Kraków Jazz Week is an umbrella brand for a fusion of events that occupy a vitally important place in the cultural landscape of Lesser Poland’s regional capital. Over eight days, two competitions and a festival will be held at the Cricoteka club situated right on the bank of the Vistula River at the very heart of the city. KJW opens with events that commemorate one of Kraków’s most outstanding artists: the violinist, saxophonist and composer Zbigniew Seifert.

The organisers tirelessly promote Seifert’s legacy by holding a competition of his name as well as a festival known as Seifert Jazz Days. The Seifert Competition, held already for the sixth time, has undoubtedly proved its efficacy as a way of reviving and cultivating the output of that Kraków-based musician. Owing to its international character, it perfectly promotes Seifert’s music not only at home, but also worldwide. The broad response to this year’s edition prove that the fame of the violin genius from Kraków has reached all continents, and that the Competition itself as well as Kraków Jazz Week have become a strongly recognisable brand to be reckoned with in the global music market. While drawing on its history and continuing the splendid traditions of the Jazz Juniors Festival, the brand also stands for new qualities represented by the biennial Seifert Competition and Seifert Jazz Days.

Directly after the 6th Seifert Competition winners have been announced, auditions for this year’s Jazz Juniors Competition will follow. The latter, Kraków-based event has attracted young jazz performers for nearly half a century, frequently introducing its audience to new talents that were later applauded on prestigious concert stages at home and abroad. Notably, the very fact of participation in the Jazz Juniors finals paves the way for the young contestants to performing at major European festivals, in venues and on tours worldwide. What counts most is thus the chance to meet and establish international and intergenerational contacts within the global jazz community. The element of rivalry itself being largely a convention, the event will nevertheless surely stir up plenty of emotions. Importantly. Kraków Jazz Week is not exclusively a set of two competitions for young music interpreters and improvisers. There will also be a concert series programmed by one of the most innovative artists in the European jazz scene – Nils Petter Molvaer, who as of this year holds the post of Jazz Juniors Festival’s artistic director.

SEIFERT COMPETITION

26 – 29 September 2024
• CRICOTEKA / MAIN STAGE

Already for the sixth time, young musicians take up the challenge of performing Zbigniew Seifert’s music – undoubtedly one of the most original phenomena in jazz music history. Instrumentalists from all over the world, including such faraway places as Japan, Brazil, and Taiwan, have entered the Competition. The semi-finalists represent many continents and countries, including a large group of Polish violinists.

Ten artists, selected by an international jury consisting of Michał Urbaniak, Anja Lechner, and Ernst Reijseger on the basis of submitted entries, will perform on 26 and 27 September on Kraków Jazz Week’s main stage in Cricoteka. The list of Seifert Competition semi-finalists is as follows:

ANAIS DRAGO (Italy)
A violinist opting for jazz, improvisation, electroacoustic and pop music. Despite her young age she already has three original albums to her name, in addition to numerous prizes and distinctions in various competitions and festivals. Though in the last several years she has dedicated much time to a solo career, she has also attracted considerable attention with her duo performances with Italian jazz legend Enrico Rava.

TOMOHIRO ISHII (Japan)
A violinist and composer from a musical family, he took up the instrument at barely four years of age. Classically educated since childhood, he has won multiple awards and distinctions in national and international violin competitions. During his studies at the Tokyo University of the Arts he was drawn to jazz, which naturally led to a development of his own personal language of improvisation. His adventure with composing music began in the same period. Ishii is a co-founder of Less is More String Quartet and the founder of Mi Mi Mi Records. He also writes music for the cinema and arranges pop numbers for other performers.

ALEKSANDRA KRYŃSKA (Poland)
A violinist with a wide range of interests, she graduated from Prof. Wiesław Kwaśny’s class at the Cracow Academy of Music and Mateusz Smoczyński’s class at Warsaw’s Chopin University of Music. Winner of numerous scholarships for academic excellence, she explores chamber, ethnic, and jazz repertoires, performing both classical and jazz music in orchestras and ensembles as well as leading her own bands, among others in collaboration with Piotr Damasiewicz and Szymon Mika.

WOJTEK MACIEJOWSKI (Poland)
His violin-playing fascinations derive from the musical culture of his homeland – the Żywiec range of the Beskid mountains. At the successive stages of his education he broadened his interests to include the traditions of other Carpathian regions – until also this proved not enough to him as an artist. His search for an extended musical language led him naturally to jazz and to his graduation from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, where he studied with Prof. Henryk Gembalski. He now performs and collaborates with, among others, Hanka Wójciak Band, PoPieronie Band, Mateusz Smoczyński, Michał Aftyka, and Jarek Bothur.

ANDREW FINN MAGILL (USA)
Violinist and film music composer. Though he is educated in many violin genres and styles, his teenage fascination with the recordings of Hot Club de France and Charlie Parker proved a crucial influence. Frequently praised for the lightness of his playing and ‘effortless virtuosity’, Finn Magill has worked with such musicians as Michael Jeffrey Stephens and members of Snarky Puppy, among others.

AMALIA UMEDA OBRĘBOWSKA (Poland)
Improviser and composer, leader of a quartet of her name, she has played the violin since her seventh year, growing more and more self-aware as an instrumentalist with the passage of years. She boldly treads her own path and takes risks in her improvisations. Rather than limiting herself to the violin, she also includes the viola and her own voice in her performances. Her quartet’s debut has brought critical and audience recognition and acclaim. She also performs solo in many parts of the world.

CHASE POTTER (USA)
A multi-instrumentalist now based in New York, he graduated with honours from Boston’s Berklee College of Music. Despite his inborn ease in mastering various instruments (incl. drums, saxes, the guitar), he has principally remained faithful to his first choice, the violin. Skills demonstrated since early childhood as well as his versatility have led to performances with artists as diverse as Wynton Marsalis, Lalah Hathaway, Belle & Sebastian, as well as Machine Gun Kelly and Camila Cabello. With that latter duo he appeared in the cult-status series of The Tonight Show.

HUGO VAN RECHEM (France)
A multi-instrumentalist and composer working at the intersection of contemporary classical, electronic pop and jazz music. He is fond of, and inspired by, contrasts and untypical combinations of various trends and genres. He studied classical music at the Conservatoire de Lille, and later jazz at Paris Conservatory. As an instrumentalist he performs in orchestras, jazz and progressive rock bands, as well as playing ambient and minimal music.

MICHAŁ SCHAB (Poland)
Violinist and educator, he graduated from Prof. Beata Solnicka’s class in the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław and Prof. Henryk Gembalski’s class at the G. and K. Bacewicz University of Music in Łódź. Apart from grassroots blues (that he grew up with) and his classical university education, he has for many years explored jazz improvisation strategies, reflected, among others, in the music of the quartet he is the leader of.

JOÃO DA SILVA (Portugal)
Music was present in his family home on an everyday basis. Da Silva decided to continue the family’s music-making traditions but took them from an amateur to a professional level. It was on this strong foundation that his extraordinary passion was born, driving him to explore ever new artistic fields. In his music, he draws on both classical and jazz influences, appearing as a composer and performer, but also as a highly regarded arranger and producer, thus – a person entirely dedicated to the musical profession in all its forms.

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It is from among those ten that five finalists will be selected, who will meet at the Cricoteka again on 28 September to compete for the main prizes of the 6th Seifert Competition. Throughout the auditions, participants will be accompanied by the trio of eminent jazz pianist Dominik Wania, a teacher at Cracow’s Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music. The trio’s lineup is as follows: Dominik Wania – piano, Michał Kapczuk – bass, and Dawid Fortuna – drums.

SEIFERT COMPETITION’S GALA CONCERT: 29 September 2024
• CRICOTEKA / MAIN STAGE

Apart from the winners’ concert, the first part of this year’s Kraków Jazz Week ends will a performance by an unusual cello-and-piano duo: Anja Lechner and François Couturier, one of the world’s leading cello ensembles, whose music has for years been inextricably linked to jazz and improvisation. They delight audiences with their imaginative interpretations, ease and expertise. Their contribution is the more valuable since, despite featuring in some jazz bands since the late 1940s, the cello is still neither popular nor by any means obvious in this genre.

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SEIFERT NIGHT

Although the Seifert Competition and Seifert Jazz Days are extremely important events in terms of popularizing the work and profile of Zbigniew Seifert, they do not exhaust the list of activities undertaken in this direction by the organizers. For many years, thanks to the efforts of the creators of the Krakow events, concerts devoted to Seifert's work have been held around the world, during which artists who are winners of the competition present themselves. This series of performances is collectively known as Seifert Night.

During this year's edition of Krakow Jazz Week, events held under the Seifert Night banner will last not one, but four nights. Their shape will be slightly different than before. Usually artists present their own music and that of the competition's patron outside Poland. This time, musicians from home and abroad will present their own perspective on the legacy of the Krakow violin genius to audiences in Zbigniew Seifert's hometown. These will not always be the violinist's works played straight, after all, in jazz and improvised music, beyond the realm of interpretation, there is also plenty of room for live inspiration and room for improvisation.

The last few evenings of September, on the stage of Krakow's Hevre club, will belong to:

26.09.2024 Eduardo Bortolotti Quintet

The group is led by the Mexican violinist and composer, winner of the 2022 Seifert Competition Audience Award.

The ensembles included musicians from South America and Poland. The Mexican-Colombian-Polish group creates music as colorful as can be expected from such an exotic mix of instrumentalists. Influences of jazz and European improvised music blend with swagger with Latin American rhythms and fiery motifs drawn from Central American musical folklore. The quintet definitely focuses on sounds brimming with temperament and performed with natural freedom and great imagination.

27.09.2024 Gabriel Vieira / Jaroslaw Bester / Mikolaj Sikora

A trio formed especially for this year's Seifert Night. The international lineup consists of a Brazilian violinist, composer and arranger, winner of second place at the 2022 Seifert Competition, and two acclaimed Krakow musicians: accordionist Jaroslaw Bester and double bassist Mikołaj Sikora.

Each of the three musicians has a wealth of experience in both jazz and improvised music, but also shows inclinations to draw on elements of the traditions of various musical cultures. The folklore of South America and Eastern Europe, Jewish music and many others, combined on the ground of excellent instrumental technique and great sensitivity to the beauty of sounds, can certainly be a hallmark of the group.

28.09.2024 Nene Heroine

A quartet formed by Tri-City musicians who decided to hide their identities under fancy pseudonyms, which aptly corresponds to the perverse nature of the band's music. In Nene Heroine's work, jazz improvisation meets psychedelic rock, and techniques drawn from contemporary music sit side by side with dub production. The members of the group avoid genre limitations and, in a unique way, during their performances combine emotionality and authenticity founded on spontaneous improvisation, with carefully considered song structures. Thus, they blur the boundaries between alternative and mainstream, having no regard for the drawers with the names of trends and genres.

29.09.2024 Suferi

The members of the trio, have chosen traditional music from various regions of Poland as the starting point for their work. However, they do not try to reconstruct the sound of old country musicians, but rather, using the achievements of ethnomusicologists, breathe a new spirit into the Vistula River musical tradition. At times, the radical perspective through which they read old-fashioned oberek melodies aims to answer the questions: what would the musical folklore of Poland sound like today if we still practiced music-making in homes and inns? What would happen if traditional notes were naturally combined with the contemporary soundscape of hip-hop, electronica and jazz, and the tradition of intergenerational transmission of playing skills were still alive? There may be at least part of the answer hidden in Suferi's music.

Tickets

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JAZZ JUNIORS

30 September – 3 October 2024
• CRICOTEKA / MAIN STAGE

2024 marks a special caesura for the Jazz Juniors Festival, which is now becoming an international event not only with respect to artists featuring in the concert programmes, but also in the broader context of organisation. This change is owing to Nils Petter Molvaer taking over as artistic director and artist-in-residence. Extremely distinctive in his programming, Molvaer focuses first and foremost on experienced artists with well-established reputation as performers who, however, have not lost their youthful need to explore varied musical fields. This year’s programme thus features no jazz musicians in the strict and narrow sense of the term. Instead, the festival’s focus shifts to those who daringly move between genres and for whom jazz is an integral part of the creative process rather than a limited set of tools and intransgressible principles.

Molvaer’s programming reflects the questing spirit of the festival, which aims at building a network of interconnections and promoting daring creative artistic choices rather than merely ensuring a sold-out auditorium. Such an approach is a logical continuation of the festival’s long-time programming choices and matches the concept of our annual competition. The contestants who enter it can gain much in terms of facilitating young musicians’ wise artistic development, which counts for more than mere rivalry. Though prizes are important, the uniqueness of the Jazz Juniors Competition lies in another sphere. Several participants are awarded, but none of the contestants is left unnoticed and all receive kind attention that helps them spread their wings.

JAZZ JUNIORS COMPETITION – 30 September 2024

BLU/BRY
Founded by a group of friends in 2019, the quintet went a long way from meetings of friends to jointly writing arrangements to collective music composition. Their relations were becoming increasingly closer with time, reinforced by participation in numerous music festivals and competitions, including Jazz on the Odra, JazzCamera, Junior Jazz Festival Wadowice, Enter Enea Festival, and others. Currently all the band members are studying in Denmark, where they also take the opportunity to prepare new music material. The band combines modern jazz with world music influences and frequently contagious enthusiasm for joint music-making.

Members: Jan Kusz (sax), Tomek Kusz (trumpet), Jakub Letkiewicz (piano), Stanisław Banys (drums), Franciszek Wicke (bass guitar, double bass)

CYRYL LEWCZUK QUARTET
Set up by classmates from the Jazz and Popular Music Faculty of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, the band is open to diverse inspirations ranging from post-bop to fusion. Their original compositions are like collective musical tales that only fully take shape in the minds of sensitive listeners. These flexible forms leave much space for interpretation for both performers and the audience. The quartet has appeared, among others, during the 26th Bielsko Jazz Blizzard and the 60th Jazz on the Odra, where they won the Wojtek Siwek Jazz Individuality Contest Special Award of Wrocław Cultural Zone.

Members: Cyryl Lewczuk (sax), Jan Maciejowski (piano), Jan Dudek (double bass), Adam Barański (drums)

ADAM BARAN & HELICOPETS
Led by composer and guitarist Adam Baran, who is part of Warsaw’s alternative and improvised music scene, the band draws on minimal, ambient, and electronic music styles. Its leader focuses on space and trance, using a wide palette of electronic means, for instance treating the instrument like a sampler and then returning to a classical, almost mainstream performance style. Other elements that contribute to the band’s sound are the (frequently amplified) bass clarinet, as well as bass guitar, Moog, and drums. The band’s innovative and open-minded approach is definitely one of its assets.

Members: Adam Baran (electric guitar), Józef Biegański (drums, electronics), Panilas (bass clarinet), Piotr Zygma (bass guitar, Moog)

REBOOT THE MOOD
The quintet came into being in Dresden under the COVID-19 pandemic. Its members decided to use the time without concerts and music events creatively to play jam sessions together and write new music. Though drawing on the fusion style, they distinguished themselves from other electric bands from the start by focusing on their own compositions – successfully, as it turned out. Now based in Leipzig, they play concerts in Germany and throughout Europe.

Members: Laurin Köller (trumpet), Philip Adam (guitar), Gabriel Gutierrez (piano), Neil Richter (double bass), Moritz Grosch (drums)

VINCENT MEISSNER TRIO
Led by pianist Vincent Meissner, the trio has already attracted the attention of German and US jazz reviewers. After a much critically acclaimed debut album, their second disc was hailed by the US Downbeat magazine as ‘exciting’. Meissner’s talent developed under the guidance of Michael Wollny. It therefore comes as no surprise that, despite its relatively short history, the band has already performed at many European clubs and festivals.

Members: Vincent Meissner (piano), Josef Zeimetz (double bass), Henri Reichmann (drums)

ZBIGNIEW CHOJNACKI (accordion, electronics)
An accordionist, electronic music performer, composer and improviser, always willing to take daring musical risks with his accordion and wide range of electronic equipment. His solo improvisations oscillate between song, ambient, noise, drone, jazz, electronic and broadly conceived chamber music. Every meeting with the audience, instrument and performance space is quite different and unique – relaxed or hurried, but invariably on the lookout for new melodic combinations.

JAZZ JUNIORS FESTIVAL – 1–3 October 2024

1 October 2024 (Tuesday)
• CRICOTEKA / MAIN STAGE:

HINODE TAPES
Hinode Tapes trio is a conglomerate of musical personalities working at the intersection of improvisation and electronic music. Its members shun being defined by one musical current alone. Their collective fascinations range from oppressive ambient electronics to post-punk to avant-garde rock in the manner of Faust or Popol Vuh, and to elements of free jazz. A musical space liberated from rigorous rhythms, flexible material developed without a leader by artists who venture into ever new, ostensibly impenetrable territories… Crossing boundaries is not the best term in their case since the band members set themselves no boundaries in the first place, but instead invite the audience to join them on a journey across and into the expanses of their own expectations and listening habits. Since everything can happen on their stage, expectations had better be left behind before entering the concert hall.

Members: Piotr Chęcki (sax, sampler, synthesiser), Piotr Kaliński (guitar, sound effects), Jacek Prościński (drums)

HOLSEN & CASSIERS
A fundamentally minimalist but extremely electrifying female duo exploring the space hitherto defined for many years by Scandinavian jazz musicians. Cool distanced trumpet sound and ‘unreal’ vocalises blend in their music with sounds derived from different auditory spheres, contributing to a mirage in which what we hear is not always what it seems. It is a nuanced and subtle music with echoes of North European traditions and folklore, avant-garde influences, ascetic sonorism, and jazz. Its imperceptibly mesmerising, psychedelic aura contributes to an unmistakable sonic universe. Enter the doors of perception that the two artists have left ajar and stay inside for as long as the music lasts, or even for some time after its last note has died away.

Members: Hilde Marie Holsen (trumpet, electronics), Lynn Cassiers (vocals, objects, electronics)

2 October 2024 (Wednesday)
• CRICOTEKA / MAIN STAGE:

SZYMON MIKA / MARTA WAJDZIK / ARTHUR HNATEK
This ephemeral trio was founded by three young artists representing three distinct generations. What they certainly all have in common is substantial artistic achievements despite their young age. They have already attracted both critical and audience attention, which does not stop them from looking for new paths and directions. The Jazz Juniors audience could follow the development of their youthful talents, particularly in the case of Wajdzik and Mika, who have already appeared several times at the festival’s previous editions, in various lineups. By joining forces with Swiss drummer Arthur Hnatek, who has explored electronic sound for may years, these two now enter a new territory that may equally surprise the audience and themselves. This year’s Jazz Juniors will be their first joint appearance.

Members: Marta Wajdzik (sax), Szymon Mika (electric guitar), Arthur Hnatek (drums)

ANNA ANDERLUH TRIO
The trio led by the Austrian artist brings together, as in a lens, her various fascinations and fields of exploration. Anderluh is one of those musicians who cannot be assigned to any specific genre. Diversity and patchwork character, rooted in both pop song and sound experiment, rule supreme. Virtually everything goes in this dadaist sphere. Nonsense becomes sense, ‘new music’ and improvisation meet hit-like tunes and subtle phrasing. Anderluh attracts the audience with pop simplicity, but underneath that surface there are sharp edges, oblique statements, and purposefully confusing hints. The artist herself does not feel obliged explicitly to state her choices. This makes her music the more intriguing.

Members: Anna Anderluh (vocals, autoharp, keyboard instruments, objects), Judith Schwarz (drums, percussion instruments), Philipp Kienberger (double bass, melodica)

3 October 2024 (Thursday)
• CRICOTEKA / MAIN STAGE:

NATALIA KORDIAK QUINTET
Though the music of improvising singer Natalia Kordiak is rooted in traditional jazz, she has long liberated herself from genre models and academic constraints. Her interests focus on what lies underneath the surface of verbal meaning. She uses her voice as an instrument to penetrate deeper, frequently detaching her artistic message from standard layers of meaning and exploring colours, intentions, and emotions instead. The immense wealth of her music has its core in improvisation. Words, when they appear, are carefully selected and thought out but conceived as but a signpost to mark directions at the start of the journey.

Members: Natalia Kordiak (vocals, electronics), Tomasz Dąbrowski (trumpet), Mateusz Kołakowski (piano), Alan Wykpisz (double bass, bass guitar), Grzegorz Pałka (drums)

NILS PETTER MOLVAER TRIO
This year’s Jazz Juniors Festival and the entire Kraków Jazz Week comes to its close with a concert by a band led by Jazz Juniors new artistic director and artist-in-residence, Nils Petter Molvaer. A major figure in the Scandinavian and European jazz scene, he has drawn inspiration from different genres during the several decades of his career. He made history as co-founder of the cult quintet Masqualero, but most of all as an innovative creator of a new synthetic musical language at the intersection of jazz, electronics, and ethnic music. Over the nearly three decades that have passed since that time, he has taken up ever new projects, invariably bearing the stamp of his keen creative mind and clear vision, which allows him to implement his original concepts.
In Cracow, Molvaer will lead a trio of Norway’s most creative star musicians, all of whom contribute to the band’s powerful expression and guarantee unrestricted creativity of the highest calibre.
Members: Nils Petter Molvaer (trumpet), Jo Berger Myhre (guitar, double bass), Erland Dahlen (drums)

Tickets:

JAZZ JUNIORS FESTIVAL:
https://bit.ly/JazzJuniors24

SEIFERT COMPETITION:
https://bit.ly/SeifertCompetition24

Source: press release