{"id":221,"date":"2020-09-23T17:29:12","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T16:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/?p=221"},"modified":"2023-02-19T13:27:27","modified_gmt":"2023-02-19T13:27:27","slug":"music-meant-to-be-a-quartet-made-in-krakow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/music-meant-to-be-a-quartet-made-in-krakow\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Meant to Be: A Quartet Made in Krak\u00f3w"},"content":{"rendered":"

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An audio feast for connoisseurs of eclectic genres and free-style improvisations<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Krak\u00f3w improvisational quartet X (as yet without a name) played only their second show on Friday night (Sep 18) to a packed audience at the intimate Balkan on Plac Wolnicy in Kazimierz. The South African-Polish ensemble consists of Ethan Smith<\/a> (alto sax and flute), Moj\u017cesz Tworzyd\u0142o (guitar), Kasia Bobik (cajon & djembe) and Miko\u0142aj Spendel (bass). They formed during Smith’s secret Moving Out Concert Series<\/a><\/strong>, where an already vacated apartment in the centre of the city became an intimate venue for a plethora of local musical acts during August and September \u2013 all live-streamed and with a limited audience in attendance. The initiative was to be the catalyst for a burst of highly-creative musical collaborations and friendships around the city; this fine project is one of the the fruits of that concert series. Cape town-born saxophonist and flautist, Smith, who has been living in Krak\u00f3w for 5 years, elucidates on the fateful turn of events that led to this group’s formation: \u201cSerendipity.<\/i> If I were to describe the meeting of this group in a word, it would be this. A fortunate coincidence; a wished-for confluence of vision, skill, and musical intent. Our personalities are optimistically compatible, we speak the same musical language, and our musical objectives are unified in a very natural and intrinsic way. A more appropriate combination of ingredients could not have been hoped for. The four of us are intent on growing this project, and we\u2019re really excited for what the future may hold for us<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

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Serendipity. <\/strong>If I were to describe the meeting of this group in a word, it would be this. A fortunate coincidence; a wished-for confluence of vision, skill, and musical intent. Our personalities are optimistically compatible, we speak the same musical language, and our musical objectives are unified in a very natural and intrinsic way. A more appropriate combination of ingredients could not have been hoped for. The four of us are intent on growing this project, and we\u2019re really excited for what the future may hold for us.<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

[\/nk_block_quote][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2\/5″][vc_single_image image=”242″ img_size=”large”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/5″][nk_plain_video video=”https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=K5HfebYTTDg”][nk_text]Five minutes of explosive progressive jazz-rock. Yeah!<\/strong>
\nFrom the Moving Out concert series.
\nVideo Courtesy of Tomasz We\u0142na[\/nk_text][nk_text]<\/p>\n

The band served up a tour-de-force of vocal-free eclectic instrumental jams and hypnotic ethno jazz. The first of two sets saw the group veer towards the fringes of free jazz, but they were not afraid to also dabble in more progressive rock drones, with swirling and visceral sax interjections from Ethan Smith that jolted the listener out of their dreamy reverie. There was space and colour here in the floating improvisational structures of their own compositions, and the music\u2019s meandering twists and turns always focused the listeners\u2019 attention.\u00a0 <\/span>Such an intuitive sense of dynamic and musical understanding between the members was striking. They even performed a fine cover of an Alice Coltrane and Joe Henderson song, Earth<\/i>, toward the concluding part of their set.<\/h5>\n

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The second set was a rather different beast, perhaps because the audience may have imbibed more than they should have, or the band had relaxed into a familiar groove and mood around which they all firmly coalesced. Either way, the music they served up started to veer toward the darker end of the spectrum \u2013 swirling euphoria, doomish overtones, and layers of sounds conjured a sense of dread. Even though the nod to Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk remained, as was the overt ethno-funk dimension to their ouevre (particularly on the sublime Turkish-inspired Dertlii Dolap by Ozgur Baba and a great Tinariwen cover,) they were intent on delving into the mania of the progressive and psych-rock canon, with great interplay between the sax and guitar in various call and responses between Smith and Tworzyd\u0142o. As Smith remarked, there really is a striking intuitive commonality to the musical language they speak, and they reacted to each other\u2019s arrangements and riffs as they happened \u2013 in real time. When the South African breathed voice to his flute, I thought of Ian Anderson\u2019s Jethro Tull and other nostalgic echoes from the distant past like King Crimson. That said, the present was also there as it should be, shining through in the tasteful yet minimal guitar licks of Tworzyd\u0142o, who, replete with the most ostentatious pink tie-dyed flares, had a lovely clean tone with plenty of reverb, the sound of which is reminiscent of the haunting soul funk psychedelia of contemporary outfit Khruangbin<\/a>. I have seen plenty of bass players in Krak\u00f3w over the years, but there is something so visceral about the masterful funk-rock playing of Spendel. He effortlessly channels the spirit of both Bootsy Collins and John Paul Jones, without ever making it sound kitschy or over indulgent for he also knows when to rein it in. Together with the solid backbone of Bobik\u2019s percussive fills, they make a formidable rhythm section.\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

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All the members are involved in other projects: Ethan plays with the Fela Kuti-inspired Afrobeat ensemble, The Afronauts<\/a>, who are set to play an open-air set next Saturday (Sep 26) in ArtSfera MNK<\/strong><\/a>. Kasia and Miko\u0142aj also play with the Awarians<\/a> and Moj\u017cesz does some session jazz work. Other projects aside, right now the sense of potential with this group is palpable but there is still room here for experimentation, invention and growth. I wonder if the addition of a vocalist (female perhaps?) and some keys could round them off? Personally, I would like to see them move away from the overtly funk-influenced elements of their set and explore the sparser psychedelic soundscape more. They could take a deeper dive into those darker shades, while not completely abandoning their ethno jazz roots. I think of the unclassifiable brilliance of bands like Dead Can Dance or Tangerine Dream who tore up the idea of a conventional \u201crock\u201d band. Krak\u00f3w desperately needs a decent progressive rock outfit that does not simply equate \u201cprog\u201d to Pink Floyd and who have a grander more expansive vision. In the true tradition of this genre, X could really showcase their multi-layered and disparate influences, blending them together to forge something truly unconventional. We wait with bated breath.\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

[\/nk_text][nk_gallery_images columns=”4″ images=”255,250,254,249″][nk_text]Moj\u017cesz Tworzyd\u0142o (guitar), Kasia Bobik (cajon & djembe), Miko\u0142aj Spendel (bass) and Ethan Smith (alto sax and flute).<\/strong>[\/nk_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An audio feast for connoisseurs of eclectic genres and free-style improvisations, this explosive quartet came together during the Moving Out concert series hosted by Ethan Smith and organised in collaboration with Krak\u00f3w Music. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Music Meant to Be: A Quartet Made in Krak\u00f3w | Krak\u00f3w Music","_seopress_titles_desc":"An audio feast for connoisseurs of eclectic genres and free-style improvisations. ","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[10,33,195],"tags":[42,45,35,44,38,36,37,34,41,43,196,40,39,46],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-more","category-music-reviews","category-women-in-music","tag-concert","tag-ethan-smith","tag-ethno","tag-free-style","tag-improvisation","tag-instrumental","tag-jam","tag-jazz","tag-kazimierz","tag-live-music","tag-neon-faces","tag-progressive-music","tag-psychedelic-rock","tag-saxophone"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 20:38:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3196,"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/3196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}