by jazz, the sweetest of all other sweets in the canon of artistic creation. Jazz came to us from across the Ocean, from afar, from the Free World, and was itself synonymous with that very freedom for everyone. Almost the only available source of contact with this art was the radio. Records, then only black, were hellishly expensive and festivals like monsoon rain irrigated suddenly but only once a year. No sheet music or training materials were available at the time. Only a few had anything nationwide. So those, Those who played jazz were admired and respected in their circles. It was widely known that they were a heaven-given elite who, thanks to their special talent, cleverness, persistence, a kind of love, possessed the skills and gift of using this very musical performance canon. On top of this, jazz is an ensemble, group music, which had an almost metaphysical effect in this case. And who doesn't want to belong to a group when they're young, let alone such a group.
The Pipe was never empty. The bar was green. The first aides, in addition to drinks and beverages such as tea, coffee, apple juice, beer (which was a rarity at the time), wine, vodka, vodka with dodoni juice, vermouth, served casseroles with noodles and corn casseroles with butter, which was also another rarity at the time and not just in Wrocław. The club was on the surface, not in the basement. It had windows with daylight, which was important because you didn't lose track of time there completely, day and night didn't mix. The tables were round, there was an amphitheatre-like gallery. There was the smartest "toilet granny" in town, she often joined in philosophical discussions about art, knew almost everyone by name, eased conflicts in a manly manner, lent money. There was a peculiar, because unwritten, order. The old regulars had their own tables. Most of the time, people talked about what they had heard recently, what new recordings they had from the radio, notes with chords they had found somewhere (usually handwritten), who had what instrument and from where. Back then, for example, you knew who had the first Fender piano in Poland, in Wrocław, who had a Fender guitar, Jazz Bass, Marshall amplifier, Ludwig drums, and who played native or East German instruments. The musicians were not likely to be approached by technicians, because they would have nothing to talk about.
There were foreign and American musicians, especially on the occasion of the Jazz nad Odrą festival and the Wrocław Jazz All Souls' Day. We were absolutely convinced that as soon as we had the chance, Miles Davis would come to us, and when the piano appeared in the club, so would Herbie Hancock, and then we too would go overseas, perhaps for an exchange. Our dreams and naivety were boundless. However, everyone, especially the Wrocław bands who were abroad giving concerts, be it in the west, east, north or south of Europe, returned home with fresh experience, fresh stories from the world added to the Rura atmosphere, being proud of our Rura, because no other place could stand comparison with it.
It was said, even in the newspapers at one point, that the Wrocław jazz milieu was a "take-charge milieu". Because the winners of the top prizes at national and international competitions came from here. These were both bands and individual musicians. The same was true of actors and visual artists, photographers and other non-jazz musicians. However, we have not developed into a "star" of supra-regional range. And yes, Wrocław jazz musicians from the era of the RURA club played with the best in Poland, recorded with them, made their own albums, RURA was known, admired, lived at 4 Łazienna street and lived in stories far beyond Wrocław.
Lazienna 4 disappeared many years ago. It turns out, however, that the Pipe has not disappeared. It is remembered by those who still remember it, as well as by those who only know stories about it. Many of us, had it not been for RURA, might have remained abroad. Especially in the 1980s there were opportunities to work and stay somewhere far away. However, many could not imagine it, were not able to imagine it.
This is not the story of RURA. I am deliberately not invoking any names or names. It is a presentation of only one subjective aspect concerning the RURA phenomenon, on the occasion of a single concert planned as part of the "Bass & Beat" festival with the leitmotiv - Wrocław Jazz Club RURA.
Jerzy "Wilk" Kaczmarek
The release of the album 'Tribute to Jazz Club Rura' was subsidised by the Municipality of Wrocław. www.wroclaw.pl