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I have been a little bit slow in learning essential elements of the Polish language. For example cardinal numbers (and their female and neuter forms), days of the week, and months.

This month is Listopad, and it only recently dawned upon me the reason why a jazz festival in WrocÅ‚aw for November would be called “Jazztopad.”

Anyway, two Fridays ago was the opening night of IV Festiwal JAZZTOPAD, and so I went to the concert hall to hear Adam Makowicz play piano with the Wrocław chamber orchestra.

On the programme this evening were jazz improvisations of Chopin, and some of Makowicz’s own compositions, all with string accompaniment. However, to start the concert, the chamber orchestra played a suite by Edvard Grieg. This piece was just beautiful and a pleasure to listen to. After this very enjoyable introduction, the pianist came onto stage amid enthusiastic applause from the audience. Everyone seemed to be looking forward hearing him play, myself included.

First song was Chopin’s Prelude no. 4, Op. 28. I have to say I was quite overwhelmed by Makowicz’s version of this piece. To me it seemed like the orchestra and the pianist were playing completely different music at the same time. It was all a bit above my level and, because I don’t know much of Chopin’s music, I didn’t recognize which pieces he was improvising over, until he gave the game away and played most of the prelude pretty much as it was written.

Thankfully, the programme became more accessible to me after their first song. The Chopin improvisations mellowed out a little and Makovich’s own songs “Sunsets Over the Hudson”, “Sky High in Manhatten”, “A Song From My Past”, “Central Park”, were lovely and excellent, and he is really a magical pianist.

The concert ended with a surprising gag. Throughout the night the orchestra’s cellist had been receiving a prominent part in the compositions — since of course they were playing jazz music. So during one section when the cellist (or was it a double bass? Let’s call it a cello) and pianist were jamming away, the conductor and rest of the orchestra sauntered off the stage, chatting with each other, one viola player talking on his phone, etc, leaving the two of them to finish the song. Very amusing. He was quite a funny guy, though his other jokes he told in Polish, so I didn’t understand them. The only other one I got was the old classic… putting his music on the piano upside down.

Of course the crowd called the orchestra back to the stage for an encore. In fact Adam Macowicz was called back a further three times to play, and did he play some wonderful solos! During one song it definitely seemed like the poor cellist was struggling to keep up with the pianist, much to the amusement of the 3rd violinists sitting opposite.

Finally the lights were turned on and we were thrown out of the concert hall… after all the dude was playing the next night, this time duets. It would have been awesome but unfortunately I missed it due to the Poland vs Belgium euro cup qualifier.

Classic Goes Swing

Last Friday I was back in the same place to hear the concert Classic Goes Swing. As the title suggests, this was pieces by Vivaldi, J.S. Bach, and others, played by a string quartet plus a jazz quintet. The quintet including a clarinetist (mastermind of the ensemble) and vibrophonist, as well as piano, bass, drums.

The formula for this evening was to pick a song, for example a movement from The Four Seasons, have the string quartet play the introduction more or less as it usually sounds, then at some point have the drummer and the rest break in with a swing beat, to play the song in a swing fashion. Sometimes they would take turns soloing. Then to end the song the string quartet would rejoin and play the conventional ending.

The result was superb, the melodies were catchy, and the music had a very “cool” sound (but not cool as in “Birth of the Cool”). Crowd favourite was the vibrophonist Karol Szymanowski. He played with three mallets in each hand, which I suppose is unusual. Apparently he has just written a book about his technique. To me it looked like a six-legged spider dancing on the vibrophone. During one of his solos he started comping with his left hand as a jazz pianist does. It was a good sound but led me to the thought that perhaps it would be easier if he just bought an electronic keyboard with a vibro sound, then he would have 10 fingers at his disposal and it would still sound exactly the same. Though it wouldn’t look nearly as spectacular.

The night was capped off by a lively finale. Actually I can’t remember what it was but it involved a some impressive note bending on the clarinet.

Early in November I went to Srebrna Góra. It is a small town close to the Czech border. A friend’s brother was going there to look at blocks of land to buy and they kindly brought myself and an English dude from the hostel along for the drive.

After about an hour’s driving, during which I was reaquainted with the thrill that is Polish country roads, we arrived in the little town of Srebrna Góra (the silver mountain). Martin dropped us off more or less at the bottom of a big hill.

We walked to the top of the hill, where there was a fort called the “Donjon”. There was a lot of information printed on various signs about silver mining in the town, and the history of the fort, the napoleonic war, etc, etc, and it was all helpfully translated into German and English. However I neglected to educate myself, so unfortunately I can’t share the facts with you.

We had a look around some of the rooms in the fort, then took the rampart walk. Alas, it was so misty that day you couldn’t see any of the view.

Martin came and picked us up, with his friend, and then we went to look at some blocks that he was interested in. On the way, we passed by a town called ZÄ…bkowice ÅšlÄ…skie, formerly known as Frankenstein. Occurences in this town, according to Marcin’s guide, formed the basis of Mary Shelley’s novel.

The three legends he told didn’t exactly correlate with the historical authorities and repositories of truth that are Wikipedia and Other Websites Found by Google. But they are interesting nonetheless:

1. A particularly glum looking abandoned cottage in the middle of a field was the former residence of a mentally retarded man who was much taller and stronger than normal. Though stupid, he was a good worker and kind in general, even though the villagers weren’t particularly nice to him. Then one day something snapped in the head of this gentle giant and he went on a murderous rampage. Eventually the townsfolk caught him and burnt him.
2. Some enterprising grave diggers in the town decided to drum up business by infecting most of the town with the plague. Their method was to make a powder from corpses and spread it to where people would touch it. Justice prevailed in the end, and they were caught, punished, and burnt.
3. A scientist in the area was notorious for his experiments on bringing creatures back to life using electricity. After some success with frogs legs, he moved onto people’s legs, raiding the local cemetry for experimental materials. I wasn’t told what happened to this man, but you could safely assume it involved burning…

My mind was on fire so to speak with thoughts about the gruesome history of this town. However I quickly forgot all of that when we arrived at Martin’s guide’s wooden cottage to have tea, coffee, and cake with his family. After that we looked at more blocks, and for refreshments went to a pub and had pizza, beer, and grzaniec. They put peas and corn on the pizza. (!)

On the way home we stopped at a cemetry for a squiz. Nov 1 is the day of the dead in this very catholic country. So on this day traditionally Polish people go to the graves of their relatives and place there flowers and candles, etc etc. This looks very spectacular at night — like as if the cemetry is on fire.

You can see a few more photos from the day in my gallery.

This weekend the LeÅ›nica “castle” centre of culture hosted Muzyki Akordeonowej Harmonia Viva, some sort of accordion music festival, with workshops, a competition, and concerts. For some reason I have a special soft spot for accordion music.

So yesterday evening I took the tram out to the end of the line — LeÅ›nica, to hopefully listen to some accordion music in the closing concert of the event.

In my ignorance, I was expecting a band with two or more accordions, perhaps some singing, and German style folk music ala Oktoberfest, or polkas. Actually, we received Klezzmates.

These guys are supercool. For a start they all wear red tinted glasses. They are totally relaxed on stage. Not to mention the music. It seemed to me like Klezzmates were sent here from some exotic and far away Balkan capital or perhaps outer space to demonstrate to the world how their music sounds.

They were masters in creating a mood. To the accordion’s drone and a steady line plucked on the double bass, the clarinetist added shrieks and wails, and the violinist interspersed scratchy string noises. The drummer posessed an arsenal of tom toms to hit, lots rattly things to shake, and a tiny cymbal that went ¡ding! They would build up like this and then suddenly explode into the refrain. The noises that came out of the clarinet and violin were a controlled chaos.

I was surprised at how understated the accordion’s part was, considering that they were playing at an accordion event, and the accordionist was also the band leader. However I think the accordion was the most important piece of this band, and its subtlety is the key to their success. The accordion provided an additional bass line and rhythm, making the sound full, and then was also a solo instrument or accompaniment. Of course it’s not as versatile as a keyboard but being a wind instrument it has a lot of expression. And a special sound. The lowest notes on an accordion sound pretty phat.

I’m glad that Klazzmates were my introduction to this genre of music. I recommend listening to the MP3s available on their website.

Here is something I think you’ll like. I’d never seen anything like it until I visited a Czech themed pub in WrocÅ‚aw.

It’s a 5L vessel for beer and it has its own tap down the bottom (not visible in photo). Apparently they are also quite common in Poland but I’ve never seen it.

Also very popular is warm beer (grzane piwo) with cloves and raspberry syrup mixed in and hot red wine with cinamon (grzaniec). The warm beer isn’t that good but the wine is heavenly and you get drunk really quickly off it. The beer is served in regular pint glasses but with a straw so you don’t eat the cloves. The wine is served in ceramic mugs which reminded me of sake cups but bigger. Considering the weather it’s no wonder they are popular.

I thought I would share with you a panoramic picture of our farm in Narrogin.

Here are a few photos from Wrocław. As you can see, some buildings are very beautiful and stately, particularly the ones in the Rynek, but of course there is an ugly side also (not that I mind!).

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I was looking through the photos from a recent holiday over east with Stu, Adam, and Mish. Photos from three cameras were combined — together for the first time and sorted by date. They painted an interesting picture… a story of degeneration and substance abuse, shocking to most audiences, with a peculiar subtext of gaity and mirth.

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I know this nice Polish guy from work who has been known to say “Do you see a tank?” while pointing to his eye. It’s supposed to mean something similar to “My heart bleeds,” “Cry me a river,” or “See this? It’s the world’s smallest violin…”

Well I have verified with an actual Polish person living in Poland that this is indeed a saying that they use while pointing to their eye. The word “tank” refers to this kind of tank:

(photo taken in some small town in Poland near the German border)

Apparently tanks are quite a popular war monument here. Also in Ukraine, based on some photos I saw. For me it’s unusual but amusing. An English friend pointed out that perhaps these type of memorials celebrate rather than comemmorate war.

Also in Germany I saw a number of these somewhat worrying signs on bridges.

However I never saw any panzers driving around anywhere. Only large mercedes. Perhaps they are just keeping their roads ready for the next time it’s necessary to conquer Europe?

This is a picture I made to test out some photo stitching software that I have. It’s a little bit rough because I smoothed it by hand with the smudge and gradient tools in the GIMP. This is because I didn’t know the program can smooth it for you.

The photos were taken at dusk from Kings Park. I had to run in my thongs from the busport to get there before the sun set completely.

I thought I would write something about how this blog looks and the software behind it because this issue has taken from me not a small amount of time and caused me a great deal of consternation.

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